For a business to function efficiently, it’s employees must also be efficient, and it’s your job, as the owner and manager, to ensure that they are. When most business owners are confronted with this task, they bring on new employees or offer overtime to current ones, but longer working hours don’t necessarily mean increased efficiency. With this idea out of the window, improving the efficiency of your business seems nearly impossible, but it isn’t. Here are five things that you can try.

Set Clear Goals

Your employees are never going to be as efficient as you hope they will be if they have no idea what they’re working towards. They need clear goals to keep them focused and heading in the right direction. These goals should, of course, be achievable, and they should also be as specific as you can make them. To do this, you should outline exactly what you expect from your employees, how this will help the company,  and how long they’ve got to meet their targets.

Give Sensible Tasks

If you give employees tasks that they’re not capable of completing, then their efficiency is clearly going to drop. Before you delegate any tasks to any of your employees, it’s vital that you take into account the individual’s training, skill set, and how long they have to complete the job. If any of these things make the task unachievable to this specific individual, then give it to someone more qualified instead. This way, you won’t waste anyone’s time, which will save you money.

Provide Effective Training

Rather than expect employees to learn everything they need to learn about your business on the job, you should provide effective training, both when they are first employed, and refresher sessions every six months to a year. You could use corporate video production in your training, to help them better retain what they’re learning. You should also offer additional training opportunities, like seminars and courses, to help individuals develop new skills.

Offer Individual Incentives

Every business owner knows that offering rewards for hard work is a great way to keep your employees motivated and efficient, but what most don’t realise is that it’s a lot more effective if your incentives are personalised to each individual. Rather than offer the same reward to every employee, consider the needs of each individual. This shows that you care and have taken the time to consider everyone separately, rather than offering a mass “thank you” email.

Allow Telecommuting

Most business owners completely dismiss the idea of telecommuting, as they assume that employees will be less productive when they’re not being watched by you and other employees. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Telecommuting saves your employees time, as they won’t have to travel into the office each day, and also allows them to keep working if they can’t get to the office, because of a sickness, storm, or other reason.

Your employees are one of the most vital parts of your business, so it’s essential that they’re working as efficiently as they can be. By utilising some of these tips, you can ensure that your staff are as productive as possible and that they don’t fall behind on their work.