As an HR professional, boosting productivity and improving wellbeing is your bread and butter. You know that wellness and productivity go hand-in-hand and probably spend much of your day searching for unique wellness activities.
Alongside wellness initiatives, team-building exercises and performance-related incentives can reduce burnout and improve morale at work. However, you may find that many staff have had their fill of HR-led motivational schemes.
Instead, focus your attention on process improvements. Formalized workplace improvements can increase compliance at your place of work, improve day-to-day productivity, and help staff feel better supported.
A Culture of Continuous Improvement
High-performing workplaces are driven by a culture of continuous improvement. Firms that encourage continuous process improvements and learning report higher employee engagement. Some 94% of employees would stay longer at companies that invest in their careers, and 86% say they are happier when working for a business that invests in learning.
Common process improvement methodologies — like Kaizen and Six Sigma — can improve morale and decrease the risk of burnout. By optimizing your workflow, you remove redundant tasks and minimize the amount of time staff spend on mundane tasks. This gives employees a chance to focus on more creative, engaging jobs that significantly improve staff satisfaction.
Investing in a culture of continuous improvement can minimize the amount of unnecessary overtime employees take. Moreover, encouraging good habits like healthy morning routines can help ensure the whole team is productive and sharp. Invest in your employees, and they’ll invest in you.
Improved Onboarding
Getting new employees up to speed quickly is a priority for HR. You can not afford to train people incorrectly and need to ensure that new hires feel empowered when they step into their new roles.
Process improvement methodologies, like Business Process Management (BPM), can improve your onboarding practices by enhancing the employee experience. BPM helps you gather employee feedback so you can clear up your workflow and shorten the learning curve for new staff.
BPM can help you model and test new onboarding procedures, too. For example, if a new cohort of hires reports uncertainty about utilizing their perks, you can use BPM to draw up a more structured approach to understanding benefits and perks. This will significantly improve staff uptake with important perks like gym memberships and eye tests, thus improving wellbeing in the workplace.
Sustainable Actions
Management can enhance workplace productivity, efficiency, and employee wellness by using technology to support sustainability initiatives that align with the company’s core values and operational goals. By focusing on sustainability and using useful technologies like AI and the IoT to support their efforts, companies create a work environment that promotes employee satisfaction and productivity. Initiatives such as energy-efficient workplace practices, wellness programs, and opportunities for professional development not only reduce environmental impact but also foster a sense of purpose and engagement among employees.
For instance, sustainable strategies might include offering remote work options to decrease commuting emissions or providing resources for personal and professional growth, such as mental health support or continuous learning opportunities. These approaches contribute to employees feeling valued, improving morale and retention. Over time, such efforts result in increased productivity, as employees are more motivated and capable of delivering high-quality work while also aligning with broader goals of environmental and social responsibility.
Accurate Decision-Making
Accurate, agile decision-making is key to the productivity and well-being of your workforce. Folks do not want to spend their workdays making up for mistakes, and decisions based on inaccurate data can force staff to waste time on projects that will not boost profits.
Process improvement methodologies like Occam’s razor can reduce the risk of faulty decision-making and empower your employees to make more choices. Occam’s razor is premised on the idea that “the simplest solution is most likely the right one.” This means that rather than looking for complex solutions first, employees focus more of their efforts on simple solutions.
Occam’s razor is particularly empowering if your business uses a lean production methodology. Lean production is reliant upon low waste and fast order fulfillment. Employees who use Occam’s razor look for simple solutions to workflow hiccups or mistakes and search for simpler solutions to complex problems. When utilized correctly, this will improve employees’ understanding of their roles and help them focus on the task at hand.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Process improvements are reshaping the workplace by improving productivity, boosting well-being, and empowering employees. However, some employees are resistant to change, while others believe that process improvements get in the way of their day-to-day tasks.
This reality drives home the importance of strategic, well-thought-out process improvements. When planning a new change, be sure to avoid common process improvement mistakes by giving employees a sense of ownership over the project. This will help you stay accountable and will motivate your team to make adjustments to the planned process improvement if they spot an innate flaw. Don’t forget to recognize good work when something is done well, too.
Many make the mistake of having a disorganized workflow, both during and after new processes are introduced. A complex process necessitates comprehensive planning. Visualizations like decision trees can help you get a good grasp of your workflow processes, ensuring nothing is left behind, no matter how chaotic the day might be.
Conclusion
Process improvement methods like Kaizen, Occam’s razor, and BPM can boost productivity and enhance wellness at your place of work. Just be sure to communicate clearly, as you need all employees to buy in if you want your new system to work. Encourage feedback and do not be afraid to make changes if you think the proposed process can be improved further.
