Your team is the backbone of your business, and without them, things can easily fall apart. Finding ways to improve the quality and effectiveness of your employees while also hiring more people for new roles during periods of growth are all very important to the continued success of your company. 

However, finding ways in which you can truly improve the skills of your team as well as their mentality towards delivering higher quality work can take some time and consideration. To help you, we’ve taken the time to list some of the best ways in which you can improve your team’s effectiveness and productivity in your business.

Don’t Micromanage
Many of us have experienced having a boss that just won’t leave you alone, and if you’ve been in this position, you’ll know how demotivating and stressful it can be. When a manager stands over you and micromanages everything you do, the frustration this can cause is palpable. Being a micromanager is extremely negative, and not only are you going to irritate your employees by doing this, but you’re also going to prevent them from developing self-reliance and independence in the workplace. 

Instead, lead your team and present them with useful information and advice, but then leave them to get on with their work. Deadlines are there for a reason, and you’re perfectly within your right to check in every now and again to keep track of progress. However, you must allow them to do things on their own to increase their effectiveness, even if it means you’re letting them make some mistakes along the way.

Communicate With Your Team
Increasing the effectiveness of your team is largely done by communicating more, as often as possible. A team cannot thrive without guidance and communication, and a lack of this can lead to some serious errors in the work you deliver. 

Whether your team are collaborating on a project or working on individual projects, it’s still important for everyone to have an idea of what each other are doing. Remember to promote clarity in these things and consider adding some new avenues of communication, especially in the form of collaboration software in which everyone’s tasks and the progress they’ve made on these tasks are laid out clearly. 

Listen To Everyone
A big part of communication is listening to others. While you do need to get information across to your team, it’s also worthwhile listening to what they have to say as their suggestions and criticisms may improve the overall process of your business. 

Your non-management employees will see your business from a different perspective to you and might be able to think of some great innovations and changes that you just wouldn’t have thought of in a management position. Take note of these criticisms as well as those from customers and clients, as these may help you to improve your business significantly.

Improve And Develop Skills
Directly working to bolster the abilities of your staff is a highly productive endeavour. Not only is this understandably going to be good for your business, but you’ll also be improving the lives of your employees in some way. Developing new skills and knowledge with the help of mentoring software, for example, is a great way to motivate your team and provide them with skills that they can take with them into future roles, whether with your business or elsewhere. 

If you want to try out mentoring software, get a demonstration from PushFar to see if this would be right for your company. Hiring industry mentors for your employees can be a fantastic way to further their skills, understanding of the industry, and overall confidence too.

Focus On Wellness
One of the most important aspects of creating an effective team is to ensure that everyone is as healthy as possible and that you provide assistance if individuals are struggling. Mental health problems can be very damaging to morale and productivity, and showing understanding as well as finding ways to create a more relaxed, welcoming work environment and culture is imperative. 

Allowing for flexibility in work hours, offering plenty of breaks and not overwhelming your team is a good start here, and you can even implement some proactive remedies to work-stress such as chill-out areas in the office, regular one-on-one chats which are free from judgement, and even counselling opportunities for your team. If your employees are struggling, and that struggle is being caused by work, their motivation is going to be reduced during work time, and they’re not going to be able to operate to the best of their ability.

Reward Hard Work
When employees work hard and produce quality results, it’s so important to reward them. You don’t need to shower them in gifts and parade them through the halls, of course. But simple recognition can be a huge motivator for your team, and you may even consider offering them monetary bonuses for surpassing targets. This obviously goes towards motivating hard work but be wary not to do this to encourage people to push themselves too far as burnout can be extremely damaging for both the individual as well as the entire team and business.