by K. Baker

With more companies struggling to stay profitable, employers have increased their efforts to build stronger teams. While a capable team isn’t made overnight, it can be created with specific changes designed to improve workers’ job satisfaction and productivity.

Besides using team-building exercises, here are some ways to help your employees work more productively, creatively, and efficiently together.

Update Payroll Processes

If your workforce has struggled with payroll issues in the past, team morale, job performance, and engagement have probably suffered. Your employees’ pay has a direct connection to job satisfaction. By improving your internal payroll processes, you can have a positive impact on your staff. To help your teams be their best, focus on enhancing your time-collection process, and ensuring that employees have a say in how they are paid.

The collection of timesheets is a vital part of your payroll process. If your method is poorly operated or complicated, there’s a chance your employees are feeling frustrated. To correct this issue, you may need to provide additional education to your workers. Focus on teaching your staff members the importance of time collection and why they need to be precise when recording their hours. This training not only helps with the accuracy of their paychecks, but can also allow for more reliable reporting on their performance and productivity.

It’s also crucial to ensure that employees are offered a choice in the distribution of their paychecks as some workers might have preferences. Allowing them to choose between checks, direct deposit, or a payroll card can give your employees the freedom to make better financial decisions. Some employees may even find value in using a financial service with early paycheck deposits. That way, workers have less time between pay periods and don’t have to worry about not purchasing groceries or paying bills on time. Improving your company’s paycheck delivery can have positive effects on retention rates since staff members appreciate an employer that assists with their financial needs.

Create a Wellness Initiative

Just like payroll, the work environment your employees operate in affects team productivity, creativity, and efficiency. That’s why it’s essential to encourage your workers to focus on their physical and mental health. Employees who have a healthy work-life balance are more productive, use fewer sick days, and have higher job satisfaction. To help them create an appropriate balance, design a virtual wellness program to support your off-site workforce.

As part of your health initiative, employees should be prompted to take frequent breaks throughout the day. With little time between complex, or detail-oriented tasks, workers can quickly feel burnout. Regular breaks will help employees control their stress while increasing productivity and creativity. 

Encourage Communication

Wherever your employees are working, they should have access to multiple channels of communication. Without the ability to speak to their teammates throughout the day, work projects could become delayed due to miscommunication or confusion. Using a direct messaging service allows workers to discuss current tasks. More communication in the workplace can also help with team bonding, as members can share encouragement and tips with newer employees.

For more in-depth information, managers can use emails and conference calls to discuss assignments. Video services like Zoom may be additionally helpful since attendees can view presentations, record meetings, and collaborate without being in one location. In a time where face-to-face meetings are hard to do, these features can be especially beneficial for new hires.

Develop a Reward System

Creating motivated teams can be a challenge. Without recognition, staff members can quickly feel neglected and unappreciated, but there is an effective solution. Coming up with a company-wide system to reward teamwork and recognize specific employees can promote a culture where collaboration can thrive. Employees are driven to performing at the highest level.

Incentivizing cooperation and creativity is a great motivator for employees new to working on teams. Since newer workers might be focused on learning the ins and outs of their position, a reward system can motivate them to focus on interaction with their teammates. Using their fellow members as a resource, new hires can become a contributing teammate sooner.

Depending on your workers, there are many options for rewards that employees will enjoy. Gifts like cash bonuses, extra vacation time, or event tickets are appreciated while still being affordable. Even small prizes such as gift cards to a local store, customized coffee mugs, or hand-written notes from a supervisor can make a remarkable difference in employee morale. Take some time experimenting with different incentives to know what options are the most effective.

No matter your workforce’s size, you need to focus on employee engagement, wellness, and rewarding hard work to promote collaboration. When you work to improve your team members’ job satisfaction by improving your company’s internal processes, you can build stronger teams.