When you are running your own business, you are in charge of ensuring that your employees are comfortable, motivated and feeling productive enough to want to come into the building every single day. Your biggest responsibility is to inspire those who work for you to be the best that they can be. If you do this well, productivity is the thing that next follows, and your team will be efficient, with better work following as a result. Your employees will be the best versions of themselves possible, and you will be better served to balance a leadership mindset. You can focus on helping other people, and you can do this while you find ways to get your work done, too. You are not sitting and allowing others to do the work for you; you are empowering them to use their expertise to do it themselves.

You can read as many leadership and management books as you want to, but when it comes down to it, you need to be a person alongside your team. The best managers and business leaders out there are those that will treat their team like equals, who work with them and not act above them, who do not engage in pettiness and politics. There is no list of things that you can do to be the best employer out there, but we do have a few things that you could be getting on with to ensure that your employees are as comfortable and happy as possible in their day to day work. Paying attention to all of these things is going to ensure that you are the type of manager that your people stay with: not the type they run from! High staff turnovers can kill your business reputation, and you want to ensure that this doesn’t happen. The more you treat your staff well, the more loyal they will be to you. so, with this in mind, we’ve put together seven ways you can keep your employees productive in the workplace.

• Just be yourself. It’s the hardest thing to do as a manager, but it’s the thing that you must do the most. Being who you are as a person will make a big difference to the way in which your employees treat you and see you. You being your authentic self is the best way that you can relate to the people who work for you. People sense it when you are being fake, and there is no room for it, not when they rely on you for their career and their future. When you have to put on a face everyday, it’s exhausting! You want to ensure that you have a staff who trusts you, and the best way that you can do this is to be yourself and act human. You will make your own mistakes in your business, and hiding these makes you untrustworthy. Don’t hide away from the people who work for you. Let them see you for who you truly are and there will be a huge difference in it! Don’t overcompensate and try to be the leader that you are not: just be yourself and you will see that you will relax your staff and allow them to be themselves, too.
  
• Remember transparency. When people attend a workplace, they do so because they crave an office culture that is honest and transparent. No one likes playground games and when you have a bank of employees working for you, you are dealing with adults. Keep on top of the company culture that you are trying to cultivate and make sure that your staff are comfortable within it. You want people to feel free to be their best in the workplace, and for that, you need to ensure that they are happy. The best way to do this is to ask them what you could be doing to help them to feel motivated while they work. Learn to admit when you are wrong, too, as people will always appreciate this level of honesty from you. Promoting a culture of learning is vital for the future of your business, and you should avoid trying to identify yourself as always being right. You may be in charge, but that doesn’t mean that you are always right. Be honest, transparent and work to ensure that your employees do the same thing.
  
• Prepare the workplace. For your staff to be productive, they have to have the tools to do so. You need to look into the 5 ways to boost T-Mobile cell signal in your building so that you can provide the fastest possible connection for your staff to work effectively. You have to check the current hardware and software that your business has and whether it works for your business needs. If it doesn’t, then you need to upgrade and update where you can so that your staff isn’t frustrated. Workplace automations such as Intradiem which offers real time adherence software are great ways to keep your employees connected and on the same page as they collaborate and work on the same projects. Yes, your budget is going to dictate whether you can afford the best of the best stuff, but you should really consider if it’s an investment or not. For example, if your staff requires Photoshop and other digital programs that may be better for working on an Apple iMac, investing in a bank of iMac computers is going to help your staff to be more effective in their work.

• Get to know everyone. From the management team to the receptionists, you should make it your business to get to know everyone who is working for you. Face time with a manager is a big deal for your employees, and if you don’t ensure that you are getting in front of your staff to get to know them, you’re going to be just a name they hear from time to time. You need to demonstrate genuine care for the people putting themselves in your business to work for you everyday. Not only is it polite, it’s a good way to ensure that your employees are happy, healthy and working well. Productivity comes in so many ways, and you should ensure that you offer connection to your employees to help them to feel as if they have a place in your company. Invite people to have lunch with you team by team once a week. You can keep the conversation to a personal level rather than just business, and encourage people to be themselves within your workplace.
  
• Show appreciation to your staff. The one thing that your staff want the most from you is that pat on the back – but more than that. You would be quick to tell someone if they were making mistakes and doing something wrong, so you need to ensure that you are doing it the other way as well. Your staff are far more productive if they know that they are doing something right, not doing something wrong. Be attentive to the work that your employees are doing, and ensure that you are supporting the growth of the people working for you. Some employees can be very caught up in their own world at their desks, but it’s the email telling them they have done a good job or the verbal recognition of their work that will keep them bolstered and coming back for more each day. If you can show that you understand the effort they are putting in, they feel seen. People just want to feel like they matter, and productivity is often the result of that.
  
• Encourage your team to take risks. Employees will face decisions every single day and the last thing that most people want to do is to constantly go to their boss for permission for every little thing. If you allow your team to take some risks and make decisions that are correct in their way of work, they can feel autonomy in what they do and how they reach their goals. Don’t forget, you hired people to come to your business and work in a way that helps you to succeed. Instead of micromanaging people, let them make their choices and take the risks that work for your business. When you do this, you create an innovative culture and allow people to feel in control of their future.
  
• Give autonomy. Speaking of autonomy in their tasks, allow people to be autonomous in the decisions that they make for their work. If your employees feel as if they are doing their work in the way YOU want them to, they’re going to be less inclined to be productive. Instead, enable your staff to feel encouraged to work in a way that suits them. Autonomy is so important in the workplace, and so it’s important that you have honest discussions with your staff about what they can do and what you want them to do. Let them run with their goals and you will see them grow and shine under your brand, which is excellent publicity for your company!

Productivity is going to make your business work better – so make sure you are doing all you can.