On average, an employee at any of the business giants spends five to eight hours in the workplace every single day. That is an hour more than these employees spend sleeping. Yet, the time an employee spends at his or her desk doesn’t compare to their productivity. To make sure this time vs. work difference adds up, follow these simple steps, and voila! You are sorted. These steps can not only improve your efficiency but also increase the productivity of your employees, doubling up their work ethic.

Restrictions on Internet

Internet is essential in the workplace. But, unless you run the “Hollywood Life” or “clever.tv”, they do not need to look up this season’s supermodel nip slips on the runway using the internet at their workplace, using the office hardware. There is a fine line between what you should restrict over the internet and what you shouldn’t. Companies usually fear that their employees might be leaking out trade secrets or they might be cooking up a legal nightmare for the business, which is why they are perfectly right to restrict downloading music and watching videos on the office internet. But, if they doing something that might help the company in the long run, like posting a status that might put your company in the spotlight, then let them do it. Social media is a huge help to those businesses that want to put the word about themselves out there.

Audio and Video Surveillance

Audio and Video surveillance are old-timey ways to make sure that your employees are doing what they are supposed to do and not slacking off. If the employee is not slacking off and doing his work properly, his or her productivity in business will increase substantially. Yet, both audio and video surveillance need employee consent by law in order to monitor them, which brings us to the next way as to how to increase productivity in employees.

Transparency in the use of Spy Applications

Unlike both audio and video surveillance, by law, a company is allowed to monitor their employees as long as the company hardware in use of the employee is being monitored. Additionally, using spy applications is a great way to monitor employees, since it can help out with:

• Keeping an eye on the emails being sent and received by your employees.
• Ability to look at and hear into what your employee is doing at all times.
• Browse through their internet search history.
• Look at what they are posting about the company online.
• Keeping track of every single keystroke made by the employee.

All such ways are an excellent means as to what to keep an eye on the online activities of the employees, to make sure that they are doing what they are supposed to do and not slacking off while keeping their internet usage to the minimum. Yet, the thing is, if your employees know that they are being watched all the time and you know about every single move they make in the workspace, they might be more motivated to work diligently and proficiently than when they were not, making it the ideal way to keep an eye on employees’ work behavior.

Incentives for Employees to Work Harder

A single business contains many different types of employees. While some of them may be hardworking individuals, others may be slackers who’d rather spend their day gossiping and drinking lunchroom coffee than doing actual work. Such employees are responsible for a significant difference in the work vs. time ratio at a workplace. Therefore, to make sure that such employees work diligently, create a reason for them, that would motivate them to work harder. It may be anything at all, from free coffee in the lunchroom for a week to becoming an employee of the month to earning a quicker promotion by earning more points. The thing is, even as adults, when it comes to rewards most of us revert back to a child-like mindset where getting ahead of others and winning the prize meant everything. Therefore, if you create a desirable incentive, even the slackers will work harder.

Understanding the “Human” Factor

Your employee might be hypothetically your property as long as they are at work, but they are first and foremost human beings, human beings who have needs and problems and a life outside the four walls of their workplace. Like every other relationship, the relationship between an employee and an employer is a give-and-take sort of relationship as well. If an employee understands that an employee cannot be at work due to a certain problem and allows him or her to take the time off for as long as necessary, then that employee would definitely work harder than he did before in regard to your kindness. Therefore, if the employer is understanding and respectful whenever life intervenes in work, the employee will be hardworking, productive as well as appreciative.