Motivation and productivity are nightmare topics for many project managers. There is a fine line between productivity and procrastination that depends solely on the inner working relations between coworkers. This issue becomes more prevalent if there is no deadline to speak of, meaning that there is no rush to get anything done. When there is no pressing deadline for project submission, employees perform their jobs much slower and overall efficiency goes down. If you have faced this problem in your office, here are a few ways to improve the situation.
Develop a Healthy Work Culture
Every procrastination or low morale situation starts from the work culture. Not every employee will be content with the culture and interpersonal dynamics established by the majority. Allowing everyone to express their worries, ideas, and suggestions is crucial. As crucial as informing the team of their efforts is finding a compromise that works for everyone.
Additionally, you want to pay great attention to how work is assigned. Some team members excel at particular tasks more than others. In this manner, there will be very little in the way of team member productivity and cooperation.
Productivity-Based Payment
Only in specific circumstances are fixed monthly payments practical. Although switching to a productivity-based payment system may seem unreasonable, depending on your team, it can be your only option. Without any downtime or difficulties, startups, small businesses, and freelancers can effortlessly transition to a productivity-based system.
Due to the nature of their profession, this might not be practical in huge corporations. Teams should be compensated for their productivity when working on specific projects with defined KPIs. Doing so will effectively motivate the members to work harder and finish their work on time.
Encourage Your Team to Take Initiative
Sometimes team members have breakthrough ideas that could drive business to a new level, but they don’t want to share them. It usually happens when individual does not feel support and thinks that the manager and team will reject his or her proposition. For this reason, it is important to build trust with staff members and show them you welcome their ideas. You can also encourage your team to take initiative by offering an exclusive prize or monetary reward.
Set Team-Based Goals
If you decide to use them, productivity-based payments start to make sense at this point. Immediately after the job allocation procedure is finished, teams typically become dispersed. This makes it challenging for project managers to monitor their collective progress. This flaw can be successfully eliminated by using team-based goals, which also makes it simpler to maintain the project as a whole.
Based on each team member’s motivation, relationships, and skill set, assign assignments to them. People are paired according to their propensity to inspire others, pick up new abilities, and exercise original thought. Team-based objectives offer a far greater sense of accomplishment and are ideal for use with productivity-based compensation schemes.
More Meetings, Less Micromanagement
Micromanaging your team can only lead to failure and frustration on both sides. Give your team some leeway and trust their expertise in finishing the work you allocated them. Instead, focus on creating meetings, working spaces and coaching opportunities for your team members. Be present whenever they have questions, concerns, suggestions and other opinions. Meetings and common working hours can be a great motivator for people to get work done on time.
In Closing
Your team members will always be as productive as you make them. As a project manager, your job is to find ways to finish each project according to your company’s or client’s needs. A deadline might not be set in stone, but each client expects their work to be done in a timely and professional fashion. Keep that in mind whenever you try to introduce a new way to motivate your team to work harder.
