How to boost the productivity of your startup team 💪

Your startup is your most valuable asset. Ensuring your team works efficiently is essential if you want to make your business work.

No matter how fun, each beginning is difficult.

Your main task here is to ensure each team member is willing to invest their time and knowledge into your company. But how can you make sure they stay productive?

There are so many variables that affect productivity at work. It’s up to you, the team leader/CEO/Founder, to determine which ones will “move” your team. Here are a couple of keys 🔑 to unlocking your startup team’s productivity.

1. Set clear guidelines and structure

Did you know that unclear tasks and uncertain roles cause a lot of stress among employees? Whereas ambiguity can be expected at the startup phase of any company, keep in mind that stress negatively affects different spheres of every person’s life — which decreases productivity! So, to avoid this type of role conflict, always provide your team with clear guidelines and the structure they need to work well.

Share your vision for the company, but don’t push your opinion onto people.

Just because you’re a leader, it doesn’t mean that you’re always right! Structure their roles, but be open to new ideas and means of solving tasks and problems. How? Ask. Ask employees about what they love doing, what they’re skilled in, and how they’d like to grow at your company.

Additionally, mind your vocabulary and clarity when assigning tasks. It’s really important that the information you share when briefing employees on tasks is understood. Be open to additional questions and take time to listen to your co-workers.

2. Encourage autonomy

Not being able to decide for yourself how tasks should be done can be frustrating and counter-productive. If your team is unable to make a decision for themselves, chances are they’ll burn out more quickly. On top of that, their motivation and will to work will decrease, which can seriously damage your startup. How can you prevent this from happening?

Instead of micromanaging, give your team some autonomy. By providing them with a chance to speak up, share their opinions, ideas and decide, you’re creating a dynamic workplace where differences are respected. If your team feels like they are being valued, it will instantly boost their productivity and motivation!

3. Build a healthy culture

A caring organisation that nurtures healthy culture has the most productive employees. No matter how big or small your startup team is, a healthy culture and environment greatly affects employee engagement and productivity, and your company’s revenue. How can you build a healthy culture?

Advocate diversity and acceptance.

Each employee should be a valuable member of the team. On top of that, healthy culture is closely correlated to the environment, so ensure your employees’ offices (whether work-from-home or central location) get enough natural light, space, have adequate air quality, temperature, and similar conditions necessary for undisturbed workflow. Don’t forget about setting some policies in place that ban mobbing and harassment. All of these factors should be integral parts of every organisation.

4. Provide your team with training

Hiring a team of experts is vital for your startup. However, you need to keep in mind that no expert knows everything. Instead of searching for the impossible, try hiring individuals who can set their minds on the goals of the company. The only thing they need is a will to learn and to develop their skills further. This way your employees can grow with the company.

It’s important to equip your employees for this growth. You need to choose adequate training depending on the industry you operate in. Some hard and technical skills (such as programming languages/structures, software, analytics, etc.) may be necessary for beginners, but you also need to focus on soft skills and their benefits (such as effective communication, listening skills, customer support, empathy).

Help your team to learn how to manage their time better, and how to express their emotions and opinions in ways that don’t negatively affect others. This will naturally lead to more team cohesion, better workflows and higher productivity.

5. Have open and honest communication

One of the most important aspects of a productive team is open and honest communication. Teams that know how to communicate properly tend to have a higher success rate and bring in results much quicker than those that don’t. Besides communication training, you need to equip your employees with adequate resources to communicate!

No one has time to read and reply to all their emails anymore.

Since we have chat and video apps at our fingertips, emails are arguably starting to become obsolete. Try to find a suitable company communications tool that could help you improve your internal communication and boost your team’s productivity. Such platforms are ideal for sharing files and other information!

6. Use benefits of team building

You know what they say “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. So, let’s face it, no one is productive 24/7. To continue working at the same pace and get the same results, you need to create a team atmosphere that is pleasant to work in. To achieve that, you need to put team rituals in place that make the atmosphere engaging and fun.

Team building can help to create an environment of trust and understanding.

It helps the team to get to know each other better. On top of that, leisure activities, sports, and board games decrease stress and anxiety, which negatively influences the productivity of your team. If you feel that having a remote team makes team cohesion extra difficult, why not have co-workers try out some asynchronous puzzle games that teach them about each other and the company?

Final thoughts

Your startup team’s productivity depends on many other factors, not only employees’ work experience. So, try to implement these tips and procedures to improve your overall workplace. Take care of your team and show them that you value them, and they will show loyalty and give you their best work in return. After all, a strong startup team is the ideal ground for growing your business further!

About the author

Stella van Lane is a Sydney based mom and a passionate writer in love with coffee, chocolate, music, books and good vibes. Her top interests are business, technology, health etc. Follow her on Twitter.