How well your team performs has a direct impact on your company’s long-term success. While your employees likely have unique skills and talents, they may have difficulty being productive in a team environment. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to help boost team performance in the workplace, such as Northern Virginia team building activities, incentives, or friendly competition. Here are just a few simple ways to enhance team productivity, encourage effective communication, and identify key roles.
1. Offer Incentives
Your company depends on hard work and dedication to run at optimal capacity. One way to maximize team performance is by offering attractive incentives. Cash is a major incentive for most employees. By offering your team bonuses when they meet specific goals or objectives, you will likely see a measurable increase in performance and motivation. You may also want to encourage your employees by improving office conditions. The physical conditions of an office can have a direct effect on workers. Whether you choose to upgrade the computers or provide more ergonomic chairs, you may find that a few simple changes have an impact on employee morale.
2. Promote Healthy Competition
While your main focus should be on teamwork and collaboration, a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. In fact, competition can actually motivate your team to push past their limits and achieve more. It is normal for competition to create some conflict between team members. However, use this scenario as a learning opportunity to help your staff understand how to share their opinions and have a healthy debate. In addition, do your best to reward excellence. This means rewarding employees who exceed your expectations and encouraging below-average performers to work harder to reach target goals.
3. Set Quarterly Target KPIs
Key performance indicators (KPIs) can be highly useful when defining strategic success, as well as areas that may need improvement. They can also be a useful tool as you aim to improve employee engagement. By setting quarterly target KPIs, your team has a metric to focus on and employers have a way to measure how their strategy is performing. KPIs can also help a company succeed by showing your team how their roles in the business help the company as a whole reach their goals. They also allow business owners to set expectations as to what they want accomplished while giving their employees the opportunity to fill in the gaps creatively.
4. Establish Team Rules
When there are no rules in place, it is easy for something as simple as a team meeting to feel overwhelming. Rules are put in place to help improve the productivity of a team by letting every member know what is expected of them. You can choose to write the rules down and place them in a visible area, or simply discuss the rules with your team. Some examples of good rules for team environments include listening to others while they speak and not interrupting, and being present during meetings (no laptops or cell phones).
5. Lead by Example
As an employer, it is your responsibility to display to your employees the right way to behave in a professional environment. Although it is impossible to be completely positive all of the time, displaying constant negativity or stress can have a dramatic impact on your employees. Negativity is infectious and you may find that your poor attitude affects your workers in an unexpected way. As a leader, it is important to minimize complaints and show your team members how to maintain a good outlook and attitude.
6. Try Northern Virginia Team Building Activities
You have likely heard the phrase “work hard, play harder”. It is important to display to your team that having fun can help boost productivity. Northern Virginia team building activities have been found extremely useful in minimizing burnout and boosting morale. Team building exercises can also help increase creativity, strengthen problem solving skills, and encourage teamwork between employees. Northern Virginia team building activities can be used as an ice breaker between job candidates and new employees who may not yet be comfortable working in a team environment. Through team building, workers can get to know one another and establish their strengths and weaknesses.
Schedule Northern Virginia Team Building Activities
Are your employees lacking team spirit? If so, you may be considering Northern Virginia team building activities. These events are specifically designed to bring teams together in a way that facilitates good communication and teamwork. Northern Virginia team building activities and events can be used by businesses of all sizes and in all industries. When employers get involved in team building events, the results can be even more substantial. For more information about how to boost team performance in the workplace or to schedule a team building event, contact Bond’s Team Building today.