If you are project manager how can you improve project productivity and performance
Employees have always been the most crucial asset of any organization because they help to improve business growth by combining their skills and experience. Show
In every department, you have some employees who often leave you impressed, while others give a satisfactory performance to justify their place. But, is that enough? Nope! You have to bring the best out of each employee if there’s a wish to have a strong position in the market. If we specifically talk about project teams, it’s crucial to ensure that they always bring their A-game while working on the assignments. Why are we stressing specifically on project teams? The reason being is you have to take care of several preset factors like deadlines, quality standards, and budget. You cannot meet them at once unless your team is giving their best. Remember that your project members may not find a better version of themselves if they are already content with their performance. Therefore, it gets very important for you to start taking proactive measures, instead of waiting for the annual performance evaluation meeting. This blog will make you familiar with 10 effective tips for improving work performance. Let’s dig in! Table of contents [Hide]
1. Promote AccountabilityOne of the best ways to improve performance at work is to encourage your team to take ownership of assigned tasks. When your team members start holding themselves accountable, they execute tasks carefully. It reduces the number of change requests and drives your business towards project success. How can I make my team more accountable?The key is to set SMART goals. You can do this by simply keeping these points in mind:
Read Also: How to Set Your Project Goals Apart from this, try to instill confidence in your team members. Here are some suggestions:
2. Manage Multiple TasksGenerally, concerns like ‘how to improve work performance’ surface when your project team struggles to manage multiple tasks. As we know, task mismanagement often results in delays and affects client relationships negatively. So what’s the solution to task mismanagement? Multitasking??It may or may not. Multitasking brings benefits and has the potential to address problems related to task mismanagement, but it has some disadvantages that would only produce frustration. You could say it’s a double-edged sword. 3 Major Benefits of Multitasking:
3 Major Drawbacks of Multitasking:
Well, you could allow your experienced and top-performing project members to try their hand at multitasking if you really want to put your money on it. Otherwise, you can make your team familiar with the ABCDE method. It will help them to prioritize and handle tasks properly. How does this method work?
With the help of this method, your team can organize primary & secondary tasks accurately, which, in turn, helps with execution and work performance. Read Also: Manage Multiple Tasks with a Feature-Rich ProProfs Project 3. Encourage Your Team to Acknowledge Their Weak SpotsKnowing each team member’s strengths and weaknesses is crucial for task delegation. Premeditated task delegation could help you improve your team’s work performance. When tasks are assigned based on the strengths and weaknesses of the team members, project objectives are accomplished within the intended time. Here, you should encourage project members to perform a self-assessment because no one can judge anyone’s strengths and weaknesses better than the self. Once your team members identify and share their qualities and weak spots, you can switch assignments when the situation calls for it. It’ll set your team’s mind at ease, and that would certainly result in improved performance. Don’t stop here! Use well-developed employee training software to cultivate the right skills and help the team members work on their weaknesses. Goes without saying, when all team members are at the same level of expertise, there will be consistency and quality during the project development process. 4. Let Project Executives Take Time Off When They Really Need It‘Take Time Off When You Really Need It’ is what you should occasionally say to your team, because working continuously on projects could be very exhausting. It’s no brainer that when you get tired physically and mentally, your efficiency drops significantly. It leads to poor project performance and decreases job satisfaction. As per the 2017 report by Glassdoor, American workers used only 54% of their paid leaves. 10% of the workers didn’t take a single vacation leave. The prime reason behind such awful numbers is ‘The fear of falling behind.’ Only 23% of employees managed to dedicate their holiday time to themselves, while others were busy dealing with small work requests. These numbers give a clear indication that sanctioning vacation leaves is the key to prevent high employee turnover and poor project performance. And it’s not tough to understand that short trips help employees counter mental blocks and restore their energy levels, which further paves the way for enhanced work performance. Obviously, you don’t want high absenteeism in the workplace. So, take another route and develop a happy environment. Consider the following:
But the question is, ‘How would you monitor the performance of all your projects at one time?’ A feature-rich project management application is an ideal answer to this question! Well-developed PM applications not only ensure a delightful user experience but also help to improve the overall work experience. How? Let’s understand this by taking an example of ProProfs Project, a reliable project management application that lets you do project planning properly and handle your team accordingly. It helps you to monitor the project progress at multiple stages. It allows you to share project reports with clients and also records time spent on each task. Overall, it promises transparency and empowers you to have complete control over your projects. Remember that the right workload management tool can do wonders, so keep every small factor in mind before making the deployment call. You can consider this Buyers Guide to make the right decision. 6. Give Feedback PeriodicallyOne of the simplest and most effective ways to improve job performance is to give timely feedback to your team. When your project members know that their performance is being evaluated, they will strive for quality while working on any assignment.
By giving constructive feedback, you not only prevent mistakes proactively but also enjoy remarkable benefits, such as: Better business productivity, High employee loyalty, A long streak of successful projects, and so on. As per the reports, 43% of highly-engaged employees get feedback from higher-ups at least once a week. Note that there’s always room for improvement, no matter how good your team is performing. With your positive feedback, your team will look forward to optimizing the way of their working. While negative feedback will help your team understand where they really need to improve on. Read Also: Improve Work Environment Using Employee Feedback 7. Discuss the 80/20 RuleDiscussing the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, with your team could be a game-changer. It asserts that you can achieve 80% of project results if you focus on 20% of the work that matters most to clients. You can even say that this rule encourages you to see the bigger picture and therein avoid project derailments. This project management methodology helps you improve work performance in two crucial areas. A .Time managementKeeping the ‘Time’ factor in check is significant because clients will be happy if you deliver quality deliverables within the expected timeframe. Sometimes, time management becomes a challenge when you receive change requests with no new deadlines. Here, using the Pareto principle could be a smart move because it helps to reduce the chances of receiving change requests. How? Well, when your team executes the most crucial tasks properly, it is possible that clients don’t demand major changes later on. Here are a few tips you can consider to avoid change requests:
B. Quality controlIn terms of Quality management, the Pareto principle says 20% of the defects lead to 80% of the problems. For example, 80% of customer complaints take place due to 20% of product- and service-related errors. It indicates that if you identify and address major mistakes that happened during the project development process, other related problems may vanish automatically. Here are some key tips:
8. Set MilestonesSetting milestones has always been a great way to keep your project team focused and ensure consistent work performance. When you define critical goals along with realistic timelines, your team takes more responsibility and plans things every day. Consequently, it makes team management easier and helps to meet the promised project delivery date. How can I set milestones for my team? It could be simple if you follow these steps:
It would be great if you go one step further and incorporate a task management application for milestone tracking. By doing this, you gain two major benefits:
9. Improve Internal CommunicationsImproving internal communications is a mantra for successful project management. When teams across different departments pass crucial information on time and work collaboratively, there will be a significant improvement in the project performance. And it’s not tough to improve internal communications if you strive to develop a healthy work environment, where no one hesitates to discuss things. As a result, you would witness high-quality deliverables and increased productivity. You can even leave no stone unturned by bringing a feature-rich project management application into operations. Let’s take an example of ProProfs Project that offers amazing features like task comments, file sharing, and email notifications to facilitate team communications. 10. Have a Schedule for Team MeetingsTeam meetings are indubitably a significant part of the project development process, but summoning project members at any time could affect the workflow negatively. Barring this, there is a likelihood that you miss a few things to discuss during such unplanned team meetups. It results in time sinks and hampers productivity. To improve work performance, develop a schedule for team meetings. Make sure you attend each meetup with a clear agenda, as that’s how you can convey valuable information and ensure smooth project progress. However, if you are a remote-first company, you can still use this technique to improve the workflow. Schedule teleconference meetings with your team members to discuss the project’s details while sitting at home. If done correctly, teleconferencing can give the best results. Here are a few effective tips you can take into account:
Read Also: Why Is It Important to Have a Project Management Communication Plan in Place? Ready to Enjoy Improved Work Performance?Delighting clients won’t be tough if you improve work performance continuously. Besides happy clients, you also enjoy some major advantages, such as a more engaged workforce, lower employee turnover rate, timely completions, and more. With the help of this blog, we have revealed the top 10 ways to improve performance at work. But if you want to achieve better results quickly, bring a well-developed project management application into your operations ASAP. Try
ProProfs Project Free It could do wonders by reducing the pain points related to task management, communication, and client billing. If you want to learn more about the benefits of having a PM tool, give us a call at (855) 776-7763 and get the best assistance. FAQsQ. What are the top 3 ways to improve performance at work?The top 3 ways to improve performance at work are:
Q. How do you identify areas of improvement in the workplace?The best ways to identify areas of improvement are:
Q. What are the areas of improvement for employees?The major areas where employees must improve are:
How can project managers improve productivity?15 Project Management Hacks to Increase Productivity. Hire the right people. ... . Focus on your priorities first. ... . Only set and attend meetings that matter. ... . Use digital project management tools to your advantage. ... . Communicate efficiently. ... . Delegate work effectively. ... . Learn to gracefully, but firmly say “no”. How can I improve as a project manager?How to improve your project management skills. Prioritise tasks with a project schedule. ... . Make use of project management software. ... . Use effective communication skills to manage people. ... . Be proactive. ... . Continuously develop your project management skill set.. What skills would you like to improve on as a project manager?5 technical skills for project managers (and how to improve them). Timeline planning. ... . Project budgeting. ... . Data analysis and reporting. ... . Meeting facilitation. ... . Project management tools and resources. ... . Collaboration. ... . Communication. ... . Organization.. How can projects be more productive?How to increase productivity at work as an individual. Learn to prioritize. Most people end up as project managers because they are good at getting things done. ... . Schedule your day strategically. ... . Delegate. ... . Reduce distractions. ... . Stop multitasking. ... . Take breaks. ... . Have fewer meetings.. |