Business leaders have the unique ability to inspire productivity among their entire staff. With an assortment of leadership techniques, these leaders nurture an environment that inspires productivity. Follow their lead to get the best out of your employees.

Design the Office With Productivity in Mind

Small touches throughout an office’s design can inspire productivity by encouraging collaboration. For instance, it’s a good idea to situate common areas like the conference room and kitchen around private nooks where co-workers can nurture relationships. Offices where employees never interact with others are typically not as prepared for collaborative tasks.

Additionally, providing a sense of comfort and flexibility can certainly increase productivity. With excessive sitting posing a great health risk, business leaders who utilize conference tables and adjustable desks cater to a much-needed flexibility among workers. These additions will allow them to choose between sitting and standing when working. With research suggesting that standing meetings can result in increased engagement, flexible desks and tables are absolutely something business leaders should consider.

Flexible Scheduling

We live in an age where technology makes time organization highly efficient. Employees can check in and out with a single click. As a result, it makes sense to provide employees with greater flexibility in regard to their scheduling. Hours per day should be the primary focus, not when those hours start or end in universal form. An employee who prefers to work 8-to-4 should be evaluated the same as one who prefers to work 10-to-6 if their work output is comparable in quality.

In addition, telecommuting should be provided as an option when possible, with work output being the decisive factor. A work log can be assigned if a business leader is still unsure of an employee’s ability, but regardless, both schedule flexibility and telecommuting abilities should be considered by any business leader seeking to increase productivity. It provides employees with greater flexibility, thus reducing any potential stress that may be caused by stringent deadlines.

Organize Team Events

Team functions can provide an office with a greater sense of community, particularly by bringing employees together in a nonwork setting. The lack of work output results in an absence of competitiveness, which enables those to come closer together without bias. Whether it’s a team softball game or a day at a professional sporting event, team functions can help nurture new relationships and connections that will ultimately result in increased productivity.

Provide Reward-Based Incentives

Many professional athletes have incentives in their contract based on performance. For instance, a pitcher in baseball may receive an increase in salary the next season if he reaches 200 innings pitched. As such, a productivity-minded office may incentivize employee performance by providing perks for accomplishments. The element that’s quantified is up to the business, whether it’s a sales company with concrete numbers or a more project-based business, but there’s little doubt that incentives can provide employees with the extra dose of motivation to be more productive.

Show Employees How They’re Making a Difference

Business leaders can also inspire productivity by encouraging employees when possible, either for work ethic or specific output. In addition to actual in-office efforts, it’s crucial to provide employees with an option to make the world a better place. 78 percent of millennial employees donate to charity on their own, suggesting that business leaders who provide employees the opportunity to contribute charitably both globally and locally will result in team-based and personal successes.

While direct deductions from paychecks to charity aren’t as popular, providing an entire office the chance to collaborate in making the world a better place – either by teaming up to clean a local park or donating to a charity – can result in increased unity, which inspires productivity.

These tips can aid any business leader, regardless of their company’s niche, in inspiring productivity among employees. Office design, flexible scheduling, team events, incentives and charitable opportunities can all inspire productivity in their own ways.