Three Ways Businesses Can Increase Team Performance

By Guest Blogger Sarah Brown

Does it feel as though your company has been dropping the ball as of late, and that it has been missing out on opportunities to grow and advance? There are obviously all kinds of reasons that can contribute to feeling as though the company is lagging behind, but part of it may point to your employees. When team performance isn’t at its peak, the business will suffer. Mistakes can be made, customers may not walk away as happy as normal, and inefficiencies can start to build. All of this adds up and can then impact the bottom line.

This is where you as the business owner needs to recognise the issue, and step in with a fix. Here we’ll take a look at three ways businesses can increase team performance and start seeing the results in the company.

Make Sure Goals and Work Objectives Are Always Clear and Concise

Before you can start to increase the performance of your team, you need to first take a look at how you communicate goals and work objectives to them. Could it be that these aren’t being laid out or communicated clearly enough and that’s what is hindering performance? Perhaps a better organisation system is needed, or changes to the production process, etc. Meeting with department heads and encouraging staff to talk to you about what you can do to help them is a great way to go about things.

Take Part in Team Building Activities

One area that teams can really suffer is in their ability to communicate. Without proper and open communication channels, it’s hard for the team to be on the same page. If your company is particularly fast-paced, this is even more important, as employees need to be aware of orders, outstanding tasks, projects, due dates, etc. When everyone is communicating and sharing questions, ideas, and thoughts, the business starts to flourish.

So how can you work to build those communication skills? Team building activities can be the perfect solution. Often, in areas such as London where there is an abundance of small and large businesses, it’s easy to find different team building opportunities. Some companies such as Team Tactics even specialise in providing these events in London, ranging from sports competitions to trust exercises. However, if your business operates outside of a busy area, you might need to get more creative – just because there may not be specific team building companies it doesn’t mean that you can’t find an activity for you and your colleagues to take part in.

Team building activities are often thought of ice-breakers, which is a great way of looking at them. They help to take away those initial feelings of insecurity or shyness in communicating with others.

Put in Place an Incentive Program

Another idea can be to look at putting in place an incentive programme. The way these programmes work is that employees are rewarded for achieving certain goals/targets. You can also take it a step further and reward them with bigger incentives if they manage to go past their goal/target by a certain amount.

As for what the incentives can be, that’s really up to the company. It can be such things as gift cards, cash, a company outing if a team hits a target, extra holiday days, etc. You can even ask for employees’ input on what they’d like the incentives to be while you set up the programme.

Working Together to Make Improvements

Increasing your team’s performance isn’t a one-person job, instead it involves getting everyone’s input and involvement. Often it isn’t a matter of making one change, rather a number of changes that makes it possible for everyone to be more productive and efficient. This is why input from employees can prove to be so helpful.

Fun Team Building is a Corporate Team Builder

Looking to break your corporate team out of a rut? Then call Fun Team Building at 770-333-3303 or fill out my free, no-obligation contact form to find out more!

I have facilitated team building days for a number of corporations including AT&T, Allstate, Coca-Cola Credit Union, Sun Trust and Omni Hotels and Resorts.