From Nike’s restorative nap rooms to Google’s nourishing, in-house juice bars, 21st century businesses are taking progressive steps to encourage wellbeing and improve performance among employees.

Novelties aside, there are, however, simple and effective ways to enhance employee productivity without a kale smoothie in sight. Here, we outline eleven inspirational ways to turn your team into a performance powerhouse.

1 Nurture Dialogue – A recent Salesforce report revealed that employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to perform to their best of their abilities. So keep your door open and get to know your team. Allow them to feel you’re approachable and welcoming with an open ear to any concerns they have. Trust is the ultimate bond between you and your workforce.

2 Get Strict with Social – The lure of Facebook and the call of Instagram are only a few tempting clicks away. For all its benefits, social media is a time vacuum, sucking precious employee output into oblivion. According to Forbes, 7 out of 10 workers use it on their shift. Limiting access to channels will mean those unnecessary status updates convert to work achieved. #Workgoals

3 Train, Train and Train Some More – A clued-up team is a dynamic and productive one. A no-brainer, right? The importance of exceptional training cannot be overstated when it comes to nurturing employee productivity. A Totaljobs survey revealed that two out of three workers changed jobs because of lack of adequate training. Be sure to establish a thorough training program when recruiting. Even though it may be costly, it’s the ultimate investment you’ll make in your staff. Training and guidance is an ongoing process so always introduce sessions, courses and workshops when needed.

4 Praise You Like I Should – When putting a foot wrong, employees can often be taken to task and made aware of their errors. But how do they know when they’re getting it right? Praising where necessary not only boosts morale, but reminds them that what they’re doing is on the correct path. Hit this week’s sales target? Nailed a deadline a day early? Show them some love and let them know their efforts are appreciated. You could even consider tracking their accomplishments publicly by setting up a board citing milestones achieved for your business.

5 Welcome Wellness – Companies embracing those aforementioned juice bars are on to something. Wellbeing and employee engagement are now seen as inseparable, with mental and physical health being cornerstones of a productive workforce. In fact, an American Psychological Association study disclosed that 73% of employees with senior managers that instigated wellbeing initiatives claimed their organization helps employees develop a healthy lifestyle, with nine in ten saying they “feel motivated to do their best.” You can help lower stress and encourage clarity by introducing the 50 Minute Rule of taking a short break every hour. Why not consider running a mindfulness workshop or a comprehensive, holistic wellness program? At the very least, make it your goal to foster self-care among your team.

6 Initiative = Empowerment – Slipping into micromanaging mode is easily done, yet an effective way to increase performance is by backing off – literally. After all, an ever-hovering manager can generate anxiety and annoyance. Allowing staff to manage their own time and resources lets them take ownership of their role. Even science backs this up: worker autonomy leads to higher levels of productivity and satisfaction. Basically, let your staff be great by leaving them to it…most of the time.

7 Take the Shortcut – Boosting employee productivity is a perfect storm of motivation, inspiration and encouragement. But the simplest of things can make a difference too. Whether your office is Mac or PC-functioning, keyboard shortcuts eliminate time-consuming mouse clicks. In fact, incorporating keyboard shortcuts into the workday can save an incredible 8 working days a year. Get your employees keyboard literate with a simple workshop or training session on shortcuts and they’ll be Ctrl+P-ing their printing forevermore.

8 Get App-Happy – Embrace performance-enhancing tech with handy web and mobile apps that streamline the way your workforce operates. Think: Dropbox for file syncing and sharing, Google Drive for document storage and The Deadline for project management. These days, there’s an app for almost any task your business needs doing. So be savvy and seek out ones that encourage efficiency and help achieve goals faster.

9 Encourage Engagement – A recent Gallup poll disclosed that engaged employees are now up by 34% in the US. ‘Engaged’ employees are those “who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”. While the report acknowledges that ensuring staff are happy and content is important, it suggests it’s not the be-all and end-all of business productivity and it’s engagement that counts. The keys to creating a culture of engagement are communicating openly and consistently, hiring and developing great managers and always ensuring managers are engaging employees from their very first day of work.

10 Remote Control – If the recent explosion of innovative, Millennial-centric workspace hubs illustrates one thing, it’s that flexibility is key – and this includes remote working. Perhaps the stuff of control freak boss nightmares, remote working has actually been shown to increase employee productivity, believe it or not. According to a Canada Life survey, remote workers ranked their productivity from home as 7.7/10 while office workers ranked it 6.5/10. Remote working presents countless benefits too. For employees: no stressful commute and a quieter working space with fewer distractions. For employers: potential lower office hire costs. For both parties: that all-important trust.

This said, you need to arm your team with tools that make remote working both possible and productive. Templafy’s cloud software for example, allows employees to work from anywhere without the need for VPNs or remote desktop sessions. Templafy even works offline, so our simple cloud-based administration platform always ensures that all document templates, text elements and visual assets are up-to-date for your staff.

11 Turbocharge Your Document Creation – There’s nothing worse than wasting precious time locating disparate documents, images and assets various on servers, pen drives and other hard-to-reach locations. This is where Templafy comes in. Templafy makes creating documents quick and easy, slicing the amount of time it takes for your employees to draft a new deck, or any document for that matter, from scratch. What’s more, Templafy lets employees access templates centrally and use them anywhere, anytime and on all devices.

Interested to find out how Templafy can help boost you employee productivity, ensure compliance and maximize company ROI?