How I Increased Staff Productivity By over 70% in 3 Months

As I create proposals and talk to small business owners that are experiencing growth, one thing that remains consistent is the lack of awareness about how critical proper talent development is to maintain growth and increase profits.

A few years back I worked with a staff team at University of Delaware in increasing staff productivity which was indicative of the engagement of the residents within the resident halls. Engagement is MAJOR within residence life because one of the main objectives is to create communities where students will want to stay on campus and thrive. On campus living is a huge revenue generator when college students choose to live on campus beyond the first year of campus.

So I worked with an upperclassman staff team at UD in the Residence Life department and here's how I did it:

1. Identified why increasing engagement was important by connecting identified problems to objectives in department strategic plan.
2. Assessed the reason for lack of engagement through qualitative assessments.
3. Analyzed the data to find the top 5 reasons for lack of engagement. Then discussed with leadership, the top 3 areas that made the biggest impact on engagement and what evidence of progress would look like.
4. Presented the top 3 areas of focus as well as the strategies to address the focus areas. During this workshop we asked staff members to provide feedback on which strategies they believed would have the most impact and why.
5. We narrowed down the strategies, developed a timeline for execution, created a swot analysis for implementation, created a plan for accountability, and a system for tracking progress.
6. Implemented the plan and assessed progress over the course of 60 days.
7. Identified grows and glows, modified accordingly and continued implementation and sustainability plan.

Outcome:

The staff was able to increase engagement of residents by 71.7%. Before there was only roughly 34% of residents that would go out to planned events, and only half of that percentage would stay through to the end and participate.

97% of the staff reported better communication with their fellow staff members and ease of planning as a result of improved communication. 

Poor communication is one of the top reasons teams are counterproductive. Do not neglect the importance of building collaborative teams. Teams that can function collaboratively will not only improve productivity which increases revenue, but it also benefits your team members individually. They learn from one another, showcase their strengths, and generally feel better about the work they are doing which leads to increased retention, which cuts annual spending on hiring and on-boarding.