In a survey of over 15,000 employees, more than 50% report being relatively unproductive at work. Business leaders who want to encourage and foster more productivity need to understand how changes in the way we work influence employee productivity and what strategies they can use to help employees be more productive during the workday.

Remote work and hybrid and distributed workforces require new strategies to ensure collaboration and high productivity. Trends like performative productivity and quiet quitting raise the importance of employee engagement, mental health, and well-being. Rapid technology advancements, like AI, mean workers in all industries, roles, and ages need support learning new skills to maintain peak performance.

With the right tools and tactics, you can address these challenges, increase employee engagement, and create a work environment that increases employee productivity in a healthy way. Read on for actionable advice on how you can improve workplace productivity levels.

What is Workplace Productivity?

By definition, workplace productivity is a measure of the value produced (the output) from each hour of work completed (the input). But workplace productivity isn’t just a metric; it’s the heartbeat of a thriving, engaged workplace.

In a productive workplace, employees are focused, motivated, efficient, and purposeful. Workplace productivity is about more than simply getting things done—it’s turning effort into meaningful results that drive progress and growth. When individuals and teams align with a shared vision and every task and conversation contributes to a greater goal, productivity becomes the engine that powers business success.

Workplace culture can lower productivity 

In addition to larger changes in workforce trends like remote work and AI, there are some common day-to-day challenges that undermine workplace productivity. Here are a few daily blockers that might get in the way of your employee’s best work:

• Decreased employee engagement: When people are unhappy with compensation, dissatisfied with the work environment, or feel overworked, they can shut down and become disengaged or disruptive. Trends like quiet quitting reduce the effectiveness of your workforce and put more strain on your top talent.
• Email and chat messages: Workers are constantly interrupted by emails, Slack, Microsoft Teams, text messages, and an endless slew of notifications. Over half of professionals (55%) say the constant flow of notifications makes it hard to concentrate on essential tasks, according to the 2024 State of Business Communication report. 
• Miscommunication: When there’s a lack of clear communication or miscommunication, employees may spend their time doing unimportant tasks or busy work rather than work that is ultimately important for the bottom line. Poor communication from company leaders leads to higher levels of stress among employees, increased costs, and missed deadlines—all of which result in lower productivity. 
• Competing priorities: To be productive in the workplace, team members need to have a clear understanding of what they are expected to accomplish and in what order. This means that stakeholders should collaborate, align, and clearly communicate tasks and major shifts in work to their team members. Putting effort into a task only to find out that requirements have changed and work has to be redone can leave employees feeling unengaged or demoralized, which results in a less productive workplace. 
• Multitasking: It seems counterintuitive that doing multiple things at once is not productive. But a productive workplace is not just about completing tasks—it’s about employees doing them in a way that produces high-quality work, then having the energy to get up the next day and do it again.

5 Strategies to Boost Productivity in the Workplace

To overcome these blockers and boost productivity in the workplace, business leaders and managers need to invest in strategies that foster a more productive workspace and better employee experience. These five areas are an excellent place to start:

1. Focus on better, not more, communication.

Business leaders report that effective communication leads to a 64% increase in productivity, while poor communication leads to a 40% decrease. The same study found that knowledge workers spend 88% of their workweek on communication. This means even small improvements in communication can have a big impact on productivity.

• Business leaders may be underestimating communication problems. The study also revealed that 87% of business leaders perceive their organization’s communication as “highly effective,” compared to only 63% of knowledge workers who do.
• Start with stakeholders. Getting agreement among stakeholders at the beginning of a project and clearly communicating project goals and requirements reduces costly miscommunication and rework. Set up regular check-ins with clear agendas, so teams stay aligned and can address changes and blockers quickly.
• Use AI-powered communication tools. AI communication assistants, like Grammarly, help people at all levels communicate more clearly and effectively. Knowledge workers report that AI tools have transformed the way they communicate at work (71%), improved the effectiveness of that communication (68%), and helped them avoid miscommunications (73%).

2. Empower people to practice good time management.

As a manager, once you clearly communicate what work needs to be done, the next step is removing blockers and empowering employees to do their best work. Try these tactics to help productive employees with time management and work-life balance.

• Cut back on noncritical meetings. While it might feel nice to get everyone together, a calendar full of meetings kills productivity. Some meetings are necessary, such as kickoff or planning meetings where participants actively discuss the next steps. For meetings where you’re disseminating information, consider other channels like email or a team Slack thread.
• Embrace flexible schedules. People know when they are their most productive. Giving employees more flexibility means that morning people can get an early start, night owls can work late, and people who need breaks can take them and return refreshed. A little flexibility can help employees avoid burnout and improve employee well-being. 
• Encourage asynchronous communication. Flexibility goes hand in hand with asynchronous communication, a communication style that shifts away from real-time meetings and the expectation that you must respond to messages immediately. This enables people to stay focused on their work and set aside a specific time for responding to messages and watching recorded meetings. 

3. Experiment with AI and other time-saving technologies.

Combining human creativity and intelligence with the right tools can help people work smarter, not harder. For example, knowledge workers who use generative AI say it not only increases their productivity but also reduces stress and lightens their workload—a win-win for companies and their employees.

• Save time (and improve your bottom line) with AI. Professionals using gen AI for communication save approximately one day per workweek. This productivity boost adds up to an annual average savings of $16,455 per worker.
• Support AI literacy and training. To unlock the full value of gen AI and other tools and technologies, people need to build AI literacy. Helping people learn to use new tools effectively within their jobs can reduce fear and accelerate change.
• Streamline workflows and operations with shared tools and apps. Reducing manual handoffs, automating prioritization and routine tasks, and giving teams access to a unified source of information can improve teamwork and boost productivity. A shared project management calendar, for example, can help your team stay on track to finish projects by their deadline. Ticket-based systems and automation can help teams prioritize queries and communicate progress. 

4. Improve employee engagement by looking at workplace culture.

When employees are happy with their jobs, they work harder to keep them. Despite overall declines in labor productivity, Great Place to Work found that revenue per employee increased 7% year over year for the top 100 best places to work in 2023. This highlights the importance of workplace culture and job satisfaction.

McKinsey & Company found that addressing these six questions could help companies save up to $56 million annually by improving employee satisfaction and retention:

• Are you offering adequate total compensation?
• Do employees feel they have meaningful work?
• Is there workplace flexibility?
• Are there clear opportunities for career development and advancement?
• How reliable and supportive are people in the workplace?
• Does everyone feel they are in a safe workplace environment?

5. Encourage good work habits.

Looking and feeling busy doesn’t always equate to higher productivity. That’s why it’s important to build a culture of good work habits so your employees prioritize moving work forward rather than just engaging in performative productivity.

• Favor focused work over multitasking. Multitasking can make people feel more productive, but it comes at a cost. Jumping between tasks means people can’t give their best focus and attention to any one thing. All that context switching inhibits their ability to get into a flow state in which they’re fully immersed in and energized by a task.
• Reduce distractions. Tell employees it’s OK to turn off notifications, check emails only once or twice a day, or pop on those noise-canceling headphones when they want to focus. Let them skip a meeting if they’re in the zone on a project.
• Share productivity hacks. We’re all prone to distraction and can use a little help putting the phone away, tuning out social media, and focusing. Thankfully, there are techniques that can help, from breathwork to focus the mind to the pomodoro technique, which rewards short, focused sessions with mini breaks. 

Get More Done With Grammarly

Improving internal communication is one of the easiest and most impactful ways to boost productivity in the workplace. You get the immediate benefits of clear communication and fewer mistakes, plus the longer-term benefits of more confident, happier employees. Better business communication improves employee engagement and performance by up to 10% and reduces employee turnover by up to 50%.

AI is a valuable tool for improving communication. It helps people spend less time writing while increasing communication effectiveness. By providing suggestions to improve correctness, tone, clarity, and fluency, AI-powered writing assistants like Grammarly reduce the mental load it takes to write well and free employees to focus on other aspects of their job.

Contact our team to learn more about how Grammarly can help make your entire workforce more productive.