Establish Productivity Standards
Because productivity has such a profound impact on profits, there must be some way of measuring performance. Setting productivity standards for a particular job is important. Whether it be processing payables or picking orders in the warehouse or some other job, it is possible to establish minimum standards in terms of output. These standards become expectations for your employees.
Also, incentives can be established for performance above the minimum performance level. In order to establish standards it is essential that you understand what it takes to do the job and what a reasonable work pace is. Setting unrealistically high or low standards can be detrimental to productivity and/or morale. It is also imperative that employees are held accountable on meeting these productivity standards which can be done through performance reviews.