Research shows that the average employee only does about three hours of “real” work each day. The rest of the time, they’re engaged in time-wasting practices like checking social media, checking and responding to emails, and discussing non-work activities.
Do you feel that your workers aren’t being as productive as they could be? If the answer is “yes,” perhaps they need a bit of gamification to get themselves motivated.
One effective way to gamify your environment, motivate your employees, and improve workplace productivity is to set up monthly leaderboards.
Read on to learn more about the benefits of monthly leaderboards, as well as the right way to use them to see the best results among your workers.
Should You Use a Leaderboard for Office Productivity Boosts?
Monthly leaderboards provide a lot of benefits to all kinds of workplaces. From traditional offices to companies with lots of remote employees, there are plenty of reasons to start using leaderboards, including the following:
Higher Sales Numbers
In many cases, a leaderboard system encourages members of your sales staff to make more sales each month. This has to do, in part, with the fact that leaderboards allow for greater transparency.
When salespeople can see what their colleagues are doing and how many sales they’ve made, it lights a fire under them to push themselves a little harder and reach out to more customers on a regular basis.
More Collaboration
Leaderboards aren’t just for sales teams, though. They can work with all kinds of workers, from customer service reps to copywriters. You can even use leaderboards to encourage collaboration across different teams.
Depending on the metrics you use, you may find that workers are more inclined to communicate with other team members to learn more about their position so they can perform their job to the best of their abilities.
Reinforce Positive Behaviors
In most cases, it’s more productive to focus on reinforcing positive behaviors than it is to focus on punishing negative ones.
Establishing monthly leaderboards allows you to reward those who are exhibiting positive behaviors and working hard to get more done and go above and beyond the call of duty.
Seeing other employees receiving praise for a higher leaderboard position can help to motivate employees who may be underperforming or staying stagnant, too.
Stronger Sense of Loyalty
If your employees feel that they’re being recognized and rewarded for their efforts, they’re going to be more inclined to stick around long-term.
As we all know, it’s much cheaper to retain employees than it is to hire new ones. If investing in a leaderboard system helps to keep employees around longer, it’s an investment that’s definitely worth making.
More Customer Satisfaction
When your employees are working harder, whether it’s at tech support, sales, or anything in between, your customers are sure to take notice and appreciate the improved service they’re receiving. This, in turn, can help to foster a stronger sense of customer loyalty and increase their chances of continuing to work with you in the future.
How to Increase Workplace Productivity with a Monthly Leaderboard
As you can see, there’s a lot to be gained from setting up a monthly leaderboard. Keep in mind, though, that there are some ways of using these leaderboards that are better than others.
If you want to use a leaderboard in a way that’s most likely to benefit your employees and boost their productivity, be sure to keep these dos and don’ts in mind:
Do Focus on More Than Money
When using a leaderboard system in your office, especially among sales teams, it’s best not to focus on money. At the very least, it shouldn’t be the primary focus on the board.
Your workers can’t always control the amount of money they bring in. They can, however, control their behaviors. Instead of focusing only on money, focus on things like the number of leads contacted or the speed with which customer service reps answer the phone or solve problems.
Do Reward Progress
In addition to general team leaderboards, it can be helpful to have a leaderboard feature that tracks worker progress, too. This helps you see how employees are improving on a month-to-month basis and allows you to reward progress even among those who aren’t top performers (yet).
For example, you could use these features to recognize an employee who has gone from being a low performer to an average performer. That’s progress that deserves praise, too, and providing that praise could help that employee to continue making improvements.
Do Be Clear
It’s important to be clear with your employees when you’re setting up a leaderboard system. Let them know what the metrics are that you’ll be monitoring and what specific rules they need to follow to earn a higher position on the board.
By doing this, you’ll ensure that everyone has a fair shot and knows what’s expected of them. It’ll help to discourage “cheating” as well.
Don’t Encourage the Wrong Behaviors
Speaking of cheating, making sure you’re not encouraging the wrong behaviors with your leaderboard.
When you’re communicating with your team, make sure they know that you want them to do well, but not at the expense of their colleagues’ success. Promote collaboration, teamwork, and mentorship rather than cutthroat competition and sabotage.
Don’t Forget to Update the Board
Finally, don’t forget to update the board so employees can get an accurate sense of how they’re doing throughout the month. If they find that the board never gets updated or isn’t tracking their progress, it’s going to be hard for them to stay motivated and continue to be productive.
Set Up a Leaderboard Today
Now that you know more about all the benefits monthly leaderboards have to offer, as well as the best practices for using them, are you ready to set some up for your employees?
Whether you work in a traditional office or if your employees work remotely, monthly leaderboards are a great addition to boost morale and workplace productivity and get people excited to get to work each day.
Are you looking for other ideas to encourage your employees? If so, check out KudosBot. KudosBot is an easy-to-use online service that allows you to send out motivating messages and praise employees when they do something well.
