How can employee productivity be improved simply?

According to research by the World Bank and the MNB (National Bank of Hungary), employees' productivity in a Hungarian company reaches only 62% of the EU average, and just 42% of that of the top 5 EU countries. This clearly shows that in Hungary many companies achieve only a fraction of their potential – even though productivity can often be improved considerably with simple and cost-effective developments too.

A few main causes of poorer productivity:

• Lack of digitalisation: Too much time goes on processes that, with the right digitalisation and automation, would require only a few clicks.
• Ineffective information flow: Communication within the company is not organised enough – not all important information reaches the right people in time, or, conversely, too much unnecessary information is dumped on employees, distracting them from their work.
• Lack of employee satisfaction and trust: The workplace atmosphere is poor, employees are not listened to or valued, which erodes motivation and trust.

In many places, however, it has been recognised that developments are needed.

CHEQ's staff carried out comprehensive research, in which they conducted interviews with clients' HR and managerial staff, and also assessed employees' opinions and experiences with the help of surveys. 

The primary aim of the interviews was to uncover the areas where shortcomings and difficulties were felt within the company, what goals they had in these areas with the introduction of CHEQ, and whether the tool helped to improve in these areas.

Based on the research, the three most important areas – in line with the main causes listed above – were clearly the following:

• Digitalising HR administration: Paper-based administration is slow and requires a great deal of work. Digitalising and speeding up the basic processes is essential to maintaining competitiveness. Moreover, according to the research, the efficient administration this brings about also improved employee satisfaction.
• Effective internal communication: It is important to have an easy-to-use channel where information reaches everyone instantly. Beyond this, it is essential that the channel be easy to follow and control - so that employees are not burdened with unnecessary information on it - and that there be statistics and analytics so that activity can be tracked.
• Involving employees, improving satisfaction: Another main function of an effective internal communication channel is that it can reduce employees' isolation and involve them more in company life and culture. Used well, such a platform can significantly improve employee satisfaction even just by sending occasional greetings to employees.

Concrete examples from clients:

• At one of our clients, the head of the department previously collected overtime sign-ups by having to ask each member of their team one by one – sometimes in several rounds, if not everyone was present. Since the introduction of CHEQ, collecting overtime sign-ups has become a matter of a few clicks.
• At one of our clients there was a power outage. Fortunately, thanks to CHEQ, everyone was immediately reachable and could be informed of what to do, and no confusion arose.

The conclusions of the research:

• With CHEQ, the effectiveness of communication improved, and the previously hard-to-reach blue-collar layer also became reachable.
• HR administration became faster and simpler: turnaround time, and the working time spent on processes, fell by as much as 80-90%.
• Employees' satisfaction and motivation improved – 98% of those surveyed felt more valued at their workplace following the introduction of CHEQ.
• 72% of employees would wholeheartedly recommend using CHEQ to their colleagues.