6 Tips for Keeping Efficient Employees Busy
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Do you have an employee who frequently completes their assignments earlier than you expected? It can be difficult to constantly be searching for work for your efficient employees to do, but here are some key tips to manage your efficient employees:
Work to Form Strong Habits with the Employee
If an employee is always efficient, they may benefit from taking time to build stronger workplace habits or even chase after professional goals. For instance, using ManageBetter's ActionPlan, you can create goals for your employee to work towards. Such goals could include the following:
Taking time to form detailed to-do lists that have elements like long-term projects, projects that are for when there’s nothing to do, and short-term work
Working towards making networking connections with others in the industry
Encourage the Employee to Help Others Out in the Office
If you notice some other employees have a lot on their plate at the moment, the efficient employee can help the busy employee out. Even if it is a department that your employee is not super knowledgeable in, the efficient employee can do their best to contribute their time. Also, some employees simply enjoy working with others, so this could benefit the employee who is overloaded with work.
Tell the Employee To Create a Plan for The Next Few Days
Planning can help improve productivity, and it can allow the employee to take some time to reflect on their previous work. Talk to your employee about creating a plan that implements new strategies for the structure of their work day. This could include exploring ideas like:
Listening to a work-related podcast on the drive to work
At the end of the work day, take some time to journal about their productivity that day
Try out a new schedule for completing their tasks
Take some time to review 5 Steps to Creating an Effective Action Plan for a few tips on guiding your employees through learning new planning methods at work.
Have the Efficient Employees Create Playbooks for New Staff
Employees who complete their work ahead of schedule can take some time to create guides to help new employees learn how to execute processes, use software and complete certain tasks within the workplace. These can be tedious tasks to complete, but having employees who know how to best and quickly use these work tools are best to complete the playbook creation.
Remind the Employee That They Efficiently Complete Tasks
Sometimes, an employee may have no idea that they are finishing their work ahead of schedule. Take some time to meet with the employee to discuss this. Ultimately, this may encourage the employee to slow down a bit, as they understand they are exceeding your expectations tremendously. It may also be helpful to be clear with when tasks are due, so the employee understands there is more time to complete it.
Review the Employee’s Work to Make Sure It Is High Quality
Employees can rush through tasks occasionally. It is important to take some time to check over the work, especially to ensure it is thoroughly completed. If the task is not up to your standards, complete a performance review using ManageBetter's ReviewBuilder to help articulate your thoughts using the 3,000 curated phrases. Then, you can meet with the employee having a performance review ready to discuss their work. You can say the following:
“I notice you are completing your tasks efficiently, which I appreciate. However, I would like you to take some time to review your work a little more before you turn it in.”
“Your efficiency in completing tasks shows me that you are taking advantage of your time in the office, but I think you can use a little more time to make your work more thorough.”
Review 5 Elegant Ways to Tell an Employee Their Performance is Poor for advice on how to speak to the employee about rushing through their work.
Conclusion
As a manager, dealing with an efficient employee can be difficult when you have a multitude of your own tasks to complete. Look over the work to make sure it is up to speed. If it is up to your standards, encourage your employee to work on self-improvement tasks, such as journaling and planning. Even allow the employee to help out others or work on creating guides for using software in the workplace. That will take work off of your plate and put their time to good use.
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