3 ways to channel the creative side of your employees to enhance productivity at the workplace

Creativity knows no bounds. It is not something that’s only restricted to writers, artists and musicians. When it comes to the workplace, creativity is a quality that helps your team members come up with solutions, new ideas and disruptive strategies. And only a fearsome, insightful and motivated team can deliver such results.

Business leaders and managers often chase productivity. From the hiring process to the execution of ideas and final delivery, everything revolves around quantifying the efforts taken. However, humans don’t like the feeling of being treated as drones. Their mind craves mental disruption, and creativity triggers that feeling. Even though creativity is not measurable, in the long run, it fosters the ability to turn the gears of your organisation.

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In a 2015 survey conducted by the University of Washington, it was observed that the work environments that are structured to complement the creative requirements of jobs, have better chances of job satisfaction, as opposed to the ones that only focus on productivity and traditional work environments.

When your employees feel a sense of freedom and control while working on the projects assigned to them, it works as intrinsic motivation that guides them to take the path of strategic decisions. Here's a look at three ways to inspire creativity amongst your employees:

Encouraging a positive work environment

Maintaining a positive environment at the workplace is of extreme importance. The first and foremost ingredient of cultivating a creative environment is to give people the freedom to express themselves. The fear of failure and rejection often cripples the creative environment, and ultimately hampers productivity. It is very important to give your employees a platform where they can share their ideas, suggestions and feedback without any hesitation. By surfacing those ideas within your organisation, you simultaneously make your employees feel valued, thereby encouraging them to indulge in new and innovative thinking throughout their tenure.

Work on the possibility of improving communication between hierarchies to create an open and effective working environment for everyone.

Have a credit and reward system in place

While most big organisations already have this system in place, a majority of small businesses and startups often neglect their employees’ need to be acknowledged for their extra bit of effort. If you want your employees to deliver meticulously, you need to build up a transparent reward system.

Acknowledge the ones who work hard, and provide extra benefits to those who go the extra mile to deliver. Ideation is a big task, and hence everyone who contributes, expects to be recognised for their work. Recognition for employees and their clever suggestions at weekly meetings could work as an important factor in enhancing their skills. More often than not, an employee who has received credit for his/her work will be motivated to come up with impressive solutions the next time too.

Spark your employees’ creativity by encouraging them to own and nurture their own ideas

If your employees don't feel passionate about their work, there’s no way that they will be motivated to contribute beyond the bare minimum. For many people, the idea to think beyond the usual comes as easily as breathing; but for some, it requires a little more motivation. At times, inspiration needs to seep its way in to get a creative outlook. Sharing case studies of inspirational figures and projects could really help the team think along the right lines; they require direction. Regardless of their present contribution and position in the company, employees who participate in the creative process should be encouraged to take ownership of the idea, nurture it from the beginning and prepare for execution. There's no better feeling than nurturing your idea and seeing it become a reality.

If employers act upon the above mentioned factors, they will have high chances of having a workforce that is motivated, happy and satisfied. Inducing creativity in the work environment is a definite way to increase productivity.