Leadership Roles For Improving Employee Productivity at Digital Start-Up Company

Research aims: This study analyzes the role of leadership in improving employee productivity. The object of research was carried out at a start-up company engaged in the digital career development platform. Design/Methodology/Approach: The process of collecting data by conducting virtual interviews to gather information according to the research topic. Structured interviews were used in this study with the aim of obtaining systematic and specific information. Research findings: The results showed that the role of leadership is vital in increasing employee productivity. Theoretical contribution/ Originality: The six components that show the role of leadership in employee productivity include clarity of leadership functions, accuracy of competency-based employee placement, consistency of training programs, effectiveness of organizational strategy implementation, clarity of job description directions to employees, and a fair reward system based on contributions. Practitioner/Policy implication: This research has leadership implications for employee productivity. Leadership is very important in maintaining long-term business sustainability. Research limitation/Implication: This study is only limited to discussing the role of leadership to increase employee productivity accompanied by human resource strategies.


Introduction
Employee productivity is something that is expected by the company to achieve business targets. The main component is needed a strategic competence in accordance with the company's business needs. The strategic competency management process requires a leadership role that ensures effectiveness, right on target, and efficiency. Effectiveness is ensuring that competencies can be used according to job requirements. Right on target is the empowerment of competencies to achieve performance indicators. Efficient is the use of costs that are in accordance with the development of strategic competencies in the long term.
This company is engaged in human resources career development services. Productivity is very important in increasing the scale of the company's business. The leadership scale that must be owned must be able to direct employees to always work optimally in achieving organizational goals. The centrality of leadership is very much needed, how all employees are able to understand the wishes of the leader in bringing the direction of the organization to a better direction. Business competition accompanied by rapid business changes must be understood by leaders in utilizing human resources.
The leadership function is needed in bringing the direction of the organization. Business formulation and planning are in the realm of leadership and are executed well by employees. Business processes must go hand in hand with increased productivity. This is very important to achieve the company's business targets and must be balanced with the optimization of employee productivity in reading the direction of the business with the development of innovations and new ideas. This is the task of the leader in adopting and creating a job conducive to increasing employee productivity.
Leadership is the ability to direct, coordinate, influence, and set a good example based on high trust (Tohidi & Jabbari, 2012). A leader will provide a lot of hope, inspiration, and strength in building organizational achievements (Martelli et al., 2012). Leadership affects the behavior of others towards certain goals as an indicator of the success sees a leader. The implementation of leadership is very much determined by resources as a form of organizational support. This is what is needed by employees of the leadership function in bringing about organizational change. The company's business existence will be determined by employee productivity.
A leader must have the competence to provide direction to employees in generating creativity and job innovation (Haryono et al., 2021). Leadership must be able to explain job targets that will have implications for performance. It must be realized that work culture will be able to increase employee productivity. Leaders must foster a collective culture in all employees in increasing work productivity (Suhana et al., 2019). Collective cooperation between employees will help complete the work.
The work process must be assisted by the adequacy of resources. All the supporting components of the work process that must be provided by the organization. Organizational commitment is needed to help leaders achieve job targets through competitive work teams (Astuty & Udin, 2020). Spiritual concepts are needed in carrying out leadership functions to achieve job satisfaction and employee performance (Maryati et al., 2019). The spiritualism side of leadership will create a new organizational culture according to business values. Spiritual leadership is very helpful in increasing employee productivity through cultural change. Leaders must apply the concept of empowering employees to achieve organizational performance. Employee empowerment is needed to maximize competence and knowledge in achieving the desired performance by the organization (Shahab et al., 2018). This process requires support from the organization to produce new work patterns. This will greatly help in increasing employee productivity.
Productivity is a strength or ability that is needed in an achievement or certain target (Oswald et al., 2015). The focus of productivity is talking about human or individual behavior. However, more specifically in the field of work performed by employees. An organization, both large and small, will be moved by the importance of improving work productivity. The digital-based business era always requires employee productivity to generate the latest ideas and innovations according to market needs. This study will analyze the role of leadership in increasing employee productivity. This study will provide an additional side of how the leadership functions in increasing employee productivity. Some studies only analyze the aspects of performance, employee empowerment, and spiritualism in improving employee performance. The differentiation of this research is qualitative in nature. The process of collecting data by interviewing how the function of leadership in general in increasing employee productivity. This study does not discuss a specific scope of leadership that has been discussed in several previous research results.. The results of this analysis will make a recommendation for a model to increase employee productivity according to the business process. The company's object takes on a start-up that is engaged in digital career development.

Literature Review
A successful organization is having leadership effectiveness. This component is one part of organizational functions that occupy strategic positions. Organizational patterns are arranged in a work system and hierarchy with responsibilities in an organization. Leaders are known for their ability to care for others, perfect communication, and commitment to persistence (Hoyle & Wallace, 2005). The function of a leader who is chosen for a strategic position requires managerial leadership, managing resources, and implementing organizational rules in a highly disciplined manner. The ability to influence, work coordination, effective direction, and supervision is one of the important components that must be possessed by a leader.
Leadership is an individual ability to direct, motivate, and create conduciveness in a shared ecosystem in achieving organizational goals (Barker, 2017;Morrison, 2014;Robbins & Judge, 2012). A leader will prioritize the spiritual aspects of team cohesiveness, and the effectiveness of communication. The allocation of jobs, units and tasks will be the main function in building a small organization at the school level. The leader must be able to conduct periodic work directions and reviews in order to supervise and operate the wheels of the organization. The formulation of the main tasks and functions and the schedule must be determined by involving the members of the organization as a whole. This will ensure the running of the organization in a transparent and responsible manner. Employee productivity is a level of comparison between the amount of output and the amount of input (Zwick, 2004). Employees are one of the main assets of a company who become planners and active players of every business activity (Mathis & Jackson, 2006). The diversity of organizations consisting of status, educational background, age and gender which is heterogeneous brings new colors in long-term business processes (Ely & Thomas, 2001). The quality and quantity of human resources must be in accordance with business needs in order to effectively and efficiently support the achievement of organizational goals (Hasibuan, 2014).
The components of determining productivity are leadership style, motivation, external environment, and education in position (Kamuli, 2012). Discipline, motivation, experience and morale can affect employee productivity improvements (Assagaf & Dotulong, 2015;Holzer, 1990). Organizations must have consistency of training programs, conducive work environment, and stability of motivation in increasing employee productivity (Nasution, 2014;Lestari & Sriathi, 2013). The high motivation of employees will make productivity in line with company expectations (Hong et al., 1995). Therefore, leaders must be able to create internal and external stability in maintaining employee productivity as an effort to achieve the company's business.
Increased productivity can be done through health and activities in accordance with work processes (Mitchell et al., 2013;Van Scheppingen et al., 2014). A conducive and flexible work environment makes work processes more effective as a form of support for increased employee productivity (Gutnick, 2007). It is important to continue to educate the business community about the direct benefits of providing an improved work environment. A good work environment can help employers recruit and retain highperforming employees. Then added with adding a work atmosphere full of spiritual values, psychological well-being, to increase work comfort and increase employee productivity. (Mehta & Joshi, 2010;Robertson et al., 2012). Productivity can determine the success of an organization's strategy in increasing market share and the existence of business competition.
Understanding organizational strategy is a form of target formulation by looking at the availability of resources and can be achieved in the short and long term. (Teece et al., 2003). This is fundamental to the determination of activity plans and allocation of resources as part of achieving business goals. Strategies are developed and implemented to achieve the goals set by the organization. Strategy formulations are formulated to maintain and expand organizational activities in new fields in response to changing business environments. Strategy implementation is the process of controlling various activities both in the execution of plans, goals and objectives which are limited by time limits. Strategy is a tool to achieve goals while more detailed plans are used to achieve goals. In general, organizational goals are conditions or goals that the organization wants to achieve in the future through organizational activities. The combination of differentiation strategies, total quality management practices, and organizational performance will be determined through the formulation of an appropriate strategy (Prajogo & Sohal, 2006). These three things are interrelated so that in terms of quality and innovation it can be continuously improved through increasing employee productivity.
The formulation of an organizational strategy requires alignment between planning and implementation (Baruah & Ward, 2014). The concept of innovation and creativity will be greatly influenced by employee productivity. Competition in the current era requires a differentiation strategy that prioritizes product reliability and is long-term oriented (Ismail, 2016;Kumar et al., 2011). Organizational structure is very decisive for the cultural components, barriers, internal and external factors as part of the success process of the organization's strategy (Moore, 2000;Wei & Lau, 2010).

Research Methods
This research uses a descriptive-based qualitative approach. The data collection process uses interview techniques to gather information about strategies to build employee productivity. The object of the research is one of the start-ups engaged in digital career development platforms. The interview is a tool used in research to obtain strategic, accurate, and scientifically accountable information (Sekaran, 2011). The results of the interviews will be analyzed descriptively in accordance with the facts and perspectives of researchers related to employee productivity problems. The output of this research is the employee productivity model that has been implemented by the company in achieving business sustainability. The leadership role required is how to increase employee productivity so that company achievements can be maximally achieved.
The interview process will explore the role of leadership in increasing employee productivity. The source of the informant is an employee who occupies a managerial level and is able to provide comprehensive information according to research needs. The number of informants is 1 person and is sufficient to represent the information needed by the role of the leader to increase employee productivity. The interview process uses structured questions. The questions asked include leadership style, training program needs, organizational strategy implementation function, job coordination, accommodative reward system for employees, and competency-based employee placement. All of these questions will provide an overview of the role of leadership and efforts to increase employee productivity that apply to a business organization.

Results and Discussion
The results of the interview show the role of leadership in pursuing employee productivity. The first question that is given is the leadership style used in communication to employees. The informant explained that the accommodative leadership style is more suitable to provide effective communication to employees. The results of the interview show that the company considers employees to be company assets. The factors that affect productivity are leadership style, internal branding, work-life balance, and work environment. These four components will affect employee productivity (Bhatti & Qureshi, 2007;Muayyad & Gawi, 2017;Patterson et al., 2004). The implication is that employees will feel comfortable and be able to work optimally. The results of this study illustrate that organizational strategy has a vital role in planning execution and achieving business targets.
The informant explained that the important role in the leadership style was very effective in increasing employee productivity. This correlates with the function of the leader in formulating organizational strategies and executing them by employees. The leadership style is adapted to the various situations faced by the leader. The informants also emphasized that the role of leaders is very important in improving business quality through employee productivity. The leadership style will have an important role in employee productivity (Akpoviroro et al., 2018;Parker et al., 2015). Interviews were directed at how the leadership role carried out was able to maximize employee skills, knowledge and capabilities. Companies benefit from the fact that all levels of leadership are still millennial and the spirit of advancing business innovation is very high. Leaders function very well to maintain a conducive work environment which has implications for employee productivity (Massoudi & Hamdi, 2017;Politis, 2005;Way et al., 2019). Leaders are able to maintain employee motivation in achieving job targets (Maduka & Okafor, 2014;Srivastava & Barmola, 2011). Cultural diversity is used as a great strength by company leaders to form a solid work team, unique competencies, and cohesiveness in achieving job targets (Hanaysha, 2016;Hannah et al., 2011;Tohidi, 2011). The leadership function can be carried out optimally through strong consolidation, full commitment to advancing the company, and consistency in high-risk decisions.
In the interview process, the informant explained that every month the leader coordinates the job duties and functions. This is done to ensure that employees understand their work and make innovations in achieving their performance. This company has employees who are reliable and full of innovation. Every year, it always provides training according to the skill needs desired in each work unit. The application of working hours is built to balance emotions and stress so that employees are prime in carrying out the work process. In digital platform-based companies, work flexibility is applied. During the Covid-19 period, employees were allowed to do work from home. The application of company and co-workers bonding programs such as holiday celebrations and staycations is given to employees through company policy. Freedom in using work uniforms with basic professional values, openness and diversity of employees. This aims to increase the flexibility and stability of the work atmosphere.
The informant explained that the leader builds a reward system that is accommodating to employee productivity. The reward system is made more competitive to give performance appreciation to employees. Leaders understand that the success of an organization is not only a reward system, but building a productive work culture. Building a productive culture is the company's main challenge (Ebadollah, 2011). Explanation through interviews explained that the company is very open to the ideas and creativity generated by its employees. Every manager must direct all employees to be able to understand the job description, work culture, and business competition faced by the company. This explains that the organizational strategy to build productivity is influenced by leadership style, motivation, the external environment of the organization, and education in position (Kamuli, 2012). Job training, physical work environment and motivation have a significant effect on work productivity. Motivation stability is a variable that has a dominant effect on work productivity. The company emphasizes that motivation will be assessed through financial and non-financial aspects according to the company's capabilities.
The informant explained that the employee placement process was carried out in accordance with the competence and talent of the job. The employee placement process will be carried out according to the recommendation from the manager level. The company will discuss with the leadership about the needs of employees. However, there are still deficiencies in the formulation of employee needs and recruitment strategies. Employee placement will be endeavored according to the work unit's needs and expertise (Parrotta & Pozzoli, 2012). The indicators used are problem solving skills and leadership styles if there is a promotion such as managerial or director level. Appreciation for the title of the best employee is given to the achievement of better work targets than other units. The company provides bonuses and salary increases to maintain employee loyalty to the company. This is part of an effort to retain long-term employees and has a major impact on the company's business performance (Sheridan, 1992;Terera & Ngirande, 2014). The implementation of respecting employee contributions is an organizational culture practice that has a long-term perspective of investing in human resources (Kumar et al., 2011). The results of interviews with resource persons show the effectiveness of strategies to increase productivity with a balance of management's appreciation of employee performance.
Each employee is given an explanation of the job duties, including descriptions, obligations, targets, and performance indicators. Knowledge related to job descriptions is very important in carrying out a job function (Leon Rohr, 2016;Rust et al., 2005). This is complemented by a training program every year to anticipate market needs and business innovation. Business digitization must be carried out with full uncertainty, business change and high risk (Syauqi, 2016). This has been anticipated by creating a productivitybased performance system so as to be able to provide comprehensive justice.

Recommendation
Employee productivity at this start-up company is influenced by clarity of leadership functions, accuracy of competency-based employee placement, consistency of training programs, effectiveness of organizational strategy implementation, clarity of job description directions to employees, and a fair reward system based on contributions. All of these dimensions have been exercised through proper leadership functions (Du et al., 2013;Reiche et al., 2016). A strategic model for increasing employee productivity through the leadership function is shown in Figure 1.  Figure 1 shows that the leadership function is very important in increasing employee productivity. The leadership function is described through a clear and precise position structure. Qualifications and job specifications are precisely formulated according to the company's business needs. Consistency of training programs to fill skill gaps that employees do not have. This is very good for maintaining employee stability. The effectiveness of the organization's strategy implementation through the coordination and delegation functions assigned by the leader. Companies should not forget that one of the business successes is through strategic leadership and being able to take advantage of every market opportunity. Every employee must always be given directions in every procedure, job description, and workload. Employees will understand what will be done and have the initiative to generate new business ideas. This is complemented by an appropriate reward system and the correct placement of employee positions according to competence. The business process will run effectively and efficiently. Employee productivity stability can be maintained properly and is able to achieve the business targets expected by the organization.

Conclusion
Leadership roles are very important in increasing employee productivity. The results of this study are able to provide an overview of how to increase employee productivity through strategic leadership. The limitation of this study is the focus on how the leadership functions in improving employee productivity. This aims to further elaborate on what has been done to improve employee productivity. Business processes can run well through proper, effective and efficient leadership. This study provides a model for increasing employee productivity through leadership roles that are carried out professionally and responsibly. This start-up is able to provide a perspective regarding what components must be carried out to maintain employee productivity stability.
Research can be continued through different approaches including statistical quantitative and comparative analysis with similar companies.
Six components serve as models for increasing employee productivity. Implementation is carried out consistently to maintain performance stability and morale. The results of this study concluded that employee productivity greatly determines the sustainability of the company's business. This can be measured quantitatively through the company's profitability ratio and the existence of market competition. Employee productivity will determine the company's success in achieving performance both individually and in work teams. Therefore, this should be a serious concern for the company to always maintain the stability of employee productivity.