Productivity matters because your business is paying out to get things done. You pay for things like rent, utilities, wages, and resources and if you aren’t doing as much as you can with these, you are wasting money. Something that isn’t going to be great for your business’s success in the long term. That is why it’s important to address any issue with productivity in your company, a topic that you can read more about below.
A bad environment
Surprisingly, it’s often not the tasks that you are asking your employees to do or the nature of the work that creates the most significant blocks to productivity. It can be the environment that they are working in.
In particular, several types of workspaces will nearly always hurt productivity levels, and the last one may shock you!
First of all, an environment in which employees feel unsafe is bound to affect motivation and productivity, and in the worst-case scenario, it can lead to a feeling of resentment toward the employer that can cause an unbridgeable rift. To that end, it’s crucial that you not only do the minimum that the law requires regarding health and safety in your company, but also show your workers that you have a genuine interest in their positive well-being as well.
Next, a dark, windowless, and stuffy environment can also hurt productivity in the workplace. After all, it is hard to stay entirely awake and work at an optimum level in such a space.
Of course, installing windows and providing access to outside air is not always something that is possible, but alternatives can usually be found. These may include installing lights that behave more like natural daylight, painting walls white to reflect the light, and even installing air conditioning systems.
Lastly, and perhaps most shockingly for office-based businesses, as https://m.signalvnoise.com states, an open-plan office can negatively affect productivity. Now, this is a pretty controversial statement, especially as so many offices use this type of layout already. However, it is worth considering changing this if it could provide a significant improvement in how much work gets done.
The problem with open-plan offices is two-fold. First, they can seem overwhelming to those who are more introverted, private or have ADHD or anxiety. There can be so much going on in one space that it can make it incredibly difficult for some people to concentrate properly and do their best work.
Then there is the issue with communication and privacy. It can be challenging to deal with a sensitive problem or even make a complaint if you have a large room packed with people who are potentially judging you. Something that can further degrade morale and make productivity dip.
To combat this, alternative styles of office space need to be considered. One solution may be to reintroduce cubicles, so people at least feel as if they have private space in which to relate. Alternatively, a more contemporary solution such as providing smaller hot-desking offices where places are not set, and combining this with the options for staff to work from home may be the answer. The latter is a topic you can get some details on at www.thriveglobal.com. The reason is that this is something that may help employees feel more in control and so push up productivity, while also saving your business money on overheads as well.
Could smaller offices with a hot-desking system be a better option for productivity?
Eat the frog mentality
One of the most iconic pieces of business productivity advice that has emerged over the last 10 years is the ‘eat the frog’ mentality. This is the concept, as discussed on www.briantracy.com site that if you can get the one thing that is hardest to do completed first each day, the rest will seem like plain sailing. Of course, it also means that there will be less of a productivity hold-up because difficult tasks will get addressed before anything else, so it sounds great, doesn’t it?
However, eating the frog may be entirely the wrong way to go about improving productivity within your company. This is because completing a troublesome, difficult, or boring task first before you have had the chance to warm up to the day can be hugely time-consuming and demoralizing. Thus creating a backlog of work, and a slower pace for the rest of the duration.
Instead, it is now recommended that you pick 2-3 small tasks that you can complete reasonably quickly, as you will get a sense of achievement and positivity from these that can be carried into everything else that you do in the day. Therefore boosting productivity overall.
Perfectionism vs. Completionist
You might think that having a team of perfectionists will raise the standard of work in your business, but you’d be dead wrong! Why? Well, it’s because perfection is an impossible goal and it can lead to hours and days of wasted time for minimal results.
The attitude that you need to encourage around your workplace is one of completionism. That is the idea that once an employee starts a task, they follow through and get it completed before moving on to another one.
OK, so that task may not have been completed perfectly, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have been done to a high level, as www.psychologytoday.com suggests, sometimes good enough is good enough. It means that your employees are free from the tyranny of perfection, which will allow them to complete and move on to the next task in a much more efficient manner, something that is the basic definition of improved productivity!
Inadequate equipment and services provision
Now they say that a bad workman always blames his tools, but §sometimes a good employee’s productivity can be let down by not having access to functional equipment or the service that they need.
Obviously, in roles such as production and manufacturing, this is far more obvious because when a worker doesn’t have the right tools to complete the task at hand, they have little choice but to sit and do nothing.
However, when it comes to office environments and tech, it may not always be so apparent. After all, smart employees will switch from a task on the computer when they can access the internet to doing something like paper filing instead.
However, this doesn’t mean that such an issue isn’t creating a lag in productivity and causing the most critical jobs to get missed. To that end, you must invest in internet provision from companies like www.suddenlink.com that can offer a reliable connection for multiple devices. Otherwise, you may experience substantial productivity issues that will cost your business significantly. Not sure how much internet speed you need? Internet Advisor can help you determine your internet speed needs.
The wrong focus
Lastly, employee focus is a huge factor that can affect productivity. First of all, distractions are never a good idea, and so limiting these whether it’s others making loud phone calls when quiet is required, having to swap between different tasks too often or even expecting people to continually check emails rather than get on with the job in hand.
Then there’s another way in which focus can negatively affect productivity in the day-to-day sense, and it’s when instead of being centred on the task at hand, employees are spending time thinking about the bigger picture.
Now it’s not that the big picture isn’t valuable as everyone needs to know how what they do has meaning regarding your company’s overall goals. However, if your employees’ focus is on this rather than their task, it can all too easily distract and demotivate them.
Therefore to combat this, it can be beneficial to use professional development reviews to acknowledge where their work fits into the bigger picture, as well as identify meaningful ways of moving forward that relate to their day-to-day tasks. Then your employees will know that everything they are doing has meaning without having to question it continually. Something that can help to boost their productivity, as well as their job satisfaction, and motivation and lead to greater business success.