Every business knows how important employees are for an organisation. They also know how important productivity is in the workplace. Increased productivity will benefit everyone in the organisation. In a 24 hour day, people spend 8-9 hours at the workplace. With this much time on hands, it is important to take most of this time, with proper planning your organisation can achieve it.
Being productive is not something hard, but it is hard for a few because they clearly lack in managing their time well. Most of the organisations think that employees spend too much of their time walking, chatting around the office hours. If you keep track of every single thing your employees are doing and micromanage every single detail, then it will do you no good. Organisations must remember that it is not the no.of hours they’re working, it is about the work they’re getting done during those hours.
Not every employee of yours has the same working habits, so it is unfair to judge them based on that. Following a common approach for all your employees is most likely going to fail. Identifying a different effective method for each of your employees is a better solution. This way you will create a healthy workplace environment and all your employees will reach their goals easily and increase the productivity of your organisation.
The key to this is understanding your employees. Not only physical health, but you must also understand the importance of your employee’s mental health too. You must create a happy and healthy environment in your workplace. Invest in the well-being service and stress management to make sure that your workforce is mentally recharged. If they’re happy inside out, their desire to come to work increases and automatically the productivity also increases.
Here a few effective ways to improve workplace productivity
Stop micromanaging
Micromanaging will do your organisation no good. It has been a practice for a long time it can be quite hard for managers to suddenly get rid of it. You can dial it down by a few notches. You need to trust your employees. Let your employees take control of their work. It doesn’t mean that you have to completely wash your hands of the project. Keep a track of the work and what they’re doing but don’t make it completely your job. With all your saved energy you can focus on other important tasks and contribute to increasing the productivity of your organization.
Self-imposed deadlines
Understandably, most people face stress at the workplace because of the deadlines. Things only get worse with unrealistic deadlines. They increase stress and make it quite hard for people to give their best. Not only that it will also have an adverse effect on your employee’s mental health. However, if those deadlines are self-imposed then the tables will turn. Everybody understands their capacity, so these self-imposed deadlines will help them manage their work better whilst improving their focus and helping them reach their goals easily. So one important thing is that when the employees set a deadline tell them that they must stick to it too. This way they can take it more seriously. You will be surely surprised by the results when you see how focused and productive your employees will be.
Say no to meetings
Meetings are a big “NO”. Unknowingly you end up spending a lot of time in the meeting. All the time you’re team is spending in a meeting is unproductive. You must be thinking, how are meetings unproductive, when you brainstorm and come up with new ideas? Here’s the catch, do you think all your employees are equally interested and invested in a meeting? No, in a meeting room there will be at least 2- 3 people who will definitely take any interest in the content of the meeting. One reason for this could be that one person takes why the rest listen. Although most people have any idea how impractical these long meetings are people still conduct them and the rest attend them. If you want to increase the productivity of your organisation then stop conducting meaningless meetings because no one is benefitting from them. If you’re wondering then how can you get updates about the project and its progress? No need to worry, conduct standing meetings. Standing meetings are more effective, they improve the team performance, decrease territoriality and drastically reduce the time of the meetings meaning your team will come up with ideas pretty quick.
Multitasking is not always right
Not all people have the forte to multitask. It is something as an employer that you should understand. Giving too many tasks to one person can not only put them under stress the quality of their work will also deteriorate over time. Understand the capabilities of your employees and give them responsibilities and tasks based on that. It necessarily doesn’t mean that multitasking will improve productivity. What is the point of getting multiple tasks done within the deadline if neither of them is up to the mark? So instead of putting energy on two projects, it is better to concentrate on one task and finishing it perfectly. However, some people can breeze through multi-tasking. So if you have such people in your team then assign them with multiple responsibilities. But before assigning, have a word with them and ask them whether they can handle it. Give them additional responsibilities only if they’re okay with it.
Exercise breaks
Yup, Exercise breaks are highly important for any organisation. If you care about your employee’s wellbeing then make sure you allocate time for the exercise during the working hours. Exercise breaks help in improving productivity. It gives them some time off from work. Not only that the employees are stuck exercising gives them peace and they can come up with new ideas to tackle the issues that are bothering them. Most importantly it will have a good effect on both their physical and mental health. You can set up a gym in your workplace so that your team can access whenever they please. Agree or not, when a person is healthy and happy, they enjoy the work and work with double the vigour.
Support remote working
Remote working is more effective than more people give it credit for. Studies show that employees who work remotely are happier, put in extra hours and take less sick leaves. Not only that they are more creative in terms of work, perform better and are more engaging. Remote working saves cost for both you and your employees. They don’t have to spend hours stuck in the traffic and start their work in a crappy mood. The more pleasant morning will improve the mood and as mentioned above when they’re happy they will put more effort into work. More companies are catching up and are realizing the benefits of remote working. You can support remote working but providing your employees monthly four remote working options or twice a week remote working options. Implement this strategy and see how drastically the productivity increases.
Bottom line
There are many ways to improve the productivity of your workplace. Above mentioned strategies are just tip of the iceberg there is more to explore and implement. No two workplaces are similar, so understand your employees and then come up with strategies that will lend you a helping hand in improving productivity. However, one important thing that every organisation should take seriously is creating a healthy and happy workplace environment. Remember the environment of your workplace will bring in more promising talent to your company in the future. The environment of a workplace has a direct effect on employees productivity. So make sure that your organisation’s environment gives them space to grow and improve them constantly.