Have you noticed that many of your employees often seem off-task or their project turn-out is low? Do you find them chatting more with their colleagues than doing their work? Chances are, this is the case for many of your employees and it may be affecting your business. Although there are many factors affecting workplace productivity, there are also hundreds of solutions. Identifying the issues and fixing them is the first step to improving your office’s productivity!
Utilize Technological Improvements
As technology improves, thousands of different options and alternatives for office systems have been created. Use these to your advantage. Instead of in-person meetings, utilize software such as Zoom or Google Meet. This way, your employees don’t have to block out a certain time in their schedule just to stop working. They can still stay on-task while tuning in and listening. Another way to improve your office’s productivity through technology is to use services like managed print services. Services like these are some of the best things to add into the office; they help eliminate any IT issues and overall confusion.
Organize
One of the best things that you can do to increase productivity and the overall office environment is to organize. Help your employees organize their office space by giving them more cabinets or organizer bins. Add extra storage items into shared office spaces such as copy rooms and break rooms. Put away and hide extra cords, appliances, and any other unnecessary items. Having an organized office space can help reduce stress on your employees and help their productivity improve.
Limit Non-Work Related Tech Usage
The biggest issue with your office’s productivity is probably the amount of electronic distractions present. Chances are, you constantly see your employees on their phones instead of doing their work. Although it is nice to take a break sometimes, constantly being on the phone and distracted should not be tolerated in the workplace. One of the easiest ways to improve this is to incentivize lack of phone usage. For example, the more work that your employee completes periodically, the more their pay should raise. In addition to this, they should also get a bonus. You could also turn phone usage into a challenge between colleagues by encouraging everyone to stop being on their phone in turn for some sort of reward (catered lunch, longer lunch break, etc.). If all else fails, talk to those that are constantly distracted by their phones or other electronics. Let them know how it is affecting the business and demand that things must get better. By finding a way to eliminate distractions in the workplace, you will be able to increase your office’s productivity easily.
Schedule
Do you notice that your employees don’t have a lot to do some days but are overwhelmed by others? Sit down as the business owner and go over the office’s tasks. Is there anything that you can do to fill in the time between tasks on slow days or could you add more tasks to your employees workload? Create a Monday through Friday schedule for your employees and start planning everything out. Work any meetings that you may want to have around tasks that must be done. Be mindful of how long it takes some of your employees to work and add in necessary break times to allow your employees to eat and use the restroom. If possible, don’t over-schedule, but rather under-schedule in case new things come up later in the week.
Give Down-Time
When trying to improve your office’s productivity, make sure that you allow your employees to have many breaks. Consider providing longer lunch breaks, periodic restroom breaks, and short “brain breaks”, which only have to be five minutes or so. Give everyone time to reset between tasks and to relax, even for just a couple of minutes. Adding in down-time for your employees can help your employees feel more motivated to get their work done and even cause them to get their work done faster. Although it may seem backwards, adding in breaks for your employees can help them increase their overall productivity.
Build Relationships
As the boss of your office, you are the person that everyone looks to for direction. In addition to this, you are also the person that many of your employees look to as an example. This means that you must put out the same quality and speed of work that you expect from your employees. By doing this, you are setting a standard for your company and everyone will follow your directions.
While being a role model for your employees is important, you should also strive to become a friend to your employees. Build relationships with your employees and praise their work; They will soon start to be more open with you about their assignments and start coming to you for advice about their work. Although it may seem strange to be viewed as just another one of your employees’ colleagues, it has been proven that the more comfortable employees are with their boss, the better their work is.
Incentivize
One of the easiest ways to increase your office’s productivity is to start incentivizing their work. Start keeping track of who turns over the most assignments and completes the most work, and take some of the top employees out to eat for lunch. Or, if your office reaches a major milestone, provide food or throw a party at your next company meeting.If you’re looking for more affordable options, consider hosting a weekly food truck on the premises of your office and allow your employees to grab lunch and congregate for a while. This way, you don’t have to spend anything outright, you just lose your employees for an hour.
If you’re looking for an easy way to incentivize, start giving small bonuses to employees that do the best. Give small gift cards, bonus checks, or even a pay raise and your employees will start to feel extremely motivated. They will all work to become the best and to receive benefits, thus improving your office’s productivity.
