Productivity increases and decreases depending on daily habits and with a few simple tips and tricks, you can improve efficiency in your workplace. Check out 10 simple suggestions for increasing worker efficiency below!
1. Track how employees spend their time to improve productivity.
Although employees often feel like they have a pretty good routine that keeps them productive, the truth is there are plenty of regular habits everyone engages in that affect productivity at work. Monitor when your employees clock in and out and be aware of how long they’re taking for lunch. Unrubble.com is a popular choice for time tracking, as it gives you a clear idea of how your employees are managing their time. Help employees plan their work schedules and manage sick leave with a few simple clicks. When you have the facts, you can improve productivity by adjusting routine and habits.
2. Encourage breaks that incorporate exercise, like walking around the block.
When you need employees to get more work done, they will require a significant amount of focus. Taking a break to do something physical can help clear their minds and encourage them to be more productive. Exercise increases heart rate, which helps to oxygenate the brain. Although encouraging breaks may seem counterproductive, completing a physical activity can help employees recharge their brains to handle the task at hand once they sit back down to turn their attention to work.
3. Encourage the use of helpful tools when writing emails and presentations, like Grammarly.
We’ve all received an email that lacks clarity and then creates a needless back and forth exchange to better understand each other. However, tools like Grammarly – which has a free version – can help productivity increase by keeping your team’s writing free from grammatical errors. It’s like having a built-in assistant that helps your team improve productivity by making written communication flow more easily.
4. Identify priority items for the day.
When your employees get to work and have a mountain of emails to sift through, it can create overwhelm that destabilizes their routine. However, by informing employees which tasks should be prioritized, your staff can better direct their focus. Highlight tasks that absolutely must be finished that day and let employees know what items on their to-do list can wait. This way, you are making the best use of their time on a regular basis and getting high-priority items out of the way first. By providing employees with simple directions, you’re sure to see productivity increase.
5. Make setting reminders a standard process.
There is no excuse not to set reminders – human memory can be fickle and without using at least one of the many tools available on phones, laptops, and desktops, employees are likely cutting their own productivity short. For them to be more productive, mandate the use of calendar reminders on Outlook or on phone calendars to help keep track of client calls, deadlines, and meetings. Employees can even use these tools to remind themselves to dedicate the last two hours of work to a specific task. It’s easy to lose track of time but with reminders, employees are sure to stay on track.
6. Avoid providing foods and snacks that cause sugar crashes.
Although it’s probably tempting to provide a host of sugar-ridden soft drinks along with candies for snack time, these foods are sure to cause a crash within a few hours, killing productivity as the day wears on. To combat the consequences of sweets, stock your snack pantry with healthy options that give employees energy, like trail mixes, veggie assortments, and fruit. Keep health in mind during lunch also and try to avoid providing carb-heavy meals, like pizza, that will leave employees wanting to take a nap on the couch. Opt for energizing salads instead of French fries and notice how big of an impact these small shifts make on worker productivity.
7. Encourage employees to batch work tasks.
When your staff consistently switches from one task to another unrelated task, they diminish their productivity by interrupting their own focus. Instead, have them try batching work. Have them focus on one topic at a time and block out several hours or a specific day to stay focused. For example, instead of checking email continuously throughout the day, have them batch email replies for the first hour of the morning and the last hour of the day.
8. Encourage employees to silence their phones.
This is a big one! When employees hear their phones ding or vibrate constantly throughout the day, focus gets interrupted, causing the mind to wander. Even if they don’t check their phones that second, their minds have already been impacted. Keeping phones on silent and working in 90-minute increments helps staff stay focused. After 90 minutes, they can go ahead and check messages to discover any priority items before turning their attention back to work. Encourage all to keep phones on silent (and yes, face down!).
9. Re-evaluate the importance of regularly scheduled team meetings.
Sometimes, meetings are held simply because they have become habitual. But oftentimes, regularly scheduled meetings don’t increase productivity and can even hinder it. If the agenda is not critical and doesn’t require all hands on-deck, a meeting may actually be counterproductive. Unless every minute of a meeting is being carefully utilized to provide instruction, brainstorm, or collaborate on a specific project, it may be best to cancel.
10. Try work-from-home days.
Sometimes, having a quiet space to retreat to at home instead of listening to the background noise of ringing phones, typing fingers, and co-worker’s conversations can really help spike productivity. There’s nothing quite like settling into your desk or couch with your laptop and a hot cup of tea or coffee within your own environment to get your creative juices flowing.
We hope this list of employee productivity tips has provided you with the inspiration you’re looking for to create better efficiency in your workplace. Which one will you try first?
