Work Productivity Tips: Get More Done In Less Time

Whether it’s growth, revenue or efficiency, success in the workplace always comes back to the same factor: how productive is the company’s workforce. As productivity begins to falter, it brings everything else down with it.

It follows, therefore, that both management teams and employees alike should endeavor to maximize productivity in the workplace.

Knowing exactly how to go about doing that is the tricky part, which is why in this article, we’ll be covering some top tips on keeping productivity high in the office.

Productivity in the Workplace Defined

At its most basic form, productivity is the amount of value a person can provide within the time that they’ve been given. Employee productivity, sometimes referred to as workforce productivity, is a measurement of the efficiency of an individual or a group of workers.

Productivity can be evaluated by different means, such as the specific output of an employee over a fixed period of time. One writer may be able to produce three pages of high-quality content per hour, for example, whilst another, less productive writer might only be capable of completing two.

The precise definition of employee productivity will vary based upon the type of work being referenced. Ultimately, it all comes down to one thing: how much work can a person produce in the time that they have?

How to Calculate Productivity

In essence, productivity can be calculated by taking the amount of value provided by an employee or team and dividing that by the time or cost required to generate it.

If an employee generated 75 sales over the course of 50 hours, for example, a manager should divide 75 by 50 to reach 1.5. That number can then be used as an arbritrary unit with which to measure said employee’s productivity rating against others’.

Tracking data can get messy and disorganized pretty quickly. Thankfully, spreadsheets, email systems and databases have made it easier for management teams to calculate productivity ratings en masse.

By keeping a record of the number of hours employees to take to produce the desired amount of value, management teams can more easily assess and evaluate workplace productivity whilst making necessary changes.

Productivity Statistics in the Workplace

Although the rapid evolution of technology in recent years has made it easier for employers to track productivity in the workplace, overall labor productivity has only actually increased by around 1-2% in the US.

Furthermore, 51% of the workforce aren’t engaged in their jobs. Disengaged employees are costing organizations between $450 and $500 billion annually.

Part of the reason for this might be because workers are repeatedly being interrupted mid-flow. At the University of California, researcher Gloria Mark found that workers are disrupted every 3 minutes, after which it takes en estimated 23 minutes to regain focus on a particular task.

Clearly something is going wrong. If employees are to remain valuable assets to a company, it’s imperative that they’re assisted in producing focused work for every hour that they’re being paid for.

Having an awareness of the common causes for low productivity levels in the workspace is the first step towards making this happen.

Common Causes of Low Productivity at Work

There are a number of key reasons why productivity at work may suffer. Let’s take a look at some of them in depth.

No Big-Picture View

In order for an employee to feel valued and important to a company, they need to know that their hard work is contributing towards something. They need to feel important.

To do this, companies can start practicing identifying components called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs serve the purpose of evaluating success in each employee’s position, showing team members how their piece of the puzzle fits into the bigger picture.

Establishing a set of quantifiable and specific KPIs and introducing them to employees can help to keep workers motivated. By making it known that they, too, play a pivotal role in the growth and development of the company, they’ll be more motivated to work hard.

Poor Supervision

Sometimes the root cause of low productivity isn’t in the employees themselves, but in their supervisors. Left unsupervised, employees can quickly fall off track and become complacent with their responsibilities.

Actually identifying poor supervisors, however, can be tricky, since employees are unlikely to make complaints about such issues. Questionnaires, surveys and employee reviews are all subtle and easy ways to collect information without forcing anybody to point the finger at their underperforming colleagues.

Lack of Communication

Effective communication in the workplace is crucial to employee productivity, as well as the overall success of a company. Communication is, however, a two-way street. Not only do you need to communicate with employees, but they should also be provided with opportunities to share their queries, concerns and ideas with you.

Your employees should know the ins and outs of your business: the who, what, where, why and how. If they know your company’s goals, they’ll be more inclined to connect with them and strive to make them a reality, as well as letting you know if anything is bothering them.

Inconsistency

If a team of workers or individual employees repeatedly change their direction and the tasks they’re working on, productivity becomes increasingly difficult to maintain. It’s very hard to do a good job if things are always being shifted around and altered.

If the rules are constantly changing, employees are also more likely to become distracted and give up on the tasks they’ve been assigned.

Instead of constantly moving the goalposts and confusing your staff, be sure to maintain consistency. Some ways to do this are by monitoring KPIs, setting clear and well-defined objectives and allowing employees to complete the jobs they’ve been given before asking them to move on.

Outdated or Inadequate Technology

Technology changes quickly. Software, hardware and online tools are endlessly evolving to make things easier for employees and managers. If your employees are being forced to make do with outdated tech, their productivity levels are going to drop and they’ll spend far more time navigating ancient office software than actually working.

It makes sense, therefore, to opt for the best technology that your company can realistically afford. Asking employees what they’d need to be more effective and efficient at work can also help, allowing you to meet their needs and maximize job satisfaction.

How to Increase Productivity as a Manager

Low productivity levels, left unchecked, can be catastrophic for your business. Ensuring that your workforce remains engaged and on-task will maximize your return on investment, too, providing as much value as possible for the employment costs being paid.

It follows, therefore, that managers should attempt to increase workplace productivity as much as possible. But how?

Be Efficient

First and foremost, you should consider how your business is currently operating. What’s your workflow like? How do you manage clients? Who has been given what responsibilities and why?

Efficiency depends upon how well each person is handling their own responsibilities. It’s also equally as important to have both short-term and long-term goals in mind, as these will determine how your workforce operates on a daily basis as well as the direction they’re moving towards.

Ask yourself: are things being managed as effectively as possible? Could anything be improved? By providing each member of staff with an accurate, detailed plan you can rest assured knowing that everything is being taken care of.

Don’t be Afraid to Delegate

In any case, delegation always comes with a certain level of risk. Bestowing new responsibilities on unexpecting staff members could, of course, go wrong. Doing so, however, is critical to improving the flexibility of your employees and improving their overall performance in the workplace.

Delegating tasks to new employees gives them the opportunity to gain skills that they otherwise wouldn’t have. It’ll also benefit your company by providing your staff with a renewed sense of self-worth and achievement, reminding them of their importance as a part of the bigger company picture.

Minimize Workplace Distractions

As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest reasons for poor productivity is distraction. Whether it’s because of chatty colleagues, office disturbances or social media, interruptions to workflow can significantly impair overall efficiency in the workplace.

Instead, encourage employees to switch off mobile phones or keep them in lockers. Offer regular breaks and ensure to confront those that are causing distraction in the office.

Provide Appropriate Tools and Equipment

Your employees’ responsibilities are to work hard and efficiently within the time that they’re being paid for. If they aren’t provided with the right tools and equipment, however, they’ll be spending more time compensating and making do than actually working.

Furthermore, technology and high-quality computer program systems can make huge changes to the way employees work and are perceived. A Multi-Function Laser Printer (MFP), for instance, can work as a printer, scanner, copier and even a fax machine, making simple but time-consuming tasks more streamlined.

Make Use of Positive Reinforcement

One of the simplest ways to increase employee productivity is to let members of staff know when they’ve done a good job. This is called positive reinforcement.

Encourage, motivate and offer rewards to employees when they’ve earned them. More than that, you could even offer free incentives to exceptionally-productive workers, such as extra holiday time or free takeout coffee.

When an employee has worked well, make their success clear to them. If you can practice motivating employees to work harder and offer rewards for when they do so, they’ll be far more likely to put in greater effort and endeavor to provide more value to you.

Make Sure Your Employees Are Happy

One of the most important elements of productivity is happiness. If your workforce is miserable, they simply won’t want to invest their time into the growth of your company. Employees operating in highly-stressful environments are also more prone to disengagement and absenteeism.

By displaying appreciation to your employees and offering emotional support, making sure that every member of staff is happy in the workplace, they’ll be able to work to the best of their abilities.

How to Increase Productivity as an Employee

A manager can only do so much to impact the efficiency of their employees. There will always come a point after which the ball is in their staff’s court – so what exactly can employees do to improve their own productivity levels?

Arrange Tasks in Order of Importance

In any workplace, employees are responsible for completing numerous different tasks, each with varying deadlines and expectations. Logic might tell us to organize those tasks chronologically – in order of when they’re due to be completed. It makes far more sense, however, to order them based upon their importance.

Creating lists or using project management tools such as Asana or Trello can help to organize your tasks more effectively, allowing you to see clearly what needs to be done and when. Each day, arrange your tasks in terms of their importance and take care of the more essential duties first.

Focusing on just 3-4 essential responsibilities that require the most effort and completing these first can help to boost productivity as an employee by limiting procrastination, as well as ensuring that you have enough energy to continue with other tasks.

Consider Using the Pomodoro Method

One particular productivity approach has become increasingly popular in recent years. Named after the tomato-shaped timers one might find in their kitchen, the Pomodoro method involves completing work in 25-minute sessions before taking 5-minute breaks. After 4 sessions, a longer 15-minute break can be taken.

A typical Pomodoro program might look like this:

• Complete 25-minutes of continuous, focused work.
• Take a 5-minute break to get a drink, check emails or step outside.
• After completing 4 x 25-minute sessions, take a longer 15-minute break.
• Repeat.

By adopting this format, you’ll be giving yourself uninterrupted periods of time to focus, boosting your overall productivity levels and efficiency.

Organize Your Inbox

If there’s one thing that distracts employees from their work more than anything else, it’s the endless torrent of emails they’re having to deal with throughout their day. The average employee spends a striking 13-hours every single week taking care of emails.

Simply organizing your inbox can help to dramatically increase your efficiency by minimizing distraction. Tools like unroll.me allow you to unsubscribe from mailing lists and easily clear out any junk. Assigning blocks of time throughout your day specifically to answering emails will also ensure that you can complete focused work without distractions.

Establish a Work-Life Balance

Whilst important, work isn’t everything – and it certainly shouldn’t take up every minute of your time. It might seem counter-productive, but ensuring that you’re making time for relaxation as well as work can help you to work more efficiently in the office.

By figuring out exactly how many hours you’re spending at work and allocating time for doing the things you love will improve your in-office performance and reduce your risk of burnout. Take breaks during your day, enjoy hobbies outside of work and be sure to get enough sleep at night. That’s work-life balance.

How You Can Track Productivity Improvements

After implementing the above strategies, it’s important that you continue to track productivity levels in order to ascertain whether or not your efforts have led to any improvement.

Tracking productivity requires keeping an eye performance metrics. Monitoring these metrics will allow you to see exactly how things are changing. Once you know which methods are working best, you can double down on those and implement them throughout your company.

Measuring the productivity of an employee or team is actually quite simple.

1. Decide on the output you’re measuring – such as ‘jobs completed.’
2. Select a period of time to measure – one day, one month, one year.
3. Gather enough data over time to give you an average sample.
4. Input the number of hours your employee has spent working.
5. Divide that number by the time taken to reach that figure – such as 72 hours.
6. You’ll be left with a metric telling you how long that employee takes to complete x amount of work.

By collecting this information from your workforce as a whole before you start making changes in an attempt to increase productivity, you’ll be able to clearly see how your efforts are impacting your employees’ efficiency.

Be sure to track these metrics repeatedly over time. That way, you can continue to tweak and adjust things to provide the results you’re looking for.

The Crux of Success

Above all other factors, productivity is the crux of success in the workplace. No matter how much revenue is being earned, products are being sold or how many hours are being worked, unless each employee is working hard, everything else will falter.

Improving and tracking productivity doesn’t have to be difficult. With a few simple adjustments, managers and employees can rest assured knowing that they’re working efficiently, doing all they can to help their company to run smoothly.