Employers and employees want to be productive in the workplace. Imagine going home and proudly telling yourself that you deserve a good night’s rest after a satisfying rush of accomplishment from being productive; it’s every hard worker’s dream.
But for most employees to be productive in the workplace, they have to weed out bad habits that could interfere with the workplace’s productivity. However, many workplaces refuse to place some work on their employees and their environment to maximize productivity.
Fortunately, you don’t necessarily have to spend a fortune to maximize your working environment’s productivity. Here are some tried and tested solutions to get everyone up to working speed.
Eliminating Distractions
First and most importantly, the best way of optimizing your workplace for the best productivity is by eliminating any distractions that might affect workflow. Distractions can come in any form, which includes notifications from phones, noise pollution, unnecessary communication, and in some cases, office gossip.
Not only do distractions take valuable time off the hands of people that should be working, but this can complicate seemingly simple and easy tasks that could have been done in just an hour or two. This is especially true when it comes to professions that require a high degree of concentration; one simple distraction could detail a whole train of thought.
Suppose you’re planning on removing any form of distraction in the workplace. In that case, you can start by introducing rules and policies that can minimize office gossip, trivial conversations that can be done during breaks. Muffling sounds coming from different parts of the building. In most cases, businesses will install walls that can help isolate noise from heavy industrial machinery or keep conversations private.
Some companies limit access to certain applications and sites that workers will only have access to. In fact, studies have shown that 32% of office workers would spend their time on social media platforms rather than working. That said, you might want to block or restrict access to social media.
Keeping the Workplace Clean
About the previous section, one of the best ways to increase the focus on employees and workers is by ensuring that the workplace is in an orderly condition conducive to work. Recent studies have shown that the working environment and productivity are intertwined.
Let’s face it: nobody wants to work in a messy office that’s an eyesore. Although many might think that cleaning the working environment might seem like an easy task, it can get quite complicated in the workplace. Many employees (and customers) are actively zooming out of the workplace throughout the majority of the day. Dust, allergens, and trash can be left on the crevices of workstations and surfaces. Although it might seem like a mild annoyance at first, this can cause health infections, which can affect the general state of the business’s workflow.
Fortunately, many commercial property cleaning services can help maximize the cleanliness of the workplace. Not only will these professional cleaners keep every single aspect of your workplace squeaky clean, but they’re also known for removing any form of biological pollutants that could affect the health of workers. One can’t be too sure about their health and well-being during these trying times.
Incentivizing Workers
One of the best ways of optimizing productivity in the workplace is by incentivizing and rewarding employees who go above and beyond their calling to get work done. If someone in the workplace produces more than what’s expected, you can announce to the rest of the workforce the achievements that person has made.
Still, you’ll need to make sure that a proper reward and “scoring” system is in place so that everyone is fairly compensated for their hard work. Not only does this help motivate workers to work harder and more efficiently, but this can help increase the engagement and retention rate of employees.
Focusing on Each Task
Lastly, there’s a common notion that multitasking is one of the best ways of finishing work. After all, why finish just one task when you can finish multiple tasks all at once? But contrary to what most people believe in, multitasking has been known for killing the productivity of most workers. Although there’s no problem with multitasking now and then to help finish urgent tasks, research has shown that productivity is essentially reduced by around 40% when workers keep on switching tasks.
In certain situations, it’s also known that multitasking could drastically affect a person’s attention span. Besides lowering the brain’s ability to concentrate and make comprehensive decisions, it’s also known for physically harming the brain. Moreover, nobody wants to be too stressed out from doing too many tasks.
Instead of multitasking, one of the best ways of getting work down is focusing down on each task. This is especially important for individuals that have to create content since this can affect the quality of work that needs to be done.
As you can see, there are a variety of ways to maximize productivity in the workplace. Whether it’s incentivizing employees, removing any form of distraction, making them focus on just one task, or simply cleaning the workplace, these are great ways of ensuring that employees are performing within optimal levels. Still, it’s important to keep in mind that every person will have their own working pace. If you want to get things done, it’s best to leave people to what they’re familiar with.