Employers have to give staff a workplace environment that maximizes productivity. However, this doesn’t come automatically. You need to provide an ideal environment to make your staff more productive. This is very important especially to make businesses survive the stiff competition. Here are employer habits that might be killing your staff productivity:
Unnecessary meetings
Large companies require staff to attend meetings. However, holding too many meetings kills office productivity. Too many meetings are a major source of lost productivity in many offices. Employers might have mid-level executives spending almost half of their overall working hours attending meetings. This is a waste of staff productivity regardless of position. One way to enhance productivity is to encourage teleconferencing so workers can attend meetings remotely without spending time to come to the office.
Not upgrading office equipment
Office furniture and equipment is always changing. Regardless of the size of the business, replacing office equipment is inevitable in various circumstances. Keep in mind that equipment and furniture don’t last forever. These degrade over time making them less effective. Office chairs with broken caster don’t roll smoothly. Additionally, desks with finicky drawers are a struggle to open. All these kill staff productivity for requiring more time to operate and require more force to operate them.
Taking the plunge to purchase office furniture in Singapore to replace broken or old pieces is a worthwhile investment. This requires replacing file cabinets, desks, chairs, and other equipment that has reached usable life. Upgraded office furniture and equipment optimizes productivity. This is because modern furniture is more ergonomic and lessens the chances of workers calling in sick with neck and back pain.
Not encouraging breaks
Employees need to take regular breaks while handling tasks in the workplace. Working nonstop is bad for office productivity contrary to popular thought. Regardless of how many cups of coffee employees keep taking, these are eventually going to end up physically and mentally fatigued. This is going to manifest through lower productivity. Ensure to encourage staff to take regular breaks to allow the mind to reset and feeling more refreshed.
Allowing sitting all-day
Just like taking regular breaks, your employees should be discouraged from sitting for an extended period. Encourage your staff to stand up while working and to take walks around regularly. Sitting for an extended period encourages muscle tension. When sitting, muscles become tense from the chronically constricted state to make staff feel fatigued.
Walking around and standing up makes staff more productive. This allows stretching the legs and relaxing the muscles. One way to encourage standing up is to avail adjustable desks to employees for a chance to work while sitting or standing where necessary. Additionally, encourage staff to stand and walk around after working for about half an hour.
Encouraging multitasking
Making employees handle more than one task might seem like a very effective solution to boosting office productivity. However, the results are far from positive. The human brain works better when focusing on a single task at a given moment. When exposed to various tasks, the brain is less likely to process them leading to a decrease in productivity. Workers who multitask perform 40 percent less than those who handle a single task. Avoid making staff multitask to encourage productivity while handling a task before moving to the next one.
Not offering breakfast
Breakfast gives the body calories and nutrients to function properly making it the most important daily meal. Not offering staff breakfast is detrimental to office productivity. The brain is powered by glucose. Having breakfast offers calories from fat, protein, or carbohydrates for the body to convert into glucose.
Failure to access appropriate glucose from breakfast slows down the brain. Skipping breakfast causes a sudden reduction in office productivity. Give your employees the appropriate time to have breakfast before coming to the office. Alternatively, offer breakfast in your office. This should include fresh fruit, toast, and eggs to avail glucose to the employee’s brains for productivity.
Cluttered office
Work-related stress hinders productivity. Exposing workers to stress impacts their physical and mental health. So, managing stress by eliminating things that might stress staff kills office productivity. A cluttered office compromises availability of space in your office. This encourages staff wrangles and office politics. These promote unhealthy relationships in the office leading to stress. Other ways how a cluttered office limits office productivity include:
- Being distractive
- Inhibiting productivity
- Causing immense stress
- Slowing employees down
A cluttered office looks stagnant to staff, new talent, customers. Current employees and new talent love working in workplaces that match their needs. This allows optimizing their skills to enhance office productivity.
Bottom line
It is very important not to let bad habits limit your staff from working efficiently. Regardless of whether it is keeping outdated furniture and not encouraging movement, all limit office productivity. Replacing office furniture including adjustable desks is a great way to give your staff an ideal workplace that encourages productivity.
