Productivity is what drives business success in the long run. Unlike personal values and varying skill sets, productivity can be boosted in a simpler way. Much depends on the structure and the setting of the office, the choice of furniture and equipment, and the overall vibe.
Provide Intuitive Workspace Design
Interruptions are the major issues workers face. According to a study performed by the University of California, Irvine, workers are interrupted every 11 minutes and resume their work after 25 more minutes have passed. A simple calculation will leave us with stunning statistics (ca. 2 and a half hours are lost to interruption every day)!
Needless to say, the consequences of interruptions are significan. Not only precious time is lost, but workers also face burnout. Procedural errors are more frequent when workers are being interrupted; according to Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied, interruptions of just 2.8 seconds lead to twice the number of errors. Many workers have simply accepted interruptions as part of their job, but they don’t have to be.
E.g., intuitive workspace design can boost productivity and decrease interruptions to a minimum or even abolish them completely.
Simply put, it translates into a workspace that can be used easily. All amenities should be easily accessible so that the employees don’t have to leave their office to fetch what they need.
The first obvious example would be performance gadgets: telephones and printers, for example. Another important factor is — the quiet atmosphere. This is especially important when lots of telephoning is involved. If the office is crammed with people, it’s no good.
Next on, refreshments should be close by. Put a coffee/tea maker in the office and employees will only have to reach for it instead of interrupting their tasks to leave the office.
Finally, workspace digitalization has provided a number of alternatives. Process streamlining is gaining momentum, making everyday routine practices simpler.
Create Purpose
A joint study undertaken by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) and Rob Cross, Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Business at Babson College shows that purpose is the key factor of collaboration and, by extension, engagement.
According to Kevin Martin, Chief Research Officer, i4cp:
“The lack of incentives and rewards is the most common and powerful barrier to effective collaboration. Yet, most talent management systems are designed to reward individual achievement, not team accomplishments. Finding ways to recognize and reward individuals, leaders, and teams who engage in productive collaborative behaviors can pay off in a big way.”
In plain words, teams expect some reward for their efforts. The current practice that rewards individuals (e.g., managers or team leaders) is not likely to boost employee engagement. You can put it this way: a reward can be a purpose; over time, it will gradually evolve into something much larger and more rewarding: creativity and enthusiasm.
From the other angle, employees who don’t see a purpose in what they do will leave the company as soon as a better prospect arrives. This doesn’t suit either party: the company will have to invest resources (not to mention effort) to train new employees who will eventually leave and employees won’t be engaged or dedicated.
Offer Continual Learning
Offering stellar learning experiences is the right way to boost employee productivity. Nowadays, eLearning and mLearning have become a standard, and virtual instructors are becoming quite popular.
However, typical online courses are not always the best option. With AI changing the rules of the game, learning trends are also being affected.
E.g., gamification and AR are becoming more popular, so think about adding some of the two elements when creating an engaging training program.
Establish Field Service Best Practices
Managing jobs for your field service teams is possibly the biggest challenge, as fieldwork processes are changing rapidly thanks to the emergence of new tech.
While this is good news, it is also necessary to brainstorm the best approaches to training your teams. Burnout has become a common occurrence and the more complex the tool, the more demanding the training programs are.
Offering microlearning may prove a good approach, as it will keep employees engaged while educating them one step at a time.
Finally, it is crucial to change frontline management practices, as it has been shown that frontline workers have a bad relationship with the management due to the latter being undereducated in the matter of fieldwork.
Treat All Employees Equally
One good example of relative equality is seen in startups. Because they operate in tricky environments and ever-changing market conditions, they have no choice but to constantly adjust their approach and consider multiple different ideas.
For example, brainstorming is common. Every employee has their say and others work on perfecting the ideas. This kind of environment naturally makes people want to participate because they feel they’re truly part of the team. By extension, it also boosts creativity, which is — regardless of what life coaches and other dubious professionals may claim — something that cannot be mastered if your mindset is fixed.
Encourage Project Collaborations
Project collaborations have been shown to be capable of boosting employees’ overall performance. It is really not difficult to see how common goals can lead to enhanced engagement. When everyone feels like an integral part of the team and the company, everyone will share successes and try to mitigate failures.
This is another thing that’s common for startups.
While scientists explain this fact in professional terms, it’s only fair to say that everyone can understand how common goals can inspire participants to perform better.
It would seem that the days of the traditional business model are numbered, at least for companies aiming to survive the rapid changes brought forth by innovation and driven by technological progress. Even if traditional execs are not too happy about this prospect, they don’t have much choice in the matter.
This is good news for employee engagement because the traditional, usually rigid, approach often discourages many and deepens competition within teams.
Additionally, steer your team toward looking for visionary communities, which can be quite helpful in finding like-minded professionals and even mentors to help with making decisions and learning from challenging situations.
Measure Employee Engagement
Regularly measuring your employee engagement is a must. To that end, surveys and anonymous feedback are the best approach.
However, for the practice to be successful, your HR team will need to come up with the right questions. It is also important to measure employee engagement and growth, as well as regularly assess management practices.
Bearing in mind that workplace digitalization is changing perception alongside organizational processes, keep an open mind and keep polishing obsolete processes.
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