Ways to increase productivity in the workplace

Photo by Jopwell: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-blue-suit-jacket-2422293/ 

If you are running a business, it’s important to continually improve all aspects of your business in order for it to grow. One aspect to keep an eye on is productivity. The more productive your employees are, the more that will be done which will hopefully increase the amount of profit your business brings in. 

To increase productivity, there are a number of ways. You could look to implement staff perks, allow staff members to have more breaks – sound counter-productive but having a rest can reduce errors meaning the work won’t have to be done again – and try to reduce multitasking. You could combine all of these methods and see if any changes are made, alternatively, you could implement one or two of them and see if it has an impact on how productive your staff members are. 

Below we are looking into ways to increase productivity in the workplace.  

Implement Staff Perks 

Staff perks are a great way to make your employees feel valued which will have the knock-on effect of them being more productive in the workplace. Staff perks can vary from health & fitness benefits such as a commercial pool membership or a gym membership to finishing work early, covering some of their subscriptions. The possibilities are endless, which is why it’s an important one to consider. Before deciding which staff perks to choose, work out a monthly budget that you would like to spend on it. You could reach out to your employees and see which perks they feel would most benefit them. 

Increase the number of breaks they have in a day 

Increasing the number of breaks you offer your employees can help increase productivity. Initially, you may think this will do the opposite, but hear us out. When employees are tired, they are more likely to make mistakes. This means the same job has to be repeated, reducing how productive they are. Taking a break also gives you a moment to switch off and regroup your thoughts before attacking the task you had again but with an improved mindset. How long and how many breaks you give your employees depends on how long they work. If they are doing a half day, fewer breaks are required than a full day etc. If you are seen to be looking after your staff, you are likely to get better people employed for jobs to work with you when you are hiring new people.

Reduce multitasking 

Multitasking can be great in some areas of the business, however, in others, it can be detrimental. When multitasking, you can’t set your mind to concentrate on just one task, instead your mind is working between multiple jobs, meaning a few get done or none at all – sometimes they all do, but often people who multitask set themselves too many jobs to complete them all. If you reduce multitasking and require employees to finish one task before moving on, you may find that productivity will increase and that the quality of the job is done better.