Workplace efficiency isn’t too high in the average office. Statistics show that employees waste approximately three hours during the typical work day, while human resources professionals believe the amount of time wasted is about 1.6 hours.
Nearly 64 percent of workers admit that they use internet for personal reasons and 77 percent of the individuals that have a Facebook account visit it during work hours. What’s even more surprising, 65 percent of YouTube viewers visit the video portal between 9am and 5pm.
Boosting efficiency at work, however, isn’t just about dealing with distractions. The right corporate culture and stimuli will be required to introduce such a massive change.
Matching the Right Tasks to the Right Skills
One of the easiest ways to maximize efficiency involves assigning tasks to the right individuals. If you involve the most skilled workers in a project, chances are that they’ll do a much more efficient job than their colleagues.
This is why the knowledge that team leaders have of employee qualifications is of such paramount importance. Understanding the skills, the behaviour and the best ways to motivate employees can lead to a massive decrease in the amount of time wasted during project execution.
Make sure that the team responsible for the project has detailed and comprehensive instructions. The less you leave to the imagination, the easier it will be for workers to handle the task.
Create a Culture of Accountability
A culture of accountability is one of the most important prerequisites for boosting efficiency. Every single team member should know that they’re personally accountable for certain aspects of the execution. Face-to-face talks with a manager or the creation of regular reports can make people more committed to the work they do. In addition, team leaders will have a good idea about progress being made and the adjustments that will be required to increase productivity.
Following up during every step of the way is one of the most important aspects of creating a culture of accountability. Setting targets is not enough. There should be milestones and progress reports that give you an idea about the latest developments. You will have to be involved but this way, you’ll get intimate knowledge of the most important work processes.
Set Realistic Targets
Let’s take a deeper look at the importance of setting milestones.
Unrealistic targets will demotivate even the most efficient of employees. If people aren’t capable of completing assignments within the specified timeframe, they’ll feel inadequate and their passion for work will go down. This is why major projects have to be broken down into manageable milestones.
Offer encouragement and recognition during every step of the way. Positive reinforcement is required to get people going and to even make them work harder.
Monotony – The Efficiency Killer
Work that gets monotonous is one of the most demotivating aspects of being employed. Sooner or later, most people will experience this monotony. Once this happens, productivity and efficiency will go out the window.
While assigning tasks according to competences is vitally important, you can do a bit of project rotation to keep things fresh and exciting. Giving people exposure to the work of other departments and even assigning unusual creative tasks every now and then can give teams a bit of challenge. Nothing works better for motivation and efficiency than a little bit of challenge.
Efficiency requires a proactive approach at the workplace. You need a good idea about what’s going on and what makes your employees get up in the morning. If you focus on the right stimuli, you’ll soon notice a massive improvement.