It all boils down to the time it takes employees to switch from one task to another. And this is much more than a sharp one-second transition. So, it turns out that frequently changing tasks is preventing your employees from using the time in between productively.
Sometimes this is inevitable, but understanding how it can affect their overall performance can help inform your decisions on how you should organize their workload. A similar problem occurs when their projects are too complex. Lastly, a very common hindrance to productivity is just bad time management.
Not planning everything properly and failing to estimate how much time a project will take can quickly lead to impossible deadlines, stretched expectations and a general feeling of disarray. This is in no way an environment that productivity can flourish in.
Individual time management is something that is trained either by using an app to keep track of work hours or by creating to-do lists. And working on this should definitely be encouraged. However, the problem gets more complicated when other team members enter the equation. There are several issues that make team time management difficult to get right, including communication, task delegation and estimating time, some or all of which can cause productivity to go down as well.
You can encourage them to come up with their own ideas on how to increase productivity. Or you might choose to encourage them to write their ideas in a journal along with the results. And actually, many workstation monitoring tools allow you to give each employee access to their own productivity reports. Doing this can prove very useful as a resource for ideas on how they can improve their own performance. Instead, focus on the ones that you feel your employees are struggling with.
Ultimately, how you approach this will depend on your team and your business. Nowadays, there are a bunch of tools that can assist you in tracking productivity of employees. Knowing whether your employees are typically distracted by the instant message they just got, the latest photo of their favorite influencer or Hannah treating everyone to cookies again is going to inform your future course of action.
And then, handle distractions accordingly. Limit the allowed use of social media or block some websites that you deem inappropriate. As several studies have shown, our willpower is a limited resource, so making employees spend it all on resisting temptations all day long will only affect their performance negatively.
Instead, you should be aiming for the optimal minimum. Breaking these complex projects into smaller manageable chunks can help your employees get to work more readily and stay on track.
Which one would you rather work on? Having smaller focused tasks will give employees a sense of accomplishment and closure. This is a great feeling that will motivate them to be productive and finish those small tasks in one go. One way is to use time tracking productivity app to see how long each employee can stay focused. Employee productivity monitoring can also help you figure out how to break up projects for example, based on which apps are used.
You can also get your employees to do this themselves or try to come up with a plan together. You may wish to write it up as a to-do list that they can check off.
Deadlines have everything to do with productivity. They are like funnels for all the workload that needs to be done. And a lot can go wrong in setting deadlines. Allow for deadline extensions and they lose all meaning. None of this feeds productivity. For example, you can use project time tracking tools.
Look at the past data for similar projects - How long did it take? What was the best and the worst case scenario? This information alone can provide a solid basis for pretty precise estimates.
But also allow for unforeseen circumstances - not everything is in dates and numbers. These doable but not too lenient deadlines are going to keep your employees focused and productive without stressing them out in return. In research and psychology, the observer effect, a. Expected, right? But what does it have to do with productivity? And productivity is a big part of it. This starts with a one-hour lunch break. Away from the desk. Look for dips in productivity.
Your team starts opening unproductive websites around 11 a. Give them a 15 minute break. Then again at 2 p. Give them a break again. Regardless of how many distractions you think you can eliminate, being surrounded by empty desks and white walls can actually be very inhibitive to productivity.
Some like order and very few things on their desks; others thrive in a creative mess. For some employees, having family photos close to them gives them motivation, while some feel better if they have a plant next to their computer.
Listening to music for just minutes can help employees regain their focus. Zombies are notoriously unproductive. Let them be with their families. Let them walk their dog without having to bring their phone with them. And most importantly, let them sleep. This includes exercise and eating healthy. Make sure to give them time for this, but you can also go one step further and pay for their gym memberships or stock your office with fresh fruit.
One or two more days off might make a whole lot of difference. One of the many possible reasons for low productivity is the lack of skill to perform more efficiently. It lets you see exactly how much time is wasted on which apps and tasks. And then you can use these reports to pinpoint which employees need support. Many of these resources are even free. All you have to do is initiate the training process. Getting there involves two steps.
You can use reports from productivity monitoring software if you really want to make it objective and detailed. Set goals and reward the ones who accomplish them. A goal might be to sign on x number of new clients, but it might as well be to improve their productivity by n percent. But what about you? But making sure your business runs smoothly might not leave you much time to think about how you might be able to optimize your own performance.
But making so many decisions can actually have a huge impact on your overall productivity. You make another one, good. By the time 3 p. According to these findings, your productivity level is just one straight downhill line. For starters, try to organize your day so that all the big important decisions are scheduled for the morning.
Hey, we get it, your company is your accomplishment and everything should be as close to perfect as possible. Even if you have various Heads of Department and Team Leads, somebody still needs to manage them. But you also have your own agenda. So, how do you fit everything in without sacrificing your sleep or your free time?
Focus on the bigger picture. These reports are concise and easy to understand. Let them guide you in optimizing micro-processes. However, Desktime only connects with a handful of third-party apps — so you might not be able to integrate it with your favorite work tools.
Employee productivity tracking offers countless benefits. They can monitor employees without having to micro-manage tasks. Consequently, employees can also take proactive steps to improve their performance, such as:.
Improved focus on work means employees are more productive and engaged in the workplace. The time tracking feature of productivity tracking apps will help you estimate the time taken on various tasks so you can finish the project before the deadline.
You can use this estimated timeline to proactively plan, schedule, organize, and prioritize tasks for efficient project management. With productivity monitoring software, you can also track hidden tasks that are not directly related to the project, like client meetings, administrative tasks like scanning, uploading files, etc. Employee activity can also be recorded and viewed later by the supervisors so that they can take the necessary steps to manage employee performance and optimize high ROI Return on Investment tasks.
Productivity tracking software can be an extremely versatile tool for any company. However, not every tool will be able to track productivity as well as Time Doctor. Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff on remote working and productivity to your email inbox. We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. Your email address will not be published. You can even send out reminders for when a shift starts. Change by change, your team will become more effective, and capable of getting more done every week.
For more tools you can use to track employee email activity, see our list of the 7 best email tracking apps! In , he founded a marketing agency that appeared on the Inc. Your email address will not be published. Share EmailAnalytics 2.
Timely 3. Time Doctor 4. ProofHub 5. Everhour 6. TMetric 7. TrackingTime 8. Hubstaff 9.
0コメント