As an office manager, one of your top priorities is to keep your workplace and your employees as productive as possible.
This is no easy feat, because oftentimes managers who push their employees and workers hard ends up resulting in the opposite effect of productivity. On the flip side of the coin, the manager who takes little to no action at all to help make their employees more productive won’t be doing much good either.
The key is to find the right balance and to find the right tips to help boost productivity among your employees. Here are five such tips that you can try out:
Tip #1 – Encourage Repeated Breaks
Taking breaks repeatedly throughout the day may sound counterproductive, but in reality, taking scheduled breaks can help to improve productivity, motivation, and concentration.
A simple five to ten minute break every hour can help people to maintain a consistent performance level throughout the day. In contrast to this, taking limited to no brakes at all can lead to a decline in performance throughout the day.
You can either encourage your employees to take breaks throughout the day, or you can make it an official office policy. While a five minute break every hour may not seem like much, the truth is taking that five minutes to get up and move around, stretch, play a quick game on an app, or refilling your coffee cup can help relax your mind and make you more alert for the next round of work.
Tip #2 – Set The Right Lighting
Believe it or not, but the lighting in your office has a huge impact on productivity as well. Studies by the American Society of Interior Design show that over two thirds of employees complain about lighting in the office, with the most common complaints being that the light is either too bright or too dim.
Poor lighting can cause strain on the eyes and result in headaches and fatigue, both of which will result in a lack of focus and and kill productivity.
The ideal solution would be to let in as much natural light as possible, but this won’t be possible with offices with not enough windows.
In this case, you’ll need to invest in bright lamps and lights that allow you to control the brightness level to a level that your employees find suitable. The best kinds of lights will also be energy efficient, have a sustainable design, and contribute to the aesthetics of the office.
Tip #3 – Limit eMail Checking
Yes, you can and should limit the amount of time that your employees check their email. Checking email every minute or so takes away valuable time that they can spend working on the required tasks at hand.
As with taking repeated short breaks, the key here is discipline. Set times for your employees for when they can check their emails, but have them spend the rest of their time on their assigned tasks in order to help boost productivity on an individual basis.
How often should you have your employees check their emails? A good rule of thumb to follow will be once every one or two hours.
Tip #4 – Have The Most Important Tasks Be Completed In The Morning
The reason why you want to have your employees complete the most important tasks in the morning is because this is when they will be the most alert and awake. It’s simply natural for people to become less alert and more weary as they day draws on, which is why we tend to be at our most productive in the morning before lunch.
By the afternoon, we’re often too burned out to give our tasks and work the attention that they truly need. For this reason, encourage your employees to plan out their day to get the most important things done before lunch time.
Tip #5 – Provide Free Coffee In The Office
Who doesn’t enjoy a cup or two of coffee in the morning? Coffee contains caffeine, which can trigger dopamine levels in people to help them become more active. For this reason alone, you should offer free coffee in your office for your employees and workers to enjoy.
Alternatively, or additionally, you can also offer energy shots and energy drinks. Not only should you should find that your employees will be very grateful for the energy boosting drinks that you can provide in the morning, you’ll also find that their productivity in the workplace is boosted as a result.
Conclusion
There you have it! If productivity has been sagging in your office lately, using each of these five tips can help to turn that around. But of course, don’t limit yourself just to these five tips. There are a lot more office productivity tips out there, so don’t end your research here.
___________________
Author Bio:
Lara Douglas loves interior designing and home decor. She is passionate about new trends and fashion-forward home décor ideas. She regularly posts at Neon Signs Depot.