5 May 2017
I reported in my last blog that the manufacturing industry was generally ahead of the service sector in increasing productivity but I also mentioned that in many ways manufacturing productivity is easier to measure and therefore, arguably, easier to manage. However, KPIs can be set for clerical and office processes and indeed should be. Furthermore ‘lean’ techniques may be applied to most office-based activities.
There are other challenges, however. Modern life and office environments can provide many distractions and recent surveys have produced surprising results as to the extent that these reduce productivity in the workplace. One survey of office staff concluded that 21% of employees actually admitted to spending at least one hour per working day using the internet for non-work-related purposes and 24% said that they spent more than one hour per day on personal emails and texts. The principal office distractions highlighted for reducing office productivity were:
- mobile phones and texting;
- web surfing and social media;
- inappropriate gossip;
- additional snack and smoking breaks;
- attending unnecessary meetings;
- managing emails; and
- interruptions from colleagues, (be they welcome or unwelcome) and noisy colleagues.
Most firms have policies on the private use of mobile phones in the office. It is not unusual to have these written into the employees’ manual, to the effect that only emergency use is permitted during working hours. The same applies to surfing the internet and using social media - it is not unusual to see employers blocking Facebook and other sites. However, when our work lives are dependent on using the internet, it can be hard for employees not to succumb to temptation or for employers to govern these areas effectively.
Other areas are similarly difficult to manage. There are dangers in becoming too involved in the normal social interaction that can be a healthy aspect to workplaces. Coming down too hard on taking breaks or chatting can be counterproductive. It is therefore more a case of office culture and managers taking the lead in setting the tone from the top.
Other areas can be improved more easily. It is easy to spend time trawling through work emails every minute, especially when clients and customers like an immediate response. This is therefore a question of time management. One solution is to dedicate an hour or two each day to your correspondence, and stick to the most pressing communications. To help with this, have an ‘urgent’ folder to which you can copy the emails that need to be dealt with straightaway. All others can be tackled or deleted when you have more time on your hands. Delete at source by unsubscribing to uninteresting emails, and, when writing emails, try to be as brief as possible.
Plan your office space. When open plan offices first appeared, they were seen as a bad idea. Other people’s conversations can be overheard and it seems to be an open invitation to start conversations with others close by. In practice, however, they can generate a better team atmosphere, encourage information-sharing and discourage time-wasting because every employee is visible to others. They also avoid the cubicle mentality, where an employee feels closed in or isolated and responds by frequently leaving his workstation on some pretext to seek the company of others.
Above all, encourage frequent discussions to gather ideas on working practices, customer service, and technical developments. Support your staff and make them feel valued. This is the first and most important step to increasing productivity.
If you are interested in any of the issues discussed above or in my two previous blogs on this subject (here and here), please do not hesitate to contact me.
