Improving workplace productivity tops the list of business concerns in small to midsize companies, according to a 2017 research report. Telling employees to “work harder” or “ faster” does little to improve their productivity — and might actually come at the expense of quality work.

A better approach would be to free up more time for employees to do their jobs and provide them the tools and knowledge needed to efficiently perform their work.

Here are 4 tips to improve productivity:

1. Use Email Responsibly

Email overload can seriously hamper productivity. Employees send and receive an average of 122 business emails each day.  This number is projected to rise to 126 emails per day by the end of 2019. Adding to this problem is that employees tend to look at each email shortly after it arrives. Although it might not take them long to scan or read an email, it disrupts their concentration, which hurts productivity. It takes employees an average of 64 seconds to recover from the interruption and return to their normal work rate.

Given the disruption emails cause, consider doing the following:

• Avoid sending emails that are not important to business operations, and encourage employees to do the same. For example, while it may be nice that your company donated money to a local charity, this information is best shared through other communication channels or sent after hours.
• Avoid sending emails to everyone on a distribution list if only certain individuals in that group need the information.
• Discourage employees from using work accounts for personal emails by implementing an email policy.
• Encourage employees to set aside a block of time once or twice a day to go through all their emails rather than reading each email as it comes in. Try turning off email notifications to avoid the temptation of taking a quick peek at incoming messages.

2. Keep Meetings to a Minimum

The saying “A meeting is an event at which minutes are kept and hours are lost” often holds true. Meetings can eat away at employees’ workdays, often with little gained. A Salary.com survey found that employees consider meetings the single biggest waste of time at work.

By reducing the frequency and duration of meetings you free up employees’ time. Here are a few tips:

• Only hold pertinent meetings. This includes rethinking regularly scheduled meetings.
• Invite only those people who really need to attend. A memo can be sent to others to be kept in the loop.
• Keep meetings short by limiting time per item.  If possible, keep it under an hour.
• Have a limited agenda. Distribute the agenda in advance so everyone comes prepared.

3. Invest in Technology

There are many technologies and custom apps that increase productivity in a workplace. Collaborative applications help employees be more productive, especially when offices are in multiple locations.

4. Invest in Your Staff

Supporting your workforce and providing employees with opportunities to enhance their skills or develop new ones can enhance job performance and productivity. Since existing employees know the nuances of their jobs, they’re usually more productive than initial new hires. A valued employee takes pride in their work, and offering career advancement opportunities encourages them to stay with the organization. Retaining current staff helps to guard against a decline in productivity. Having to recruit and train new employees can be costly. It’s more economical to invest in additional training or education for existing employees.

CopperTree Solutions, can manage all your IT needs to fit your business, and keep your systems current and protected. We serve clients both large and small, in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, Stratford and surrounding areas.