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Increasing employee productivity by working smarter, not harder

A greater number of businesses are starting to recognise the benefit of working smarter and concentrating on quality over quantity. With stress and mental illness rising in office environments, the old way of working harder for longer hours is dying out. Employers are starting to recognise the importance of keeping employees happy, and how that can have a huge, positive effect on their business overall.

A recent survey conducted by MOMA highlighted the many different times of the day that people feel most productive. It showed that different genders, ages and industry sectors felt their most productive at varying times of the day. Out of the 1000 people surveyed, 41.7% of people stated that they felt most productive between 9am-12pm, with a further 17.2% of people claiming that 12pm-3pm was their most productive time. Below, we’ve put together a few of the key things to remember if you want to be able to utilise these ‘peak’ times of productivity, and help your employees to work smarter, not harder.

It’s time to see employees as individuals

Each member of your team will have their own way of working, their own specialist skills and individual career and life goals. It’s time to recognise the things that make each person unique and utilise them for the good of your business. It’s already been proven that employees who are given credit for their hard work, challenged and have an satisfactory work/life balance, are happier and more productive workers.

Give staff full training and offer room to grow

Hiring someone who already have the skills you need on your team is obviously the most logical thing to do, however a lot of businesses won’t invest on keeping those skills up to date or expanding on them. Investing in courses and industry events for your employees is important to keep your business up to date with your industry, and helping your staff to better their skills will only have a positive effect on your company.

Trust your employees to manage their own workload

As the survey shows, everyone in your team works differently. Each person will work better at different times of the day, which is why flexible working is becoming so popular in new business. It could benefit your team and business to allow your employees to handle their own workflow and decide what work they do, and at what time of the day they do it.

Encourage quick working, but don’t rush

Meeting those big deadlines can often become stressful for both you and your team. Make sure to encourage your staff to work quickly, but don’t rush them. Putting extra pressure on employees to rush work through will not only affect the quality of the work, but also damage employee relations.

The key to working smarter is being flexible with your employees, allowing them to organise their own workload, whilst being able to manage and support them along the way. Working smarter not only requires you to be able to delegate and organise tasks effectively, but also understanding that quality is always better than quantity.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kat Kynes .