Are you thinking about improving your business model? If so, then it’s important to consider the level of productivity in your business. This is all about how much you are achieving through the business day. Are you staying on target or do you constantly fall behind with your goals? If you are having issues with low levels of productivity, then there could be a number of key factors at play here. So, let’s explore some of the possibilities that you might need to think about as well as the right fixes that could provide massive benefits for you.
Connectivity
It’s possible that one of the problems causing low levels of productivity is that your business just doesn’t have the right level of connectivity. You should start by looking at your internet connection. Is it slower than it should be? If so, then you might want to think about switching providers. A slow connection will make transferring data an absolute nightmare for you and other members of your team. This is always going to be a key problem if you are running your business remotely with employees working from their homes.
You might also want to think about investing in a cloud server. The right cloud services will allow you to transfer data in seconds rather than needing to wait around for it to be ready to go. You might also want to think about your phone connectivity. Phone Calls could be a crucial element of your business model and it’s important to make sure that nothing is stopping you from getting a great quality of call. If you have dead zones in your business then wi-fi calling could fix this issue and are available as a standard with some phone providers.
Bullying, Harassment, And Stress
These issues are going to cause mental health problems in your business that need to be rectified sooner rather than later. You should make sure that you are running regular temperature checks in your office to check for issues like this. In the case of bullying and harassment it could be worth applying a zero tolerance policy. That way, employees recognize fully that there is no room for this type of behavior in your business model at all. An open door policy can also ensure that employees feel comfortable talking about issues like this.
The Wrong Environment
Next, you should think about your business environment that you are setting up as part of your model. It might surprise you just how much an environment can limit levels of productivity. For instance, you should consider the issue of colour psychology. You need to make sure that you decorate your business property with the right colors because they do have different impacts on things like productivity. For instance, studies show that green shades encourage people to be more creative throughout the day which is fantastic. It means that you can feed innovation in your business which can lead to lots of exciting new ideas and possibilities.
You should think about your office furniture as well and you might want to think about investing in ergonomic furniture. The right ergonomic furniture is going to be great because it will help avoid issues with RSI. RSI or repetitive strain injury is one of the most common injuries in the office today. It can cause productivity levels to drop to a crawl because workers are in too much discomfort to continue to operate at the right level. If you are worried about this, then we recommend that you do think about investing in things such as chairs with the right-back support for your desks.
Pointless Meetings
Micromanaging is always going to be an issue that will slow progress in your business right down. You need to make sure that you are instead trusting your employees to handle jobs without needing to constantly look over their shoulders all the time. One of the signs of micromanagement is going to be lots of meetings that are ultimately relatively unnecessary. When you schedule a meeting you should make sure that it is important or necessary. Otherwise, it’s worth avoiding it completely. You should also try to keep meetings short and sweet throughout the day instead of letting them drag on all the time.
Of course, avoiding micromanagement will always start with ensuring that you have a team that you can trust and rely on in the first place. This goes back to your hiring practices. You need to work to get the right people for the job from day one. One of the ways that you can do this is by using a recruitment manager. They will ensure that only the best CVs and resumes land on your desk. This is also going to help with employee churn because you’ll have the right people from the beginning.
No Breaks
A common mistake employers make is thinking that by cutting out breaks, they are going to achieve a higher level of productivity. However, this isn’t the case and various research shows that breaks are important if you are going to achieve your goals in business. You need to give your employees the chance they need to rest and recover from the pressure they experience throughout the day. These don’t have to be long breaks. Instead, you should think about giving your employees about 20 minutes every hour, particularly if they spend most of the day staring at a screen.
Another way to deal with this would be by setting a schedule. You have to remember that employees are going to be reluctant to take breaks because they don’t want to seem like they are not working hard enough. As such, you will need to be active in encouraging them to do this and ensure that they feel comfortable getting the right level of rest throughout the day. You can even set up different areas in your business environment that are designed to ensure that people have designated space for breaks.
Unhappy Employees
Finally, it might surprise you to learn that unhappy workers seem to get less done through the day. There could be numerous reasons why your employees are unhappy. Usually, this will be because your employees do not feel valued in your business. One of the ways that you can deal with this issue is by making sure that you are offering your employees the right incentives. This could include providing the correct level of pay. Currently, there is a massive labor movement occurring where people are quitting jobs in search of better prospects elsewhere on the market. So pay is definitely an important consideration but it’s not the be-all and end-all. There are other ways to keep employees happy.
For instance, you can think about investing in their future. You need to make sure that they feel as though they have somewhere to go when working in your business. The last thing someone wants for their career is a dead-end position with no way to move forward. You can avoid this by ensuring that you establish a structure that employees can use to essentially climb up the ladder in your business.
We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that you can take to fix issues that could be killing levels of business productivity. If you take the right action here, then you can make sure that your company is firing on all cylinders and this is ultimately going to make you far more competitive on the market. It could help you achieve the levels of profit that you always dreamed of but never believed were truly possible in your business.
