A company’s workforce productivity has a ripple effect on its performance as a business. Employees’ productivity plays a significant role in a company’s revenue and profit, customer satisfaction, innovation and creativity, employer brand, and cost of production.
What is employee productivity?
Employee productivity refers to how efficiently employees can convert their time and effort into quality work or service. It is about the quality and quantity of work output produced by staff in a certain amount of time.
Productive employees can complete high-quality tasks in record time. Time and productivity work in tandem. Every job demands a minimum number of working hours for optimal productivity while making employees work longer hours can be counterproductive and may lead to burnout.
Working overtime and productivity
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) analysis showed that UK workers worked £26 billion of unpaid overtime in 2022. The report disclosed that 3.5 million employees put in on average 7.4 hours of unpaid work weekly, which is equivalent to £7,200 per year for each of the workers.
It is estimated that, on average, British employees work 8 hours per day. However, a study reported they are productive for only 2 hours and 53 minutes. An employer looking to make their staff more productive may increase the work hours to get more productive time, but many studies have confirmed this does not always seem to work. Instead, the employees are more likely to become overworked without necessarily being more productive and also call in sick than usual.
People who work overtime are more prone to sleep problems and developing chronic health conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and depression. They are also at high risk of occupational injury.
On the flip side, there are easy-to-implement strategies such as employee appreciation, which could be as simple as presenting them with Award plaques to appreciate their contribution.
Almost one-third of UK workers do not receive appreciation from their companies. Appreciating your employees can significantly boost their productivity without making them work overtime; in fact, they might work fewer hours and deliver more quality results.
Below are more strategies to boost your workforce’s productivity without making them work overtime:
Optimise workflow and tools
Employees tend to deliver better when what is expected of them is clearly stated. Engage your team members on the short-term and long-term objectives of the company and what you need to work on.
If possible, create an action plan and to-do list that keep everyone on track and help track the progress of the projects.
Also, optimize the workflow by investing in productivity tools such as applications that improve communication and reduce time spent on tasks.
Perform a periodical evaluation of your work process to identify what is working and what is not to effectively optimise the workflow and improve efficiency, which invariably boosts productivity.
Implement flexible work hours
Flexible work hours allow employees some level of autonomy in their workday, notably when to start and finish assigned tasks. It allows employees to work more during the hours they are most productive.
Flexible work arrangements, if well planned and deployed, can significantly reduce employee stress and improve their overall well-being. Implementing flexible hours not only helps improve productivity but also helps attract top talents.
Allowing opportunities for remote or hybrid work can help employees decide on their work hours.
Discourage multitasking and working overtime
Different studies have confirmed multitasking to be nothing but a myth. Some staff lose more productive time to multitasking, hence the need to discourage its practice. Some staff lose more productive time to multitasking, hence the need to discourage its practice.
Likewise, do not allow your employees to work overtime. For every additional time they work, productivity regresses, notably due to fatigue.
Make employees work smarter, not harder
Smart work will always triumph over hard work. Create a work environment with fewer distractions and minimize meetings. Provide them with all the required tools to make their work easier.
Prioritize tasks and delegate them based on employees’ strengths. Encourage them to tackle the toughest tasks first before working on simpler ones.
Setting clear, achievable, and trackable goals can help your employees stay focused and better motivated.
Promote work-life balance
Work-life balance is an ideal state where an individual can maintain a good equilibrium between the demands of professional life and the demands of personal life.
Discourage working long hours and encourage breaks throughout the day. Offering employees paid maternity leave, for instance, can also help them improve their work-life balance.
Also, consider offering on-site fitness classes and stress management workshops.
Benefits of increased employee productivity
- Improved customer service
- Higher employee satisfaction
- Improved engagement
- Positive workplace culture
- Enhanced team collaboration
- High retention rates
- Reduced operational costs
- Better employer brand
- Reduced absenteeism
