Managing to complete a long to-do list on a working day is difficult. For managers, it is even more painful as they have to manage multiple employees altogether. With the inception of technologies has become even more difficult for people to be productive at workplaces. Studies also suggest that most workers are proactive only for less than 3 hours of working hours. So what about the rest 5-6 hours? Waste of resources in unproductive activities? How to increase productivity, and improve team productivity? Do these questions haunt you as well?
To promote workplace productivity, let us understand the concept and find ways to improve productivity in business with this elaborative guide.
Understanding Small Business Productivity
Talking directly about the ways to improve employee productivity without understanding the basics of productivity at the workplace can be disastrous. So, here is a brief introduction to work productivity.
What is Business Productivity?
Business productivity is how efficient employees are. Productivity is a crucial factor in calculating any business’s profitability. Research shows that businesses with more productive team members can function effectively with the least resources; this minimizes operational costs for businesses. To simplify, productivity in business is the measure of how much work is performed during work hours. There are different factors of workplace productivity, the popular ones are:
- Quality of Work
- Client Satisfactions
- Results
- Peer Assessment and Feedback
- Timely Task Completion
To maintain constant productivity at the workplace, one needs to satisfy all or most of these factors of business productivity. For a more comprehensive understanding, we have explained how input and out matters in calculating workplace productivity.
Input
Input involves the resources utilized for the expected productivity of the employees. The common inputs are:
- Employees
- Material
- Tools, Technologies, and Software
- Total Work Time
- Equipment
Output
Output is the expected result from the invested resources and efforts. Businesses, especially small businesses with less investment expect maximum output in minimum input. There are different measures of calculating output. Some organizations calculate output on a quarterly basis, while others on a monthly or yearly basis. Similarly, organizations measure output in terms of money or productivity.
The common forms of output in businesses are:
- Completed Tasks
- Generated Revenue
- Attracted Clients
- Served Customers
- Meeting Objectives
Productivity
A simple formula involving both input and output can be used to calculate workplace productivity:
Actual Output/ Provided Input = The Workplace Productivity
The formula clarifies that the less is input, the more will be the productivity in business, and vice versa.
Popular Types of Productivities in Businesses
As organizations use different methods to measure productivity such as different productivity monitoring software, the types of productivity also vary. With the evolution of work methodologies, new types are also introduced to workplace productivity. However, the most common types of productivity in businesses are:
Labour Productivity
This productivity is a measure of the hourly work of the employees. In this method, the employers expect the maximum outputs from their employees and they calculate their output with their salaries, i.e. if employees are producing enough to satisfy their salaries. This productivity measure excludes distractions and other factors of unproductivity.
Capital Productivity
This productivity type keeps a count of the capital assets utilized by the employees to produce output. This includes office equipment, tools, technologies, etc. utilized to function. The employees expect a judicious utilization of resources that satisfy the production.
Personal Productivity
This is a measure of an individual’s full potential. In simple terms, personal productivity measures how efficiently an individual is meeting their Key Performance Areas (KPAs) and how well they are improving. It involves factors such as multitasking, behavior at the workplace, punctuality, etc.
Common Business Productivity Challenges
The common challenges that both employees and managers face to keep high and constant productivity are:
- Workplace Distractions
- Excessive Monitoring
- Unbearable Workloads
- Stress and Burnout
- Absence of Motivation
- Poor Communication
- Personal Issues
How to Improve Productivity in Business?
To boost business productivity at the workplace, it is essential to have a structured plan and inclusion of different strategies. In line with this, today’s workplace productivity improvement can be a combination of:
Innovative Tools
The better and upgraded tools involved, the finer employee productivity in small businesses. If a workplace does not upgrade with the tools and keeps working with outdated manual methods, the expected productivity should be the least.
The formula is simple;
“Better Tools, Better Productivity”
Deployment of Employee Monitoring Software
Presently, most of the organizations are using numerous employee monitoring software to measure productivity. This software enables organizations to track employee productivity, find ways to improve productivity, and build a better and more efficient team.
DeskTrack is a top-notch employee productivity measurement tool with multiple features such as tracking employee activity, measuring productivity, securing data, detailed reports on the team’s work efficiencies, etc.
Conclusion
Productivity in business comes with advantages like reduced operational costs, better utilization of resources, assured better quality of work, and many more for the organizations.
Besides that, employee productivity also helps people to faceless burnout and stay distressed from common concerns such as meeting deadlines, satisfying clients, etc.
