5 Top Tips To Save Time at The Office
Have you ever wondered how much time your employees waste? Take this test to see how much money your business potentially loses from wasted time. Bad habits in the workplace are costly because they waste time, cause annoyance and impede productivity. Continue reading for tips on how employers and managers can improve employee productivity.
1. Do Not Disturb Policy
When a meeting is interrupted by a phone call or someone stepping out, such valuable time is lost. This is because while that person is attending to whatever issue distracted them, everyone else in the meeting has to sit and wait for them to return. Implementing a ‘do not disturb’ rule will significantly reduce the number of wasted time spent in office meetings.
2. Stand for quick meetings
A frequent complaint heard in many offices is how much time is spent in meetings. If it is that there needs to be a quick internal department meeting, make every minute count by having everyone gather quickly and stand instead of sitting. You will find people become much more succinct, concise and aware of time. This approach puts the focus back on agreeing actions rather than languishing in chairs.
3. Coffee Break or Waste?
Studies show that British workers lose 24 minutes each day getting tea and coffee. This adds up to 190 days of lost productivity over a worker’s lifetime. Research suggests the traditional tea and coffee run has become an office ritual employers would do well to crack down on.
It could be the frequency of coffee breaks or the time it actually takes to make the drink that costs your company such precious work time. Whatever it is; if you feel as though your staff is too preoccupied with making a hot beverage, you might want to consider investing in more than one kettle or a Keurig machine that significantly reduces the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee or tea.
4. Elevator vs. Stairs
A recent report shows that employees can lose up to 15 minutes each day while waiting for the elevator or lift to move between floors and departments at the office. As more businesses encourage active working and provide collaborative work settings, movement within offices is set to increase and the amount of time wasted will too. The report suggests encouraging employees to use the stairs rather than the lift in instances of high traffic routes and when travelling fewer than seven floors.
5. Central Social Media Management System
Some studies have suggested that up to two hours per day are lost due to interruptions. Email and social media can be big interruptions and time wasters. An employee can easily spend all day replying to emails and updating social media accounts. If you use social media for marketing purposes, you likely have more than one account. Using a central dashboard like Hootsuite can help save tonnes of time with scheduling and publishing posts. Also, advise your employees not to answer every non-urgent email as it comes in and not to leave Facebook and Twitter open all day.
