When productivity in the office plummets, nothing is easier than casting blame and sacking people you see ‘responsible’. However, what will happen once you fire all those people but the situation doesn’t improve? In most cases, a downfall in general productivity is merely a symptom of a larger problem –bad organization. So, in order to fix this issue, you need to look into those organization methods you haven’t tried yet and see if implementing them might turn the course of your company.
1. Shred, discard and donate
Having a messy office is not only distracting and demotivating, but it also poses a logistical nightmare. Therefore, all documents you know you will need should be organized in folders (as well as digitized), while all the rest needs to go where they belong – in the shredder. Apart from this, every item, appliance and furniture piece you no longer use needs to be handled as efficiently as possible. Your first instinct should always be to try and sell the things you no longer need. However, if you don’t believe you will find a buyer, you might want to consider donating instead. Those items you can’t sell or donate you need to discard in an eco-friendly manner, of course.
2. Go paperless
In order to continue in the same manner, there is an estimate that an average office worker prints about 10,000 pages every year. Not only is this practice bad for your carbon footprint but it also costs your company a small fortune in the long run. By going paperless (or at least as paperless as possible), you can save quite a bit on your office consumables, not to mention the time and effort that gets saved in this way.
3. Implement an employee monitoring system
While meddling is generally a bad practice, with the right platform, you can monitor the way in which your employees spend their workday in a completely seamless manner. Advanced employee tracking software systems give you an insight on a number of important metrics. For instance, they inform you of the position of a certain employee, their department, as well as the task they are currently on. Most importantly, it shows you the exact app that they are currently using. You see, for a sales representative to spend time on IM software like Viber and Skype isn’t nearly as big of a deal as it is for a creative.
4. Encourage the Pomodoro Technique
Broadly speaking, the Pomodoro Technique is a work method of combining short intense work sessions with even shorter but equally frequent breaks. For instance, a person works for 20 minutes then rests for 10. Sure, some might argue that this causes a lot of downtime, however, the productivity you gain in this way is simply astounding, seeing as how you are able to maintain the focus within the office at a much higher level. With this in mind, why not install a large clock set to the Pomodoro timer in the office and encourage all of your employees to use the technique.
5. Reduce the number of meetings
Holding a meeting every day is a completely unnecessary practice, yet, it is exactly what a lot of people do. According to a recent statistic, about 31 work hour get wasted every month on meetings that aren’t even necessary. Of course, a merger or a massive change in company’s doctrine needs to be announced in a traditional manner. On the other hand, a message about an event or a minor change can be spread via a circular email. Even for those meetings that you do end up holding, you might want to consider quick brainstorming sessions or at least standing meetings.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, before anyone starts casting blame around the office, you need to realize that there are so many great organization tips you currently aren’t using. Only when they fail do you have to look towards the reorganization of your office or a massive change in your company’s infrastructure and staff. Overall, enhancing your organization is definitely the most cost-effective option in any situation.