by Jerry Mooney

Image Credit: Flickr

Efficiency is one of the most important parts of business success. It means that your staff are working well and can keep up with the deadlines you set for each individual and as a team. The more efficiently you can work, the better your profitability and reputation will be.

From unnecessary office distractions to not knowing what to do first or how long it should take, office workers face a real challenge when it comes to working efficiently. To improve your efficiency, and the happiness of your staff, you need to educate your staff on time management, consider how the working day works for you and even try adding incentives to give your workforce a boost.

Better Time Management

If it feels like there is never enough time, it is worth looking into whether you and your staff are managing your time efficiently and whether there is anything you can do to make your time management skills better. For example, do your staff have a clear set of priorities to help them decide what do focus on first?

It is easy for people to start feeling overwhelmed when their desk gets flooded with tasks, even if all the tasks are fairly small and can be done within the timeframe set. To reduce stress, it is a good idea to set clear deadlines and even offer to sit with staff members to help them prioritize. This should improve your overall efficiency as well as relax your staff.

Hack the Working Day

In an office environment, there is often a lot of pressure to sit at your desk all day, working hard and only breaking for lunch - and even then, eating “al desko”. Though this might look like the optimum in productivity, humans just aren’t built to concentrate on one thing all day and though your staff look busy, they probably aren't working at their best.

The solution is actually quite surprising: take breaks. There has been a lot of research into how humans work efficiently, and, depending on the type of work your staff are doing, you might want to offer a variety of time schedules. From 90 minutes work to 20 minutes break, or 25 minutes work to 5 minutes break to the simpler 2 15 minute breaks per day, there are lots of ways to organise your day.

Try Adding Incentives

Most CEOs and business owners might look at ‘adding incentives’ and just see ‘spend more money’ but this isn’t the case at all. There are lots of ways to incentivise staff, but the main thing is that they feel recognised for their achievements within the company and therefore want to continue to do a good job. Something as simple as a handwritten thank you note can really brighten an employee’s day.

With the right motivation, the ability to work and rest effectively throughout the day and the ability to manage time efficiently, you will notice that your working day doesn’t feel as fraught as before; you have managed to make time when you didn’t think there would ever be enough.