How Changing your Workplace Environment can help to Increase Productivity and Well-being
According to research conducted by the UK government on productivity on the workplace, the average British employee loses up to 70 working days a year because of low productivity. That adds up to a national loss of 2.2billion working days a year.
What the research also uncovered was that where employees experienced a higher level of well-being in the workplace, productivity and performance levels actually rose. What this means for big business is that having happier employees on your workforce results in higher output and increased profitability.
Company bosses can go a long way to make improvements to their employee’s well-being by doing things to make their workers feel more valued. Offering incentives, rewards and developmental opportunities in the workplace that give a worker greater autonomy are likely to result in them performing better.
Getting a strategy in place
Business managers should include staff rewards and opportunities within their long-term company developmental strategies. Taking steps to improve employee’s well-being through changes to their working environment can really help to boost productivity levels. Changes to the working environment need not be complicated or expensive to implement either.
An example of a simple way to reward your staff and show your appreciation of their value is to install a free coffee or hot and cold drinks machine. Studies have shown that by giving staff free access to a coffee machine at work are productive for 24 extra minutes a day compared to staff that don’t have free access. Calculations done by the government means that the economy could save an astounding £42.7 billion if every worker had access to a coffee machine throughout the working day.
So what is it about free coffee? Well, it’s not that drinking coffee actually helps to wake workers up. In fact, what coffee actually does is to block chemicals in the brain that cause you to feel tired and lethargic. Allowing employee’s access to free coffee when their energy starts to flag can prevent weariness from creeping in and keeps the brain processing for longer.
Another boost to staff well-being is also allowing them to step away from their desks for a break. By creating a dedicated staff rest room where workers can walk to and stretch can give the brain a much needed change of scenery. Studies show that being glued to a screen between 9-to-5 every day doesn’t help to improve productivity. In fact, not having a break and being confined to eating lunch at your desk can be very counterproductive.
Research studies coming from MIT shows that those employees that take the time to interact with their work colleagues and take a break away from their work desks are actually more productive than those that don’t get that opportunity.
The ability to focus and concentrate for long periods of time relies on the body being able to move around and having a change of visual stimuli at regular intervals. Taking a break can actually make your ideas more innovative and creative. If you can encourage your staff to take their lunch-time break away from their desks, then employee well-being and staff satisfaction levels have been shown to rise as a result.
Outsourcing tasks for better productivity
Making your employee’s feel valued is one of the strongest aspects of raising their well-being and increasing their productivity. Rewarding your employees for a job well done and recognising their efforts and achievements also greatly help boost their self-esteem and well-being. However, sometimes it can be difficult to encourage or reward staff where a lot of their tasks are quite repetitive in nature and there is no room for improvement or advancements.
Staff that are somewhat stuck in a rut with routine daily tasks are offered little to no advancements or opportunities for them to develop their creativity. This can be both physically and mentally draining on an employee.
A simple, cost-effective solution here is to outsource all those necessary day to day tasks that need doing to someone else. Freeing up your employees time to allow them to take on a larger task that needs a level of creative thinking is a great way to improve their well-being and feeling of worth to the company.
Outsourcing simple everyday tasks to a virtual office service, such as Your Virtual Office, can give your permanent staff great relief from time-draining tasks. They in turn can use their time and energy to focus on other more important jobs or projects for you. This is especially effective for small business owners with just a handful of core staff that do multiple-tasks within the company. Where you have your head designer doubling up to answer incoming business calls, or your company bookkeeper is also having to deal with sorting all of your incoming business post for example, this doesn’t help your staff productivity levels or contribute to their well-being!
You can greatly lighten the load for your staff by working with our virtual office services. Because we can take care of your business calls and handle your post on your behalf, your key staff members are free to focus their time on more important projects. Doing this will dramatically improve your staff productivity levels and your company can greatly benefit as a result.
Further reading:
How Web Designers can be More Productive by using Virtual Office Services
How Virtual Office Services are helping the Fortunes of Small Businesses
The post How Changing your Workplace Environment can help to Increase Productivity and Well-being appeared first on Capital Office.