Businesses often find it tough to measure employee productivity. Unfortunately, we tend to rely on an inaccurate image of productivity that links back to the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the Industrial Revolution marks the birth of heavy manufacturing. As such, productivity was directly measured in numbers of produced units. 

So far, so good. However, you can’t transpose the logic to the modern workplace. Nowadays, productivity refers to the ability of your team to meet business goals. Employees drive the business forward. Consequently, it is essential to give them the tools they need to make it work. Technology investments play a significant role in making the workplace productive and efficient.

Additionally, motivated employees are more likely to deliver quality work. People don’t achieve goals they don’t identify with. Connecting with the team and recognizing their work can build a positive culture for productivity. 

How much can a motivated team achieve? The truth is that neither motivation nor work tools can address the most common productivity killer, namely time. Businesses need to address time-costly obstacles that can harm productivity: 

Too many passwords

The average employee needs to remember up to 60 to 90 work-related passwords in a day. That’s a huge amount of passwords to know, create, and use day after day. In the splurge of a moment, it’s easy to forget a password. Unfortunately, this can mean having to reset passwords to tools, or even setting up a new admin account for a business solution. When time is precious, the last thing your employees want is to waste it in administrative tasks. Therefore, using a solution that supports single sign-on and secure multi-factor authentication, such as OneLogin, can be a game-changer. 

Too many meetings

Meetings are necessary. However, we live in a meeting-centred culture that is unafraid to schedule multiple appointments throughout the week. Most people don’t realise that useless meetings can cost a company up to $10,000 a week – according to Bonnie Hagemann, co-author of “Leading with Vision”. Hagemann suggests estimating the cost of each meeting by calculating the hourly wage of the people in the room, as well as those who have helped with the preparation. Meetings don’t just cost you money, but they also interrupt daily tasks and affect productivity. 

Too many priorities

Everything is important! 

Of course, you can’t afford to ignore work tasks because they don’t interest you. However, that doesn’t mean that every item on your to-do list should have the same priority. Employees need to learn to ruthlessly prioritise their tasks to get through their workload. A common mistake is to consider that everything that is important is also urgent. In reality, every task needs a suitable deadline, that doesn’t reflect on its business value but on the consequences of not delivering on time. 

Too many distractions

The workplace is constantly buzzing with activities and noises. Whether you are working from home or in an office, interruptions are frequent. Spontaneous meetings, for instance, can be time-demanding as they distract someone from what they had planned to do. Sun reflections on the screen, loud noises, and unhelpful behaviors can also affect productivity. 

Boosting your productivity is not a matter of being able to work faster, but instead, it’s all wasting less time at work. From a constant stream of passwords to organizing tasks by realistic priorities, the sooner you get rid of time waste at work, the quicker you can get done.

You might also like to read:

• How to protect your business online
• A Guide To Putting Yourself First
• IT specialists weigh in on how to keep your business systems secure
• A guide to business and computer safety and security for bloggers and small business owners
• Five Tips For More Effective Time Management