Workplace Best Practices

The first step in creating a workplace environment that is highly productive and motivated, is to start by introducing best practices into the workplace culture. Employees want to be productive themselves, but without the support and effort of the wider team, an individual’s efforts are lost.

So to kick-start a more productive workplace environment, get the whole team involved and implement these simple procedures that will help everyone operate more productively:

The first step in creating a workplace environment that is highly productive and motivated, is to start by introducing best practices into the workplace culture. Employees want to be productive themselves, but without the support and effort of the wider team, an individual’s efforts are lost.

So to kick-start a more productive workplace environment, get the whole team involved and implement these simple procedures that will help everyone operate more productively:

1.    Email management
Stop the CC culture. It only clutters inboxes and encourages people to hold onto information they don’t need and pressure them to get involved in areas of the project they simply don’t need to be.

If your work requires documents to be constantly changed, updated and revised, set up a document SharePoint that can be accessed by other stakeholders and alerts sent when documents have been updated.

If your projects require feedback and comments, leave those to meetings and face to face, or phone communication. Also, encourage employees to organize and manage their inbox with folders. Research shows many employees spend one third of their working day sifting through their inbox looking for emails.

2.    Communication
We are so heavily reliant on email, we’ve stopped approaching our colleagues and clients to talk directly, in person or on the phone. If your query requires and immediate response, or you seek feedback and discussion, avoid using email.

Email is great for sending files, documents and notes, but it is not a decision making communicating tool. If your correspondence requires a decision to be made or details to be discussed, pick up the phone or walk over to the person’s desk.

3.    Time management
Most people are time poor, because they have poor time management skills. To help your employees manage their time, provide schedules and deadlines. That way employees can plan their tasks around meetings and other day-to-day operations and develop a routine.

These are just a few of the simple principles and best practices that can help your workplace come together and be more productive.

Keep following Productivity on EconomyWatch for more tips and advice for workplace productivity.