A shower during the working day, according to PR firm Lucre, may be the answer to boosting employee productivity. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which involved four businesses in an eight week study – a restaurant, an architect firm, an advertising agency and a lingerie company.

In addition to their usual daily wash, staff took a shower break – and results showed improvement across a range of areas, from mood to productivity. The study found that employees taking shower breaks at the four businesses spread across the UK saw an overall boost in productivity and creativity of 42% and 33% respectively.

Lucre said that during the control period of four weeks, staff recorded how they were feeling throughout the working day. Then, workers spent a further month taking a minimum of one shower break a day, while filling in questionnaires rating among other criteria if they felt more productive or creative.

Sam Walsh, one of the employees who participated in the study, said: “I found that showering gave me some peace and quiet, being away from the ringing phones in the office was great for mulling over ideas.

“I even came up with a great new TV ad idea for one of our clients while I was in there. As well as helping me get a fresh perspective on things, I also found it a great pick-me-up on the days when I felt tired.”

Nicholas Patterson a general manager said: “Our hardworking staff members are on their feet for long shifts in what is a hot and hectic environment. Shower breaks made sure they took time away from the restaurant to refuel and freshening up their feet with a shower also offered them physical benefits which made them work more effectively in the restaurant.”

So there we have it – why not try it today? If you work from home or in an office with such facilities, leave your desk with a bar of soap and wave this article at your colleagues when they wonder what on earth you are up to. Don’t forget to leave a comment here too (when you’ve dried off of course).

http://twi.bz is a really useful URL shortnener which beats the in built tinyurl and others because it maintains your domain name within your tweet. This means that you can still show your followers or anyone else who finds you via search where your content originates from – making them more likely to click on the link.

It is of course much more search engine friendly too…

As an example, http://walkingtall.the845club.com/ (which isn’t particularly big we know is shortened to http://the845club.twi.bz/a – the domain name is preserved, but the URL is shorter. You can see the argument…

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They’ve been in closed beta for a while and reading the blog – most of their recruits have come via Twitter, as opposed to Google – things are changing out there (but that’s another story).

Producteev is slick looking web 2.0 app which has a fully drag and dropable interface to enable you to collaborate with colleagues. You use the interface to create tasks for yourself which can then be delegated or assigned to team members and those members leave comments to update you on these tasks over time.

Supporting the task management are the features you come to expect in today’s online application age – reminders, a calendar app and importantly integration into the mobile world (Iphone, Windows Mobile & Nokia) so that you can follow what’s going on wherever you are.

The interface centres around your dashboard where you can create new ‘boxes’ and then set their sharing settings to keep personal or sensitive projects separate from collaborative ones.

Team members are added by simply adding their email address or using the handy importer which caters for the usual suspects, including Outlook. There is a ‘Friendfeed style’ live feed tab which shows you comments and activities as they happen – although do we have room for another Twitter in our lives? I have to say I would argue yes – as this is a closed user group of business knowledge flowing to you as opposed to well… a Twitter stream – which is quite different.

Project files can also now be shared across firewalls in this closed user group environment using the files tab and the upload area.

The Producteev guys have really thought about the integration aspects and have ensured the application’s feeds can be seen in all of your day to day information screens – such as GTalk, Twitter, SMS, Email and ICQ, meaning you can get the most out of the application without having to monitor it separately all day.

We would say that with the experience of Ilan Abehassera, Founder and CEO and the backing of some prominent business angels that the service has hit that niche of remote and collaborative working very nicely. With more and more people going it alone – freelancing and working in virtual teams – cross-firewall applications are going to become critical to making this new reshaped economy function. Employee productivity is not going away – in fact if anything, if you work for yourself, you’re going to focus even more heavily on it into the future as you look to get more done, faster.

Best of luck with their launch. Once you’ve checked them out, come back and take a look at this link if you are looking to be innovative in finding other ways of increasing your team’s employee productivity. With a free trial you have nothing to lose…

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Suddenly, before you know it, your partner and children are starting at you with their pyjamas on, wondering when you are going to ‘leave the office’.

The great folks over at Web Worker Daily have put together their thoughts on how to finsh the day here.

Some of their tips include having a clearly defined end point of the day – which moves for nothing. It’s amazing that this really can happen when you’ve an important appointment you can’t miss… when there’s nothing happening that evening – it’s much harder to finish.

If you need to use the Internet after finishing work – make sure you keep your work email switched off.

Ideally – have a separate working area for your working life. Fold it all away if you have to at the end of the day to physically mark its ending!

Discipline is the name of the game and if you keep the balance sensible – employee productivity will win through over time.

Related articles

• Working at home: Don’t let it get stale (jkontherun.com)
• 10 Great Things About Working From Home Now That I Don’t Anymore (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Snow: If you stayed at home will you get paid? (telegraph.co.uk)
• Working at Home – Can It Be Permanent? (agingreluctantly.com)

It boils down to this – people who love their working environment, their team, their role and their customers are happy, stress free and their employee productivity levels remain extremely high. Nowhere on this list is any mention of salary. Of course people need to be rewarded, but in today’s current climate – having a job is a bonus for many people and so salary level isn’t necessarily the issue.

If you run a small business, when was the last time you took your team out for a drink or a meal… when was the last time you celebrated someone’s birthday or a customer win? It takes very little effort but it goes a long way.

_______________________

8 ways to create a fun work environmentand boost employee productivity at the same time

(taken from the article above).

1. Give up the notion that professionalism means being
serious all the time.
It’s possible to take yourself lightly and still be competent and productive. Start to promote the benefits of humor at work.

2. Organize a “Fun Committee” for dreaming up fun “stuff” to do during and after work.

3. Collect and share your favorite cartoons and jokes.
Create a Joke Board or a Humor Newsletter. Look for tools to disseminate fun and funny things daily.

4. Let customers know you are a fun company.
Do something just for fun (organize fun customer events, dress for fun, share funny things with customers) and give employees tools to create a fun relationship with customers (stickers, candy for children, dog biscuits for dogs, humorous buttons with the company logo). This makes work more fun for employees and it strengthens the relationship with customers.

5. Gather your co-workers for the “Joy of Work” hour.
Everyone must talk about something good at work. Take turns telling stories about the things that make work a joy. Each person should contribute ideas on how to make work more fun.

6. Respond to fun when it happens.
Funny things occur all the time, but if you are obsessed with left-brain analytical thought, you might find it hard to stop and respond. Natural spontaneous humor is a blessing. Stop and take a moment to give employees and customers an opportunity to see the fun in the event.

7. Commit to being fun and it will change your approach to work.
Start slowly with a few activities and communicate your desire to create a more relaxed workplace. Don’t expect things to turn around overnight.

8. Encourage employees to develop their own style of having fun.

A nurse anesthetist at a hospital in Michigan often sings to his patients to help them relax prior to surgery. Patients have appreciated this so much that they have told family and friends about the experience. It is not uncommon now for the hospital staff to get requests for “The Singing Anesthesiologist” when they are scheduling their surgery.

We know that many corporate firewalls have been blocking those  non-productive URLs for many years. Many small businesses however will not have taken things so far – either because of their technical inability or because there is more trust in employees.

You may however like to try a voluntary experiment at some point in the future and ask you team to each download a small program called URL Blocker from the good folks at Computer Help. It is a seriously simple piece of software which you simply add all the sites you believe are hampering employee  productivity during your working hours… those sites you just have to keep checking on an hourly basis to see if anything’s changed… you know which ones.

You can remove the block at a certain time or after a specific number of hours and the program can be password protected. If you ask a colleague to set the password – there can be no weak moments when you switch it off – just for 30 minutes….

Why not set up a trial today in your office – get your team bought into the idea and see what happens… you never know, they may even thank you…!

Their 2008/2009 WorkUSA Report finds that when employees are highly engaged, their companies enjoy 26% higher employee productivity, have lower turnover risk and are more likely to attract top talent. Their companies have also earned 13% greater total returns for shareholders over the last five years.

According to the survey findings, highly engaged employees are twice as likely as their less engaged peers to be top performers. They also miss 20% fewer days of work and three-quarters of them exceed or far exceed expectations in their most recent performance review.
Additionally, highly engaged workers tend to be more supportive of organizational change initiatives and resilient in the face of change. The report surveyed more than 13,000 full-time U.S. workers in May and June 2008, before the full advent of the financial crisis.

You can buy the report here (for a very reasonable sounding $45)

Related articles

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Are we painting the picture of your office – the perfect collaborative envronment, WHERE YOU DON’T HAVE THE ABILITY TO THINK!! Peace and quiet is also essential to the perfect collaborative environment, or nobody will get anything done you can even vaguely start to collaborate on.

So how do you balance this all up? Have you ever considered noise cancelling headphones? Those who’ve used them will never go back and the good news is that they are becoming cheaper over time.

There are three recommended pairs to try in different price ranges below. If you’re the boss – why not put in a bulk order and watch your employee productivity increase…

Bose Quiet Comfort 3 (high end)

As you would expect from anything from Bose, the build-quality is very high and the leather they use is incredibly soft. The only drawback, a minor one, is that the unit uses a proprietary rechargeable battery which if you are using the phones whilst travelling, it makes an in-air battery change impossible. When fully charged, the battery will last for 20 hours.

Find out more here (UK customers)

Find out more here (US customers)

ATH-ANC7 Noise Cancelling Headphones (mid-range)

With excellent sound quality and above average noise cancellation, these are high quality headphones for a reasonable price tag. They have comfortable leather cushioning around the ear and can be worn for long periods of time without discomfort. There is a large carrying case but with one detachable wire making them easy to take on and off. The noise cancellation switch is conveniently located on the left earphone, making it easy to turn on and off. The sound quality is far superior when the noise cancellation is turned on.

Find out more here (UK customers)

Find out more here (US customers)

Plane Quiet Platinum (low end)

Don’t be put off by the Plane tag – these headphones are also great in the office. The large size and leather that surrounds your ears makes the Plane Quiet Platinum extremely comfortable. The sound quality is above average with a nice balance between the bass and higher sounds.  The noise-cancellation switch is large and located on the cord, which is a bit of a design floor – but at this price, not the end of the world…

Buy from here

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• Sony unveils five new audio accessories: headphones, speakers and remote (engadget.com)

Timecamp claims that for businesses they can ‘reduce employee misbehaviour and increase productivity‘… for individuals you can ‘understand how you spend your time and get more done’. Interestingly, they offer another dimension for parents – where you can use Timecamp for free as ‘parental control software’, which is a nice twist.

Like many of these solutions, Timecamp offers a small download where time tracking is transparent. The software sits as a background process and silently monitors the applications and websites you use during your day. The software then sends data back to their hosted servers and you can then log in periodically to see what you’ve been up to…

You can set productivity goals and see how you compare over weeks or months and see trends appearing over time.

Firstly by viewing the data in its rawest form…

Timecamp in action

And then in a more advanced, graphical view. Trends over time can prove invaluable in working out where your employee productivity goes out the window…

Timecamp graphical reports

The software is stable and provides you with much food for thought at the end of the day or week.

If you then combine the power of the individual solution with a workgroup and track you and your colleagues together (for a small monthly fee) then you can really start to make some progress.

For the business service they link into Zoho to make an attempt at an ROI calculator (although I’d say it’s a fairly basic attempt) however it’s a nice touch.

Pricewise, it’s a minimal monthly fee per seat and is on a par with the services mentioned above – so it really does come down to personal opinions when evaluating. To get you on your way – you can sign up for a free business trial for 30 days right here.

Us Brits use the phrase ‘induction process’ – ‘onboarding’ is a relatively new American term in the HR world. We blogged about this new insightful report earlier in the month – but wanted to make sure we covered all bases by getting the terminology right for our American readers. If you check back to that post, you’ll also find out how to get a copy of the report  for free for a limited time.

If you are starting to see the benefits of onboarding your staff correctly and are fed up with the days of not having a PC for the first month of your job, then this 5 minute video might give you some food for thought too.

What will you do differently the next time you hire a new recruit?