Training people to use new technology, putting new processes in place, doing things differently in general all have an overhead attached to them so let’s just check it’s not all in vain…

Let’s assume your business has 25 knowledge workers employed – across sales, marketing and finance perhaps. Let’s look at some figures and assume a 50 week working year.

How long does each sales person spend researching their clients, manually without using the power of Google Alerts?

1 hour per week saved for 10 people

How long does each marketer spend researching the competitive landscape, without using the power of RSS.

1 hour per week saved for 10 people

How many hours are wasted through poor filing in a non-centralised filing system and poor back up facilities?

1 hour per week saved for 25 people

How many DAYS are wasted in commuting and travelling time going to the office and to meetings when working from home, using conferencing technology and skype would more than adequately do the job?

5 days per year saved for 25 people (very conservative)

How many hours are wasted through poorly joined up processes and double entry of data into separate systems?

1 hour per day saved for 25 people

How many hours are wasted by people not using shortcuts and properly understanding the tools that they have available to them?

0.5 hours per day saved for 25 people

I’m sure the list could go on – and yes I’m sure every line is open to interpretation – but go with me for this example. Adding up those wasted hours over a year comes to an amazing 12,625 hours per year – which is an unbelieveable 25% of the total working time available. If we then go onto monetize those hours – assuming a fully allocated $40/hour for a knowledge worker (conservative?) this business is wasting $505,000 per year in employee productivity.

Have a think about your business right now and monetize your productivity. If you think you need help – this employee productivity resource could be what you are looking for.

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• How you feel can impact your day! (magsadkjournal.blogspot.com)
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Been caught Twittering or on Facebooking at work recently? Well next time it happens – quote the fact that it will make you a better employee, according to an Australian study that shows surfing the Internet for fun during office hours increases productivity.

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9% more productive that those who work tirelessly (without having fun).

Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing, said “workplace Internet leisure browsing,” or WILB, helped to sharpened workers’ concentration. “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,” Coker said on the university’s website (www.unimelb.edu.au/)

“Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased employee productivity,” he said.

According to the study of 300 workers, 70% of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB. Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.

“Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost employee productivity,” said Coker. “That’s not always the case.”

So there we have it – another ‘official’ survey trying to change the rules of office working again. The team here aren’t convinced. What do you think?!

41% of the respondents said that lack of credit for their efforts meant that their morale reduced and productivity lowered. 14% felt that having no say in the decision making process negatively affected their employee productivity.

In a different, but linked recent survey which Bayt.com carried out into performance appraisals, they found that while 71% of all workers receive regular appraisals, 50% of employees stated that they had no feedback on how they were doing – effectively rendering the appraisals meaningless – if not worse. Providing no feedback is demoralising as criticising someone without good reason in our book.

11% of those surveyed in the employee productivity poll stated that the difficulty in finding a good work/life balance prevented them from being more productive, despite the issue being recognised as an important one by employers.

There are some lessons to be learnt here – whilst this is a survey from a single region – we can see similar poor practises going on around the world. Even in turbulent financial times, you will only get the most from your employees if you engage with them… if you listen to them and if you treat them with respect. Respect is all about feeding back to them on how they are performing, which clearly isn’t happening as a norm. People generally are in business to learn, to develop, to grow and if they are effectively shoved into a corner and told to get on with it – you will not get the most from them.

The polls additionally asked what significant motivating factor would encourage respondents to be more productive. Salary increases will always be at the top of such a poll, however 25% of respondents felt that it was important that they receive recognition for their efforts and accomplishments to motivate them in their work. Providing that recognition is simple and doesn’t cost a business financially.

When was the last time you motivated your team, trained them or gave them something to look forward to? None of these techniques have to cost vast sums of money.

Make sure your managers lead by example by really managing and coaching their teams and employee productivity will soon follow…

Related articles

• Life and Work Balance (LearnThis.ca)
• Performance management (businessmanagement.suite101.com)

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

• Free Ebook Report: Employee Engagement Advice for Organizations (slackermanager.com)
• Tough economic times lead to decline in employee engagement (newswire.ca)

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?

21% of workers who exercised enjoyed better concentration rates and 22% finished more of their work on time.

So – what are you doing to ensure your employees are fit and healthy? Not only will you enjoy the benefits of seeing fewer people off sick, it appears to be a scientifically proven fact that encouraging your teams to exercise will boost your employee productivity.

When was the last time you left the office at lunchtime for some fresh air at the very least? Things will look different if you do.

You can read the original post here.

Related articles

• Going to the gym in a lunchbreak makes you work better (telegraph.co.uk)
• Exercise Before Work Eases Stress (jobsearchingblog.com)
• Females ‘less physically active’ (news.bbc.co.uk)