3 Surprising Factors That Affect Workplace Productivity

What Affects Productivity In The Workplace January 11, 2023

Priyanka Bhadani

Writer

Unproductive employees are disengaged and eventually drag a company down. According to Gallup, actively disengaged employees cost the U.S. $483 to $605 billion per year in lost productivity.

Workplace productivity is what drives success to the business. The more productive and engaged your employees are, the better solutions and ideas they will come up with. In order to achieve this goal, it is important to consider the varying factors that could be disrupting employee productivity. Once determined, combat the problems and prioritize how to find resolutions.

Here are the top three factors that affect workplace productivity.

1. Environmental Factors

The workplace environment is a crucial factor that affects productivity. Your organization's environment influences employee performance, mood, desire, and drive to work. Some of the aspects to consider are-

Temperature and Lighting
The temperature of your office must be adequately regulated, recommended to set between 70 and 73 degrees Fahrenheit.

For lighting, if your workplace has a lot of natural light, that is great! Natural lighting helps with circadian rhythms and keeps your employees productive. If you wish to create a relaxing environment with artificial lighting, understand how your workplace is built as it will help you come up with ideas. In both cases, always make sure that all desks have sufficient lightning, and no one is experiencing glares or shadows on their screens.

Air Quality
Air quality in the workplace leads to overall improved health of your employees, which makes them productive. It is estimated that employees who work in well-ventilated environments are 60% more productive than those who spend their day with bad air quality in their surroundings. To regulate this, install adequate ventilation systems to reduce carbon dioxide and other toxic chemicals from the workplace environment and set clear policies about cigarettes, dusk, smoke, and other pollutants.

Layout
Work on making sure that your office layout is well structured and promotes both privacy and collaboration.

Complimentary Coffee
Everyone loves coffee, and some people actually cannot work without caffeine in their bodies. Providing complimentary coffee to your employees is possibly one of the cheapest things you can do to improve their productivity.

2. Communication

Communication is crucial in any workplace, but effective communication isn't easy. Employees must feel welcomed and motivated to share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns freely in any work environment. This will allow the cultivation and nurturing of ideas and solutions. Any good work environment promotes discussions, debates, and periodic employee sessions. To keep the communication factor at the place, consider improving the following-

Communication Flow from Managers
Do you know that managers are the reason for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement? Managerial communication is the key to performance improvement and driving efficiency in the workplace. Delivering occasional feedback, constructive criticism, and words of encouragement are all crucial responsibilities of a good manager. It is not an easy task for managers to give undivided attention to everyone, but certainly not impossible if delegated strategically.

Training and Education
Hiring skilled employees is a job half-done. To get the other half done, you need to provide them with the proper training. Training and education of employees have a significant impact on their productivity level, and it also equips them with the latest skills and knowledge to excel in the workplace.

Employee Happiness
If your workplace does not promote cooperation, empathy, and healthy competition, your employees are going to be demotivated, unproductive, and disengaged. To facilitate open communication, collaboration, and happiness in your workplace, surprise your employees on their big days with some tasty food, host happy hours, encourage healthy competition and also have a reward system to recognize their hard work.

Workflow Protocols
Work on setting up workflow protocols because they teach the necessities that your employees must know while working with your company. Educate your employees with all the basics, setup guidelines, protocols, solutions, collaboration channels, and more. Also, reward those employees who adapt to your workflow protocols quickly and do their best to follow them.

3. Tools and Equipment

Rome wasn't built in a day, and it definitely wasn't built without the right tools. Your employees might have the right skill set, but without the right tools to support their expertise, their performance and productivity will always be knee-high. The corporate world is changing at a rapid speed, and to keep up with it, consider implementing the following-

Workplace Ergonomics
We have all experienced bad back, a stiff neck, or fatigue once or twice in the workplace. It is due to bad seating, terrible desks, and improper desktop positioning. These may sound like minimal things, but focusing on ergonomics can highly elevate your employee's productivity levels. Invest in some good chairs, desks, and lightning and see how the performance goes up as your employee's discomfort goes down.

Orientation and Onboarding
When an employee joins your office, navigating the workplace is not easy. According to Laszlo Bock (Google's former SVP of People) in his book Work Rules Insights From Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead, Google implemented an onboarding checklist after which the managers saw a 25% jump in productivity from their new hires.

Having a similar onboarding checklist in your workplace can also help your new employees to understand the policies and workflow faster and also make them feel welcome in their new office space much more quickly.

Collaboration Tools and Processes
Collaboration is key to any company's success. Without proper teamwork, you can not possibly expect to receive good performance from your employees. Implement collaboration tools, team working processes, team building activities, and the like. It will ensure that your employees are collaborating and building each other up. As a result, this will automatically raise their productivity levels at a significant rate.