If your job has meant you’ve had to work from home for the past year due to the pandemic, then you’ll be all too familiar with zoom calls, balancing home schooling and trying to find the best area to work from. There’s no denying that at times, it’s hard to maintain a good level of productivity when working from home, as you lack the social aspect of office life and there are more distractions around you.
For obvious reasons, the past year has been extremely difficult and we’ll have all faced periods where it’s hard to keep motivated. During these times it’s important that business leaders put the correct plans in place to ensure they have a productive workforce, and there are many ways in which this can be done.
FLG have launched a campaign which looks to provide business leaders with a range of ways in which they can boost productivity amongst their employees. After reading through their tips, we found them very helpful and because of this, we wanted to share some of them with you.
Provide the correct tools and equipment
There’s nothing more frustrating than when you have a lot of work to complete, but your laptop keeps freezing or you’re using software which is outdated. As a business leader, it should be a top priority to provide all of your workforce with high quality equipment and advise them on the best programs and software to use.
With many people still working from home and the possibility that this will be a new way of life going forward, it’s important that you still encourage your workforce to communicate, even if they’re not sitting next to each other. Software such as Zoom, Google Meet and Slack have all been hugely successful over the past year in terms of allowing colleagues to communicate effectively.
Be open to flexible working
If one thing has become clear over the past year, it’s that the typical 9-5 day doesn’t always mean maximum productivity. As many parents have had to balance their own work whilst helping to home school their children, it has meant that business leaders have had to be more flexible.
Knowing that you can be flexible with your hours can often increase productivity and lower stress levels, so it’s important business leaders take a more open-minded approach going forward. It’s unlikely that the standard 9-5 office hours will be brought into practice again, so make sure your employees are aware of this and help take some of the strain off of them.
In this post we wanted to highlight how simple it is for business leaders to promote high levels of productivity amongst their employees. Simple changes can go a long way and it’s important all businesses take note of this.
It would be great to hear if you have made any changes to the way your company works and if it has made your employees feel more productive. Share your ideas on social, using #AProductiveWorkforce.