Our business has to keep up with lots of changes and challenges every day. For which we need to have our productivity at max. We need to plan ahead and stay ahead as the competition is pretty high out there. Without a proper productivity plan in going our business can fall behind within a moment’s notice. That is why having a plan or knowing how to increase productivity in business is very important.
We have come up with plans to increase the productivity in business so that you do not need to worry anymore. Read along to boost your business performance.
What is Productivity in Business?
Productivity in business plays a major role to maintain its profitability and competitiveness. By increasing the productivity level of your business, you will be able to generate higher profits without adding more hands. Higher productivity also increases individual income.
Therefore, productivity in business is how much work is done or how much of a goal is achieved in a given period of time. Productivity is the measure of business performance that shows how efficiently and effectively people, companies, or industries change their input sources into output. Here input being labour and capital, and output is like goods or services.
Productivity is calculated by dividing output by input.
Productivity = Output / Input
Where output is the income of a business or unit of products and services made in a specific time period, and input is any resource used to create products and services. Let’s explain this by giving you an easy example. If you are given 5 oranges, and you make 1 litre of orange juice, your productivity is 1-litre per 5 oranges. But if someone can make 1 litre of orange juice maintaining the same quality with 4 oranges, then this person is more productive. This person needs fewer oranges to create the same amount of orange juice, making them more productive.
In a more professional context, if you do a task within 2 hours, but another person does the same task in 1.5 hours, that means the other person is more productive than you.
Increasing productivity in business means either of the following two:
1. Increase output relative to input.
2. Decrease input relative to output.
Moreover, productivity depends on lots of factors that come from within and also externally.
How to Increase Productivity in Business?
Increasing productivity in business has standout to be an essential aspect. Furthermore, productivity has a domino effect on every aspect of your business. This is because when one thing is not on time or in quality, another section of the company is also affected. Big or small, the business needs to utilize the resources they have efficiently that will help them to stay ahead of the competition. It can be time, money, raw materials, and anything else that works as an input. Furthermore, the output is of quality to ensure business value.
Without a proper plan in action or without any particular plan for increasing productivity, it can be hard for businesses to meet their goals and make the profits they deserve. As a result, here are some great ways that you can increase productivity in business at any point.
1. Set Realistic Plans and Goals
Start by having a plan for your business. You need to have a bigger picture in mind. First, set a time frame in which you want to achieve a specific target of your business. Then plan out what are the necessary workforce you need to accomplish this target. Let them see the bigger picture of how they contribute to reaching the target. Finally, break them down in your workforce into teams. Remember to make short time and long time goals, which helps everyone to see the bigger picture.
Then each team can break down their tasks and make a plan according to months, weeks, and days. Once the employees are down to work and completing their hours, help and motivate them. Giving your employees and workforce clear goals to work on every day helps them improve their productivity and which in turn increases productivity in business. People tend to work efficiently and when they have short and clear goals which add up to a long term goal.
2. Track and Limit Your Time Spent on a Task
We are human, and lethargy and distraction is a common thing we face every day. One moment we are doing an important task the next moment, we are distracted by a notification or chatting with a co-worker. Whenever we start working, there are lots of distractions that come into play. Without distraction or any kind of procrastination, our productivity can be higher.
Therefore, it is important to understand how long you take to accomplish a particular task. There are lots of applications out there that you can track the time you spend doing a particular task.
You can also track the time you spend on social media or other applications that can be a cause of low productivity. By doing so, you can identify where you are spending your time and how to reduce it.
3. Set Priorities to the Task
When you are planning your tasks, set priorities for them. Effectively organising and scheduling your task will help you build a routine and prioritise urgent and important tasks. The first thing you need to realize is that one person cannot do everything. So you and your business employees must know what task they want on their plate and delegate the task that another person can do.
Make it a rule for everyone to sort throughout their task. Everyone must keep in mind that less is more. If you just keep on adding to the to-do list, the list will just become big, it can increase your anxiety level. Rather, set a specific amount of to-do with different levels of priorities.
Divide your task into an urgent, not urgent, delegate, and eliminate.
- Perform the urgent and important tasks first.
- Schedule or keep the tasks for later which are important but doesn’t need urgent attention.
- Delegate the task which is urgent, but that is not important to your goals, or someone else can do the task better.
- Delete the task that is neither important nor urgent.
4. Set a Realistic Deadline
Giving realistic deadlines to the plan and task is very important for productivity in business. Without a proper deadline on sight, you and your staff can go on and on with your job without any efficient output. A deadline helps to give you and your team the push that all need to work every day and complete the tasks within the due date.
For open-ended tasks and or any task at hand, a deadline is very effective. With a deadline, you can stay focus on the task at hand, and it makes it easier to prioritize your tasks. Deadlines also make it easier to assess you and your teams’ workload.
5. Focus on One Task at a Time
A lot of us like to multitask and believe it to be an important life skill. But multitasking can make us lose our focus and leave us burnt out and adversely affect our productivity. Also, when we try to do many tasks at once, it can result in time and productivity loss. In addition, multitasking can leave you stress, and you can get distracted more often.
Moreover, the chance of making mistakes increase while you are multitasking. Therefore, commit to a single task before you move on to the next one.
6. Create Suitable Working Conditions
The condition in which you and your team works can affect productivity in business. A workplace needs to be well organized, breathy, well lit, and air-conditioned to provide comfort to you and your team. The place you work at needs to make you and your team feel at ease.
Moreover, the workplace is a place where you and your employees will work 9-10 hours a day. Without a healthy condition to work in, employees can fall mentally or physically ill. Therefore, make sure to establish a friendly working culture and maintain workplace hygiene.
7. Use Communication and Collaboration Tools
Communication and collaboration tools are highly necessary for increasing productivity in business. It is absolutely necessary when you are working remotely and also beneficial in a physical workplace.
In an office, you want to ask a quick question to your peers, you will need to go and ask them, and one small question may become a long session of chat and updates. Communication and collaboration tools help everyone to communicate fast and without unnecessary interruptions.
Applications like Slack, Asana, Click Up, Trello can help you make easier communication. You can also record and schedule all your tasks and update them according to their current standing. As these are collaborative tools, you and your team can see updates on each other work and how far you have progressed. For storing files and accessing them from multiple devices and at any time, Google Cloud and Microsoft OneDrive can be life-saving.
8. Take Regular Breaks
Though it is kept for last, taking regular breaks can be one of the best ways to increase productivity. Even robots need to get charged at some point, and we are human beings. So to be more productive in business, it is convenient to take breaks after working 90 minutes in a focused mood.
In fact, after you work 90 minutes without any destruction, your productivity might start to decline. So work in four or five 90 minutes batches and reach maximum productivity level. During the breaks, try to move around, play or do small recreational activities. If everyone in your team follows the same, you can highly increase productivity in your business.
Last Thought!
Increasing your productivity in business needs dedication and effort from all members of the business. There must be someone in the business who will continuously boost and motivate and inspire them to work. Appreciating each member of your team is equally important to increase productivity in business. For more on productivity in business, join our Business Productivity Training Course and get professional knowledge to boost your productivity.
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