If you manage a team of employees, then productivity and efficiency are likely your favorite buzzwords. We’re all looking for the best hack that allows for better performance while lowering operating expenses. Based on my experiences working with my team, I’ve observed four commonplace office policies that can do way more harm than good.
Whether it’s opening up an office space to maximize collaboration, or micromanaging employees by constantly filling out reports to maximize accountability, rethinking these 4 office policies can boost performance by more than 15% while lowering operating expenses.
- Standing Desks vs Cubicles.
Flexibility can even be extended to telecommuting. Employees with a strong sense of self-discipline can work with supervisors remotely to complete assignments and collaborate with team members. Instant messaging, video conferencing via Skype and Google Hangouts, email and telephones allow for employees to be in constant contact from the comfort of their home office.
Take a page from Ctrip’s book. Their workforce participated in a study that was published in the Harvard Business Review. Employees that answered customer calls from home, on average, handled 13.5% more customer calls than the employees working from the company’s office. Not only was Ctrip able to reduce office space requirements for their workforce, but they were able to dramatically increase employee efficiency.
On another finding, the standing desks in the office space considerably add up to employee performance. For instance, this study conducted by Texas A&M University found that newer employees who used standing desks were found to be 45% more productive than their seating colleagues and this performance further increased to 53% over the span of few months. So, the cubicle culture can be curtailed by implementing an efficient setup of standing desks.
I got to speak with a manager at Updowndesk.com.au on how to effectively setup a standing desk that can add up to staff performance and he recommended, “Adjust the height of your standing desk so that when your hands are on the keyboard (in a natural way – as if you’re typing) there is a 90-100 degree angle at the elbow.” He further suggested, “Any range between 90 degrees and 100 degrees is fine for most people and it is fine if you find 90 degrees more comfortable than 100 degrees, and vise-versa. Problems can occur if you go outside of this range.” This is one piece of advice that stood by me the most.
- Open office floorplans can actually cost 15% of your productivity.
If you’re in management, it’s likely that you’ve heard others in corporate America praise the trend towards open office spaces that literally breakdown walls and enable every level of a company to constantly collaborate with the rest of the organization. While there are definitely advantages to an open floorplan in your office, it’s not without its drawbacks.
One of the drawbacks was highlighted in a Harvard study by Professor Ethan Bernstein in Administrative Science Quarterly. The study embedded participant-observers in one of the largest mobile phone factories in China. Employees that knew their manager or supervisor was closely monitoring their work actually dropped in performance. Employees that had a reasonable level of privacy to achieve their daily objectives were able to achieve a significant boost in productivity.
While transparency in the workplace can be a good thing, and should be encouraged, there is a need to balance transparency with employee privacy. An employee that feels like they are being constantly monitored by a manager or supervisor at the desk next to them will feel compelled to be perfect and follow the company’s policies to the letter. An employee that’s given the opportunity to execute without their supervisor watching them work can innovate and find ways to more efficiently complete their task, even if it doesn’t follow policy exactly.
- Death by process.
The Boston Consulting Group did a study on the number of processes and bureaucratic layers corporate America imposes on its departments and teams. Per the study:
The survey results show that over the past 15 years, the amount of procedures, vertical layers, interface structures, coordination bodies, and decision approvals needed in each of those firms has increased by anywhere from 50% to 350%. According to our analysis over a longer time horizon, complicatedness increased by 6.7% a year, on average, over the past five decades.
Managers and supervisors are spending as much as 40% of their time filling out paperwork designed to track progress towards organizational goals and priorities. While accountability is important, an avalanche of paperwork stifles innovation and collaboration. Streamlining company reporting and reducing the number of filings that leaders in an organization file directly improves morale and allows for greater execution towards building a proactive workforce.
For example, a sales manager might be required to update and file 10-20 forms per week. These updates may have been designed to help assure compliance with the policies set by corporate management. However, the process could likely be just as effective with just 5-10 separate reports. Reducing the number of forms saves time and allows for team development to become the focus, instead of plugging numbers into a spreadsheet.
- The 9-5 routine.
Does your office work off of a strict 9-5 schedule? Is there a path forward that allows for greater flexibility in the hours your employees work? Shift work might be a necessity in a call-center or an assembly-line where synchronized production is key. However, many office jobs can still be completed between 1pm and 8pm instead of the standard 9-5. Or, if you have an employee that’s more productive at night, what’s wrong with letting them set their own schedule?
Moving to an objective based structure, instead of an hour based position, is a great way to get the most out of your team when they feel energized and driven to produce. Employees in a more flexible environment still clock in and out, and they’re required to log 40 hours per week, but they set the timing of those hours for themselves (within some common sense limits).
The 9-5 is dying a slow and painful death. Nearly a third of part-time workers state they choose to work less than 40 hours a week because they value the flexibility that part time work gives them to follow their passions. Flexible hours reduc stress levels on employees by empowering them to take care of their personal priorities in life, while still achieving great things at work.
Parting thoughts.
Take this opportunity to step back and rethink your own company’s policies on how employees collaborate with their supervisors. Maybe it’s time to give employees the space they need to be productive, and reduce the avalanche of paperwork falling on the desks of team supervisors? Thoughtful revision of standard corporate policies is a great way to make sure your team makes every day counts!
