Believe it or not, you can never have a 100% productive employee. On top of that, 79% employees do not think that they are work-oriented for the whole duration of their work day. Why is that? Do they not want to work? Well, that is mostly not the case. Most employees cannot remain productive because their focus frays from the various disruptions in their environment.
So, as HR and managers, we should fix the mindset that employees are not working and instead create a culture that promotes focus and helps employees remain productive without unnecessary interruptions.
For that, you must start today by educating yourself on how to best do it while still staying mindful of your employees’ emotional and mental well-being.
Understanding the Challenges of Focused Work
Before stepping into what HR personnel can do to help employees focus better, we must dwell on the common productivity challenges that disrupt their attention during work hours. With the information at hand, you will be better equipped to target areas of improvement and cultivate a focused work culture.
Distractions. Employees’ momentum when immersed in work can frequently break down due to various distractions in their vicinity. Be it a meeting or environmental factors, once broken, it is very difficult for the employee to get back to the same pace. Ultimately, these few minutes of distractions can eat up major chunks of productivity from their time. Mentioned below are the distractors that you should watch out for:
- Unplanned conversations
- Background noise
- Random quick questions
- Emotional stress
Multitasking. This approach is praised for its efficiency, but we should recognize by now that appearances can be deceptive, which is exactly the case with multitasking. Constantly switching between tasks, in reality, reduces productivity and drains energy more quickly. If your employees feel pressured to get all tasks done at once and continue to juggle between emails, project work, etc., then your company is in dire need of new policies and reforms.
Digital noise. How frequently do your employees pick up their phones only because they ping? No matter how insignificant the notification might be, their attention is now fragmented. Even without their phone contributing to the digital noise, the reminders from work-related apps on an employee’s desktop can have the same negative effect. To make matters worse, there is little to no awareness around the adverse impacts of digital chatter. While focusing on responsiveness, companies, therefore, forget that hours are lost every day because of these constant pop-ups.
Undefined boundaries. With technological advancement and improved accessibility, work has gradually leaked into employees’ personal lives without them realizing so. From unexpected, late-night emails that require a response to catching up on texts during break, it can seem like they are not allowed to pause. This constant display of dedication can eventually drain employees and leave them unproductive.
A pairing of one or more of these productivity challenges can ultimately trample a focused work culture in front of your very eyes. With the insight at hand, it is evident why HR personnel are needed because leaving employees to their own devices and expecting maximum output is a disaster bound to happen.
The Role of Employee Productivity Monitoring Tools in Building Focus and Preventing Burnout
Now, how can the productivity challenges above be managed? To address them promptly, many organizations are moving towards smarter solutions like TimeBee productivity tracker. The app is designed to monitor employee activity throughout a workday in real-time. Once installed, it runs in the target devices’ background without any disruptions or requiring much input.
TimeBee productivity monitoring software logs the following data for complete visibility:
Total hours and attendance. The amount of time worked by each employee is recorded automatically and then put in online timesheets. Likewise, for attendance, all users’ start and end times are recorded, and various tags like late arrival, early leave, short hours, etc., are assigned as required. With the data at hand, employees are allowed to have a more flexible schedule while still staying work-oriented.
AI-driven productivity insights. TimeBee records every user’s web and app activity. The newly detected websites or apps are added to the web dashboard, which can then be ranked as productive, unproductive, or neutral. Based on the time spent by each user on every web or app and their particular ratings, the total time is divided into productive, unproductive, neutral, etc. The details provided by TimeBee, hence, enable employers and HR individuals to give data-driven productivity analysis and offer fair incentives to high performers.
Project Related Reports. The time logged by the app is not general but divided into projects and their tasks. Depending on each employee’s contribution to a project’s tasks, the total progress of a project is measured. The data, therefore, provides a detailed activity breakdown of an employee and helps HR recognize areas where more focus is required.
Screenshots. TimeBee also takes periodic screenshots of the user’s desktop screen for insight into their workflow, focused hours, and more.
Other features of TimeBee include payroll calculation, leave management, client billing, and project profitability.
All in all, TimeBee monitoring software for employees can prove to be a helpful solution when employee productivity and the company’s growth are at stake. However, you must implement it properly so your employees do not become one of the 45% who are burned out by organizational change.
Other Strategies to Enhance Focus at Work
Is a productivity monitoring software all HR professionals need in their company for a focused work culture? Highly doubtful. Why? Because while monitoring software is important and very insightful, it works best when paired with other strategies, like the ones discussed below.
1. Promote deep work blocks. Promoting uninterrupted periods for prioritizing high-focus tasks can be a good step towards a focused work culture. During deep work blocks, employees can produce quality work without having to multitask. As a result of this approach, they do not feel burnt out while still performing well on their project tasks.
The first step to do so is to communicate with the team lead and identify core tasks that demand deep focus. Once identified, you can then encourage teams to create deep work blocks in a shared calendar, which informs others of a “non-negotiable”, “no-disturbance” period across the department. Not only outside but also within the team, managers should be educated on how to respect these blocks by not sending any calls or messages to their employees.
2. Cut unnecessary meetings. Do you really believe employees need 10 hours a week for meetings alone? Well, that depends, but in all honesty, most meetings are unnecessary and also tend to be unreasonably long. These destructive patterns eventually reduce productive time and drain employees mentally. Not only that, they are more likely to be frustrated and disengaged when their work is constantly put on hold for unfocused meetings. If countered sensibly, fewer meetings can free up more time for focused work.
But how? That is where HR professionals have to step in. You have to begin by auditing the meeting culture in your organization. Then, you can train managers to establish time limits and agendas for every meeting. Likewise, encourage them to have “no-meeting days” now and then.
3. Offer flexibility and encourage breaks. Companies need to acknowledge that rigid work schedules do not make productive employees. Instead, all it does is disengage them and leave them unhappy. Not only that, but continuous periods of concentration without rest also cause exhaustion and lower performance. Therefore, for a better-focused work culture, companies need to give up some control and offer employees autonomy through better flexibility.
In a flexible workplace, employees can take breaks when they most need them, which then improves their focus over time. To encourage this, you can recommend the Pomodoro technique to employees. Using the technique, they can take short breaks every 25 minutes to better support their mental stamina. Moreover, you can introduce SOPs and policies that support flexibility.
4. Set realistic expectations. Allow your employees to maintain a balance between life and work. At no time should the expectations you have of them be unrealistic. If you are not mindful of the daily KPIs and push your employees needlessly, then they will eventually burn out and not remain efficient. As an HR professional, it is your responsibility to ensure that the goals set by the organization are not vague or excessive.
To effectively counter this common issue at workplaces, you should work with managers to review workload and align KPIs with actual employee capacity. Not only that, but you should also take it upon yourself to encourage SMART goals for better clarity and achievability.
Conclusion
We hope that our discussion has equipped you, as an HR professional, to create a focused workplace while still watching out for your employees. Remember not to lose sight because you have to create the perfect balance between efficiency and well-being for satisfied employees and a happy workplace.
Moreover, be it one of the strategies or the productivity monitoring software you opt for, the choice must be dictated by your company’s specific needs and overall environment.
After all, who knows how to get things done the company’s way better than the HR?
Read Also : HR Is Not a Support Function—It’s the CEO’s Most Powerful Growth Engine
The Fine Balance: Navigating Work, Life, and Mental Wellbeing
From Gatekeeping to Gateway Building: Transforming How Organisations Create Access
Leadership In Talent Management: A Powerful Driver for Economic Growth
