This is Volume 2 of the Workplace Productivity Tips.
6. Schedule fun time
Let's face it, work can be dreadful for lots of people, especially on a Monday. Although the best thing to do is to hire people who love what they do, that's not always easy to do. Besides, during the interview, people always put their best face forward so it's hard to really tell who will actually like their job anyway.
When work is long and boring, productivity goes way down. So one way that may work is to schedule a time during the week or month for employees to have some fun. There are dozens of things you can do and what will be effective will depend on the company and the type of people it employs. Casually Fridays just doesn't cut it. Working at a boring job in jeans doesn't really help much.
The best thing to do is just ask your for your employees' opinion. You can throw some kind of potluck or some sort of theme party every now and then. I know those ideas are sort of lame, but if you're not doing anything somewhat fun currently, then anything might work. Look, your employees are already spending a junk of their life working to make you richer, the least you can do is make it somewhat fun for them. Happy employees are more productive, which means more money for you.
7. Update tools
If your staff is stuck using outdated computer software and office equipment, it can be hurting overall workplace productivity. See what upgrades are necessary to increase productivity and invest the money to replace it. Doing so will increase your outcome and make more money in the long run so it'll be worth it.
8. Spend more time solving problems
Many times, meetings are spent on discussing the problem rather than solving it. If you want to get the best out of a meeting that involves solving a problem, then the majority of the time should be spent solving the problem. You can talk about it all day long but that's not going to solve a thing. Have your staff know what the problem is before the meeting even starts so they can think of solutions ahead of time.
9. Handling emails
How many times have you read a same piece of email more than once? If you're like most people, too many. Doing this will only hurt your productivity. What you want to do every time you receive email is one of three things. You either save it in a designated folder, answer it, or delete it.
If you have hundreds of emails in your inbox and don't want to delete them because you think you might need it someday, then just store it in a "may need someday" folder. Most likely you'll never read those emails again. If you haven't had to refer to an email for more than a few months, chances are, you never will and can therefore just delete it.
10. Reply to short emails right away
If an email can be answered in a few sentences once you read it, just answer it right away. It'll save you the time from having to come back and reading it again later on. If the answer that is required will take some time and thought, then you can save it for later. This will help increase workplace productivity if everyone in the office applies this tip.
