Mobile phones, chatty co-workers, these are just a few examples of ways in which an employee can get distracted in the workplace and pulled out of the flow of their daily duties. A little chit-chat here and there is hardly an issue but it’s important to be able to identify and cut-out workplace distractions before they begin to negatively impact your business.
A chatty and loud co-worker can be the biggest distraction that many employees may have to face in their place of work. Not only can they be loud and disruptive but they will often engage their co-workers in conversation, putting a stopper on workplace productivity and workflow.
As an employer it is important that you put an early stop to constant chatting and implement rules and policies regarding prolonged, inappropriate and unnecessary employee interactions.
Cyber-loafing is a growing form of procrastination within many workplaces. With a large number of jobs involving staff being sat in front of a computer, a great deal of working time is lost to news sites, clothing websites and other non work related websites and apps. More discrete than office chatter, many cyber-loafers may slide under the radar with their time wasting going completely unnoticed. Studies have shown that in some extreme cases, some employees spend 60-80% of their time online at work, on non-work related websites. For some it is much easier to lose focus when they have the entire internet at your disposal.
Here are some top tips to prevent such procrastination:
Make your employees aware of the fact that you’ve caught them procrastinating – let them know that their time wasting has had a negative effect on productivity
Reward, don’t punish – Rather than punishing employees who waste time and procrastinate, reward those who finish work quicker. These rewards could be small incentives or an early finish, either way, they’ll have a lot more focus
Make example of productive workers – Use their work ethic to motivate and inspire others to get back on track
Ban social media in the workplace – Unless your employee is directly involved with handling social media accounts, ban them. They are the biggest time waster and can be incredibly addictive
Educate your employees – If you outline what levels of chatter are acceptable, your employees are more likely to adhere to guidelines.
Do your employees ever get carried away with office chatter? Do you catch your employees cyberloafing? Let us know in the comments and share your experiences with us on twitter @HPC_HRservices