Surprising Factors that Can Affect Productivity

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Surprising Factors that Can Affect Productivity

Productivity is key in any organization or other personal projects and is one of the most sought after outputs. When employees are productive, it does not cost much for the business to achieve its set targets. If you are Jeff Bezos and quit Amazon as the CEO, then maybe you don’t need to be productive and can just count your money for the rest of your life.

Such yield is impacted by various factors that tend to take a toll on the skills and work habits of the employees. There are surprising factors that can affect people’s productivity significantly and they include:

1. Temperature variation

A very hot or cold room can make it difficult for you to focus on your work. Productivity and efficiency decrease significantly during cold temperatures. A research study conducted in 2009 revealed that cold temperatures lower people’s productivity by 50%.

For this reason, it is paramount to ensure that rooms either in the office or at home remain well heated to prevent low yield among people. A hot temperature also worsens things. A higher temperature has been associated with increased absenteeism at work. So, how do you regulate the temperature in your home or office to promote productivity? Installing thermostats and HVAC equipment is the optimal way to control these extreme temperatures.

2. Room lighting

Inadequate lighting can cause you to strain your eyes as well as get a headache, experience inner weakness, and drowsiness. These symptoms can reduce your overall output as your body struggles to adjust. The use of artificial lighting from high-intensity energy sources such as halogen and fluorescent lights also affects human health. In a study by the American Society of Interior Design more than half of the employees are not pleased by the lighting in their offices.

Therefore to ensure that employees do their work diligently, it is essential to renovate their working areas to ensure that there is sufficient natural lighting. For this you could partner with the right general contractors who will make sure to create the perfect working environment for you and your team. Working in such optimal conditions improves work’s behavior, mood, and reduces their anxiety levels. In a nutshell, natural lighting has positive psychological effects and should be made use of to enhance productivity.

3. Lack of ergonomic equipment

Ergonomics can be categorized into organizational, cognitive, and physical domains. Organizational ergonomics has to do with the optimization of structures such as policies and processes in the company. The cognitive domain is concerned with mental processes including memory, perception, motor response, and reasoning. Lastly, physical ergonomics is centered on anthropometric, physiological, and human anatomical features and their relation to physical activity.

One Office Furniture Townsville expert states that employees who have access to and work in ergonomic workstations are known to focus better on the tasks at hand. Those that lack such facilities are prone to making mistakes that they would not make when using better equipment. When well implemented, ergonomics improves productivity and makes it possible for people to complete tasks with ease and at a faster rate.

4. Inappropriate equipment

Lack of proper equipment and resources also lowers productivity. It can be frustrating for your employees to work in a setting with limited resources. Such frustration lowers people’s morale to work and excel in their assigned tasks.

While you may prefer to lower the cost of production by reducing the budget you spend on equipment, it can cause significant harm to your output. To achieve productivity, employees need access to proper machinery, applications, and furniture for them to give their best.

5. Inadequate training

Training of employees is critical to the success of your business and it impacts the productivity of your organization. Failure to train workers regularly gets you average and sometimes substandard work output which makes it impossible to achieve company goals.

As a leader, you should ensure that employees are trained in different areas that improve how they perform their assigned duties. Training works to cultivate new skills and reinforce old ones. To benefit from employee training, you have customized it based on the needs and capacities of your staff.

Individualized training makes each employee feel valued and appreciated for their contribution that prompts them to work harder. You could train your employees on:

  • – Leadership
  • – Teamwork
  • – Time management
  • – Cross-training
  • – Emotional intelligence

Conclusion

Productivity is how an organization converts the inputs into goods and services. It is what keeps you in business at all times. When it is lacking, you risk a significant loss of revenue. When improved, the factors discussed above can turn your business around and have you cashing out big money.