GossipBlower

Why Employees Who Are Busy Are Not Necessarily Productive

Being busy and being productive are not synonymous. People in the office may look busy but it does not necessarily means that they are productive. So instead of checking if your employees are busy, maybe you should check their productions instead. An employee may seem in relax mode because he has already finished all his tasks and is just enjoying some well deserved down time while the other employee seems busy because he is rushing to finish the same tasks.

But why are employees not being productive while looking busy? Here are some possible reasons:

• Inefficient – Maybe the reason your employee looks busy without the equivalent production is because he is being inefficient on how he goes about his tasks. There are problems with redundant tasks, unnecessary work, and unclear order of priorities. What you can do is set some definite business processes so that your employees have a clear guideline on how they should properly do their jobs.
• Too much time on the phone – Not that it means that they are using the phone for personal use (though that is a possibility as well) but maybe they are on the phone too much because they are too busy trying to call somebody important or they are trying to wait for an important call. What you can do is invest in a phone system to manage the way your employees make and receive calls. This way, they can let unanswered phones go to voicemail or forward important calls to their mobile phone. As a result, their time is no longer tied to the telephone. There are a number of affordable cloud-hosted PBX in the market like RingCentral phone systems. Just research about the features you need to streamline the communication aspect of the business.
• Too much time spent on social networking sites – It is not wrong to advocate for an active social network presence, but if your employees are more concerned about re-tweeting or sharing than actually doing their jobs then it becomes a problem. If you can’t completely prohibit access to social media sites like Twitter or Facebook, then treat it as a reward. Tell your employees that if they have finished their tasks ahead of time, then they are allowed to open Facebook, twitter or any other social media site. This way, it becomes an incentive for your employees to be more productive.
• Too many meetings – While meetings do hold an important role in running a company, it is still time taken away from accomplishing regular tasks. That is why meet only if it is necessary. If it can be communicated through email or phone, then opt for that. If a meeting has to be done, invite only those that are involved and would be able to contribute; no need to invite the whole team when majority of them are not part of the decision making. Last, make it brief. Some meetings go on forever because of side topics and even office gossip.