Making a productive office for your self is hard sufficient, however doing it for the whole staff? That is an entire completely different ball sport.
As a advertising staff chief for a few years, I realized firsthand the significance — and the challenges — of constructing a productive office.
However wherever I labored, my objective was the identical: to encourage my staff and assist them break by way of boundaries to realize their greatest. I led the best way, guiding every member from newbie to professional. I turned juniors into specialists and even staff leads.
Being a staff chief taught me that making a productive office isn‘t about guidelines and plans — it’s about folks. How do they really feel? What motivates them? Do they really feel heard?
On this piece, I am going to share my private insights blended with suggestions from ten wonderful trade consultants that will help you construct a extremely productive office.
Desk of Contents
What’s Office Productiveness?
Office productivity is the contribution every staff makes to the corporate’s success. You’ll be able to measure it in numerous methods — like how a lot work will get performed in an hour, how a lot cash every worker brings in, or how typically tasks are completed on time.
However there’s extra to productiveness than simply, properly, producing. The “how” we produce additionally issues, and it’s a giant a part of equipping ourselves and our workplaces to turn into extra environment friendly.
We have to deal with productiveness extra holistically, or as Dan Shipper stated in his TED discuss, “We expect productiveness is about software program, notebooks and to-do listing frameworks, calendars, schedules, and inboxes. And it’s all of these issues, nevertheless it’s additionally about our brains and our our bodies.”
So what ought to a productive office seem like? Listed below are 4 issues it ought to prioritize.
1. Wholesome Work-Life Stability
When your staff appears like they’re consistently in work mode, with no room to breathe or pursue different pursuits, productiveness suffers.
Working extra doesn’t imply extra work will get performed — particularly not high quality work. Individuals want a superb steadiness between work and free time. They should recharge and really feel supported in managing their private lives alongside their work.
And that’s not simply my opinion. A 2022 study on the interactive affect of work-life advantages backs this up. It discovered that perks like versatile work hours and childcare assist result in happier groups, a greater work environment, and everybody being extra productive.
2. Good Communication and Collaboration
Being a staff chief is about greater than being an authority determine. Positive, you could have extra obligations — approvals, guiding the staff — however you are not the only thought generator or decision-maker.
In response to a 2023 analysis study, most workers stated they felt ignored of selections. Evidently, this shouldn’t be the case, since communication and collaboration are important to true productiveness.
Throughout my time as the pinnacle of outbound content material advertising at Serpstat, I led my staff by holding communication open, and I genuinely welcomed each strategic or inventive suggestion. I discovered it useful when somebody supplied a unique perspective, even when it contradicted my very own.
In spite of everything, being a pacesetter did not imply I had all the suitable solutions — it meant I wanted to empower my staff by exhibiting I valued collaborative concepts, battle decision, and clean teamwork.
3. Clear Objectives and Aims
A 2022 Forrester study discovered that solely 39% of individuals absolutely understood their firm’s targets. However, 78% of them utterly understood their private/particular person targets.
That poses the query: Is it actually needed for staff members to know company-level targets?
No.
Is it useful?
Sure.
In the event that they perceive how their particular person targets match into the corporate’s targets, they’ll really feel extra productive and motivated to hit the goal.
When all workers perceive an organization’s core motives, targets, and mission, they present wonderful outcomes. Because the bestseller e-book “Start with WHY” suggests, sharing your organization’s mission with workers, and serving to them really feel invested in it, should be in each profitable firm’s DNA.
Mission alignment additionally helps with motivation. Mateusz Calik, CEO at Delante, shared an fascinating story on how he acknowledged the ability of objective setting:
“I’ve at all times hated and felt so drained and undermined in jobs the place there was no clear finish to a activity … What helped me was a system of labor my second-ever boss uncovered me to. Set deadlines, set tasks, and set functions. It’s the true antidote to procrastination.”
Learn how to Enhance Productiveness within the Office
Take breaks to maintain at peak efficiency.
Breaks should not losing time. Breaks are for recharging batteries after which getting again to do extra and higher.
A current study confirmed that breaks and self-care are essential for higher productiveness and general well being. Employees want a minimum of an hour of relaxation for each eight hours they work. It is best if the breaks really break up the working hours, however after all, it is determined by the job — simply don’t stick with your monitor throughout a break. Getting away out of your display screen and your workstation is the objective right here.
Professional tip: I take advantage of the Pomodoro technique for high quality work — 25 minutes of efficient work after which 5 minutes of relaxation. And people 5 minutes imply actual relaxation: a brief stroll, stretching, ingesting water, and respiratory contemporary air.
Whereas it looks as if it could be simpler to take extra frequent breaks whereas working remotely, that’s not at all times the case. Deb Mukherjee, head of selling at Numeral, emphasised that “we overwork ourselves throughout distant.” The reality is, whereas at house, many people fail to take needed breaks. Mukherjee means that on this work atmosphere, breaks are extra essential than ever.
Mukherjee additionally believes in seizing fast, spontaneous breaks in the course of the day to share non-work-related tidbits with colleagues, giving our brains a brief breather.
“We have now a #enjoyable voice channel the place of us come on all through the day and speak about random stuff like their canine’s current antics,” Mukherjee says.
Eliminate distractions to get extra performed in much less time.
When there’s an excessive amount of noise or fixed interruptions, nobody can focus.
Arrange quiet zones the place you may focus with out distractions. You can too attempt utilizing noise-canceling headphones to dam out any background chatter. When on the workplace, I take advantage of AirPods and seek for “music for focus” on YouTube Music.
However the perfect resolution right here? Eliminate the telephone and notifications. Until it‘s for work calls or messages, tuck it away someplace so it doesn’t tempt you to scroll by way of social media endlessly.
Cease multitasking to lower work-related stress.
Multitasking = getting much less performed.
Multitasking is leaping from one activity to a different earlier than it’s performed. For instance, you may work on a letter, then change to LinkedIn, then attend a gathering, after which return to the letter. As an alternative of ending duties shortly, multitasking means every activity will get much less of your consideration. And belief me, you’ll goof over one thing.
A current study discovered that multitasking negatively impacts work and residential life. Regardless of many believing it is important, it really results in elevated stress, diminished focus, and poorer outcomes.
Whereas this type of task-switching makes us really feel extra productive, it really slows us down in the long term. As HubSpot Co-Founder Darmesh Shah famously stated, “Don’t child your self you could multitask — you may’t. Process switching is cognitively costly.”
Set SMART targets to maintain duties organized.
Preceden research reveals that visualizing your targets can enhance productiveness by 18%.
So, as a substitute of simply tackling duties randomly, set SMART goals to keep away from burnout and be extra productive. SMART is a good framework for breaking down a objective into smaller, extra manageable steps to keep away from feeling overwhelmed.
SMART targets are:
- Particular. Be certain that the targets you set are particular. The extra detailed, the higher.
- Measurable. Be certain that your targets are measurable with the intention to see progress and modify accordingly.
- Attainable. Objectives needs to be attainable; if they are not, rewrite them.
- Related. Objectives ought to align with you or an organization’s values and long-term imaginative and prescient with a purpose to make an actual affect on change and efficiency.
- Time-Certain. Set a deadline.
To place this into follow, I like writing my targets in a pocket book each Friday night or Monday morning, so I do know what targets I need to obtain subsequent week. Then, I put them on my Monday board and ensure to trace and mark my progress often.
Learn how to Construct Productive Groups
Present ongoing coaching in numerous fields.
From day one, be sure that each staff member receives correct onboarding coaching and ongoing schooling. These classes are nice for bettering expertise, communication, and teamwork.
For instance, to your content material staff, provide common workshops on content material creation or website positioning updates. Use free and paid assets. Navigate to a free HubSpot Academy for digital advertising and challenge administration programs designed by consultants of their fields.
Additionally, get your senior staff members to guide workshops with juniors to considerably strengthen staff bonds and share data.
Professional tip: Coaching does not at all times should be work-related. Connor Butterworth, founding father of Rug Slinger, shared that his firm often organizes workshops for private growth. This method resulted in steady month-over-month progress.
Help your staff in each attainable approach as a result of their inner well-being instantly impacts their efficiency.
Encourage collaboration and lead by instance.
Collaboration makes folks really feel like they’re a part of a staff. When colleagues work collectively, they construct belief and friendship. This makes the office a wholesome place to be, tasks get completed quicker, and the outcomes are sometimes higher.
Marcus Clarke, founding father of Searchant, states that one of the simplest ways to foster collaboration is thru classes, conferences, and one-on-one chats.
As soon as he prioritized this, Clarke says, “I observed my staff felt extra snug in sharing and expressing their minds and issues. This led to elevated problem-solving, creativity, and productiveness typically.”
Additionally, in the event you’re a staff chief or supervisor, attempt to be a task mannequin. Present your staff how collaboration works by actively collaborating and sharing concepts your self.
As a staff chief, I used to typically say, “Hey Matt, how does this work? Are you able to assist me with XYZ?” Positive, I might in all probability Google it, however I wished to point out the staff it’s regular to ask for recommendation and assist.
Make your conferences extra productive.
Do not maintain conferences only for the sake of holding them — particularly weekly planning and retrospective conferences.
Begin by setting clear targets and agendas beforehand. Encourage everybody to contribute their concepts and opinions.
Nevertheless, go away 5 minutes for an informal dialog to test in your staff’s temper and set a relaxed however skilled environment.
Watch this quick TedX tutorial on dangerous versus good conferences.
Concentrate on outcomes, not clock-watching.
When outcomes are the primary focus, everybody’s motivated to work smarter, not simply more durable. For that motive, I don’t like time-trackers for distant jobs.
I was a full-time worker for an organization that made us use a tracker even when working on the workplace. Because of this, workers felt pressured and as in the event that they weren’t trusted to do their greatest work. Evidently, this works towards productiveness.
As an alternative, as a supervisor, stick with what counts — your staff’s efficiency and outcomes.
Olivier Bretton, the founding father of Niceboard, has nice perspective on this.
“Probably the most essential factor that has helped me create a productive office for my staff at Niceboard is a completely distant setup,” Bretton notes.
In response to Bretton, distant work has helped create a extra versatile and targeted work atmosphere for his staff. “It additionally encourages productiveness since workers should not evaluated on time spent ‘at work’ however reasonably on their precise efficiency outputs,” he says.
Professional tip: Current time-tracking to your staff as a brief means for troubleshooting, optimizing workflows, and amplifying productiveness. Encourage your staff to make use of this as a device to grasp workload versus capability, discover bottlenecks, and enhance private time administration.
Suggestions for Managing a Productive Office
Keep away from Micromanaging
Don’t micromanage your staff.
A 2024 study from the Management & Group Improvement Journal confirmed that micromanagement is among the commonest office points, significantly in hybrid/distant work environments. It comes with many unfavorable results, like anxiousness, demotivation, and diminished productiveness. I’d additionally add that micromanaging discourages activity possession.
In fact, you may‘t give your staff freedom with out first coaching and guiding them. However as soon as that’s occurred, allow them to take the stage and shine. It’s not at all times going to be simple, however we have to settle for errors and failures as part of the expansion course of.
We will additionally take a cue from Alexandra Ilie, challenge advertising supervisor at Touchpoint. Ilie says she realized that giving her staff freedom was only a begin.
“When issues began to go sideways, as a substitute of diving again into micromanaging, we set clearer expectations, supplied extra assets, and actually amped up the assist. We made positive everybody knew what was anticipated and had what they wanted to satisfy these expectations,” Ilie says.
Use Productiveness and Automation Instruments
Teamwork with out instruments like Trello, Asana, Monday.com, Zapier, Airtable, and so forth., can be chaotic. They assist with managing duties, sharing recordsdata, coordinating schedules, and collaborating in actual time.
In response to a current HubSpot research, 75% of +1350 enterprise professionals agree that automation instruments assist their group collaborate extra successfully.
Kellie Davis, director of content material advertising at Impact.com, says, “We hold all challenge communication in Asana …That approach, everybody can see what’s occurring, avoiding messages getting misplaced in Slack or e mail.” When communication and collaboration are efficient, “everyone seems to be happier and feels extra management over their work.”
Professional tip: When providing productivity apps, make certain that every staff member receives coaching on how one can use the apps successfully. I discover it useful to create a Loom video the place I clarify all the things step-by-step. This fashion, staff members can watch at their very own tempo and go away feedback at particular factors if they’ve questions or want clarification.
Ask for Suggestions
It isn’t simply the supervisor who ought to give suggestions. Your staff also needs to give enter on tasks, assess staff dynamics, and flag any conduct that doesn’t align along with your firm tradition.
Workforce members may give suggestions on the supervisor’s management model. For instance, I typically checked in with my staff to see how they felt about my management and if there have been any modifications they wished me to make.
We additionally rolled out nameless surveys to spotlight each strengths and areas for enchancment. This acted like a “well being test” for every staff, and served an excellent function.
Rejoice Successes
A 2023 Nice Place to Work research discovered that 37% of workers would do higher work after they obtain private recognition. So, when your workers do one thing nice, give them a shout-out.
Cheer for each huge and small wins. As an illustration, in your Slack group, give a shout out to a staff member who nails a challenge, crafts an excellent pitch, or shares an superior social media submit. And when the win deserves extra than simply reward, take into consideration beginning a bonus program or giving out present playing cards. You can too reward your staff with an additional day without work. Belief me — this might be a giant hit.
Within the phrases of Vartika Kashyap, chief advertising officer at ProofHub, “You do not have to attend for main milestones to acknowledge particular person or staff achievements.”
At ProofHub, Kashyap holds a small staff lunch to rejoice profitable campaigns. “This exhibits my real appreciation in direction of them. Plus, it boosts their morale and encourages them to proceed their devoted effort,” Kashyap says.
Constructive Setting = Productiveness Blossom
We have now rolled by way of loads of strategies, instruments, and recommendation for making a productive work atmosphere. But when I needed to sum all of it up in a single piece of knowledge, it could be this: Preserve it easy.
Individuals thrive in a piece atmosphere that’s simple and simple to work in. No micromanaging, no overwhelming duties. Create a constructive, useful, and supportive vibe. Talk, share concepts, and encourage your staff to talk up about what’s bothering them. When everybody appears like a part of the crew, teamwork turns into dreamwork.
