Coworkers clapping and cheering together in the office

How to Increase Office Productivity

Productivity and deep work are vital elements of a healthy office environment. When you focus on boosting workplace productivity, you can create a more positive and efficient environment that benefits all staff. 

If you are in office management or HR, there are various ways to support workplace efficiency, including:

  • Providing more ergonomic panels and desks.
  • Prioritizing employee well-being.
  • Using office design to increase productivity. 

Benefits of Increasing Office Productivity

A more productive office environment yields the following advantages:

  • Better time management: Productive teams are well on their way to mastering time management. Teams can impress clients with projects that are consistently completed on time. Better time management can also reduce stress on individual members, as teams aren’t always working under a time crunch.   
  • Improved work quality: A productive team can focus their attention on time management or even micromanage the finer details of completing a task. This freedom can make teams more creative and form a more innovative work environment. 
  • Enhanced efficiency and output: A productive workplace enjoys a high output of work in the same amount of time, allowing companies to achieve goals faster and accommodate more clients and projects. This also makes scalability possible. 
  • Cost savings and increased profitability: Higher productivity equals less wasted time and resources, which helps companies save costs. 
  • Higher morale: Productive employees are naturally more engaged and motivated. This is also a positive loop, as the higher morale, the more productive your staff will be. Productivity can also help create a positive office culture where employees feel empowered to contribute to projects and achieve goals. 

Understanding Workplace Distractions

Understanding the top workplace distractions is an excellent step toward making your office spaces more productive. Common examples include:

  • Digital interruptions: According to research from CareerBuilder, cellphones and texting, the internet and social media are the top three productivity killers in the office, according to employees the brand surveyed. Constantly receiving and checking email notifications and other updates can easily disrupt focus and make it difficult for employees to get into deep work.
  • Unproductive coworkers: Creating camaraderie in the workspace is essential for building professional relationships and maintaining morale. However, chatty coworkers consistently rank as one of the greatest workplace distractions. A simple hello can easily become a long chat that cuts into vital work time. 
  • Noise: Offices are busy spaces that can be noisy to the point of distraction. In some offices, there is always loud chatter, notifications going off, phones ringing, videos or podcasts playing, and even the outside sounds of busy areas. Excessive noise can be overstimulating and increase stress. Noisy environments also make it hard to communicate and focus, as continuous noise can be highly distracting. 
  • Visual distractions: Visual distractions are more common in offices than one may realize — and this is especially true for open offices. Clutter, disorganized desks and untidy shared spaces, visual lines of sight to office screens and poorly designed layouts can all make it difficult for employees to focus and get into deep work.

Implementing Productivity Strategies 

Creating an office environment that supports productivity and implementing techniques that teach productivity — like time management — can turn your office around. Strategies like scheduling, planning and creating better office layouts with privacy screens and panels can help reduce distractions and productivity:

Better time management helps to improve productivity

Better Time Management

Time management and productivity go hand in hand. Providing time management skills training and resources can help staff prioritize tasks and improve their productivity:

  • Set clear goals: Office managers can regularly schedule meetings or send reminders about company-wide, team and individual goals to encourage productivity. Having achievable goals to work toward — and small incentives for completing tasks — can help employees stay more productive. Adding time limits to goals also makes them more tangible and gives staff a clear idea of what they need to achieve and when they should complete it. 
  • Create optimized work schedules: Optimized scheduling is one of the simplest but most effective ways office managers can help staff increase productivity in the office. Providing employees with organized, well-planned schedules allows them to take more control of their tasks and manage their energy levels better. Creating space between difficult or time-sensitive projects and adding easier tasks between projects is an excellent way to encourage productivity. 
  • Avoid multitasking: It may seem counterintuitive, but multitasking does not always help staff get more done — it often has the opposite effect and interferes with productivity. Instead of encouraging multitasking to get more done, help employees prioritize tasks and knock them off their to-do lists one by one.
  • Provide productivity tools and apps: Productivity apps can be useful for employees who want to complete tasks more efficiently. Various apps help staff schedule, plan, prioritize tasks, set deadlines and track productivity. 

Enhancing Employee Well-Being

The National Institute of Health (NIH) notes that there is a close relationship between well-being and productivity — when employees are healthy and happy, their performance and productivity increase. A positive work environment that places meaningful emphasis on employee well-being is crucial for increased performance. Team members are also less likely to be stressed and absent — both of which significantly impact productivity. 

Teams can come together to create a more positive office by:

  • Holding mental health workshops and awareness days.
  • Prioritizing regular breaks and time off or rest days. 
  • Establishing a company culture that supports team members who are struggling with well-being concerns. Workplaces can have stipends for therapy and other support systems.
  • Fostering professional relationships with team members and open channels of communication so staff knows they are valued, appreciated and supported. 

The Role of Privacy Screens and Cubicle Doors

Your team’s environment directly impacts their productivity levels. Office spaces that are organized, tranquil and more private and comfortable can help transform workplace productivity.

Open office plans have their own benefits, but the primary downside is that they are not conducive to productivity and performance. Open offices are full of noise and visual distractions, and they make it easy for coworkers to disrupt each other. On the other hand, you can greatly increase productivity by incorporating privacy screens and cubicle doors. 

When team members have their own private workspace, it eliminates distractions and interruptions and gives them greater autonomy over their personal space. With a more private cubicle, they can organize in a way that meets their standards and supports their efficiency. 

Using modular office solutions like cubicle panel extenders, privacy screens and cubicle doors is an excellent way to convert offices into more productive spaces without undergoing major renovations. Specific panels can also help reduce noise, supporting a more productive environment. To further optimize the workplace, you can also add ergonomic desks and chairs and offer office supplies to increase productivity, like keyboard trays and monitor stands. 

Find Ergonomic Office Solutions From OBEX

Find ergonomic office solutions from OBEX

Designing office spaces that support productivity is essential for team performance and well-being. With OBEX, you can enjoy office solutions that support privacy and efficiency. We have an extensive range of products for transforming office spaces, including cubicle height extenders, cubicle doors, freestanding panels, split screen panels and sound baffle panels.

Additionally, we offer installation services that make it more convenient to create your ideal office space. Explore our range of office products or contact us today for further assistance. 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *