We hear the word ‘productivity’ on an almost constant basis in the business world, but what does it actually mean?
Why is this word so important?
And how can you make sure that you’re achieving it? Productivity isn’t something you have to discuss around a boardroom table to know if it’s happening or not, you can easily spot it!

The bottom line is that if a business isn’t productive, it’s not making money. Obviously, that’s a huge concern! Productivity is a national concern too, as the 2017 Skills & Employment Survey showed. During 2018 it was found that although British workers are spending more time at work, productivity doesn’t seem to be on the rise. 

This guide is going to give you the one stop tour of everything productivity based, as well as plenty of suggestions on how you can increase the level of productivity within your business. By the end of it, you should have many ideas on how to move forwards and create positive opportunities for your own business, no matter what niche you’re in. 

What Exactly is Productivity, And Why is it so Important?

Productivity is defined as “the various measures of efficiency of production”, according to Wikipedia. That sounds vague, and it really depends upon the type of business you’re doing as to how it will be measured. To simplify it down, productivity within an office covers the amount of work being done, targets and deadlines being met, how much new custom is coming your way, retaining old custom, and also attracting new talent into the business. 

Obviously, productivity is easier to describe for a haulage firm or a sales business, for example; this would be how many new orders are coming into your business and being completed on time. Productivity is fluid in terms of how to describe it, but it is a vital piece of the jigsaw. When a business isn’t productive, profits are down, morale within the workforce is low, new orders aren’t coming your way, old customers are choosing to go to your competitors, and overall, your business will struggle to thrive. The ways to achieve productivity can be simple or complicated, but it can be as easy as having high quality reception furniture and making a positive first impression, which then brings more orders to the business. 

Productivity is basically the performance of your business therefore, and when it’s low your business isn’t performing; when it’s high, your business is performing well. We don’t need to point out that when a business is doing well, more profits are coming their way!

Check out this video for a little more information on exactly what productivity is and what it can mean for a business. 

An individual employee can also measure their productivity by how much work they are successfully completing within a day, to the correct standard. When we talk about productivity, we don’t always need to focus on the entire business, we can also focus on ourselves as individuals. For example, you could have had a productive day at work because you managed to tick every item off your to do list and you have a clear desk, ready for the next day. 

What Factors Affect Productivity?

There are countless factors which have an impact on how productive a person, and therefore the business, is. The main ones are: 

• Mood – Is that person feeling happy that day? Do they feel a little under the weather due to sickness? Has something happened at home? The way a person feels on any given day can affect how productive they are. We’ve all had days when we simply don’t want to work, because we’re tired from a long weekend, or something has happened in our personal lives which affects our level of focus. We’re going to talk about morale shortly, but mood in general is something subtly different. Moods change from day to day, and if you’re having a bad day, your productivity is likely to be down for that short period of time. The thing is, when you have an office of several employees, several bad days could amount up to a huge problem!
• A lack of training – Are you asking your employees to complete tasks which they’re not so familiar with? In this case you would need to look at increasing training that area, to help them become more knowledgable and confident in that particular task.
• The working environment – If the environment you’re asking your staff to work in is substandard or uncomfortable, they’re not going to work as hard or as effectively as if they were comfortable and supported. This also means that the environment should be stimulating in the way it looks, rather than drab and depressing. Things like white office furniture rather than old furniture that is falling to pieces, will make a huge difference!
• Morale – If your entire workforce are not happy with the way the business is run, the different systems in place, or they simply feel like they’re not valued, then morale will be on a serious low. When morale is low, nobody wants to go to work. We’re going to cover morale and productivity links in more detail later on, but for now, simply bear in mind that morale is one of the biggest factors to affect productivity for a business.
• Management – The management style is also something which affects productivity. Are the systems in place working well?
  Do there need to be changes to increase productivity? Is the management style affecting morale? As you can see, where productivity is concerned, many other areas are linked intrinsically.
• Outside influences – Are there rumours flying around about redundancies? Something to do with the state of the economy?
  A takeover bid? Perhaps there is building work going on outside of the office and it’s affecting the environment your staff are working within. Outside influences can all have a major effect on how productive the individual employees are, and therefore how productive the entire business is.
• Working practices – Most businesses stick to a tried and tested way of doing things, and that works well for them, but technology is constantly evolving. There may be new systems that could help a business become more productive, but the business is either too resistant to change, or they don’t have the cash to implement them. For instance, the meeting room seating you currently have may be sufficient, but if you go international and you implement video calling into your space, how are you supposed to do it if you don’t have the technology or the training? It’s impossible, and that means you’re missing out on productive endeavours.
• Poor quality supplies/a lack of supplies – If staff are working on low quality computers, how can you expect them to get more done in the space of a day? Equally, if staff don’t have the supplies they need to complete the job properly, productivity is going to be affected. In this case, we can link back around to management style.

By identifying the issues which are affecting the productivity levels of your workplace, you can minimise their effects and overcome the issue. This infographic by Helen Faulkner might help you to achieve the best office set-up to get the best working result. 

Source: www.helensportfolio.co.uk/infographic-for-goodman

The Benefits of Increasing Productivity

Looking into ways to increase productivity (more on that shortly) has serious benefits, and by reading this guide so far, you should already know what most of them are! A business which is more productive is:

• More profitable
• Able to outdo their competitors
• More attractive to new customers, whilst also retaining old customers
• Able to attract new talent to the workforce
• Able to retain current, valuable members of staff
• Full of new ideas and solutions to problems
• Able to achieve business growth far easier

All of that comes from making changes here and there, such as adding new reception furniture to your current inventory.
Some of the changes we’re going to talk about shortly aren’t earth shattering or sweeping, but they have major advantages for a business and its productivity overall. 

By focusing on productivity in a fair and honest way, e.g. by talking to your employees and asking them what they think about the business and how it is run, you can get to the heart of the problem much faster. The ironic thing is, by talking to your employees, if morale is the main issue, you’re instantly counteracting the effects already! 

The Undeniable Link Between Morale And Productivity

There is a very real fact to consider –a business which has a low level of morale is not going to be productive. It’s really that simple.
They might continue to make sales, but they will not be doing so at the rate they could be if they solved the morale problem. They will probably also be neck and neck or behind their competitors as a result. 

Morale is so vitally important for a business on many different levels, and by not focusing on this, your business could be losing cash far quicker than you might realise. 

Let’s break this issue down. 

Morale is the general mood amongst your employees. This doesn’t mean that one is having a personal issue, that’s an individual problem; we’re talking about the entire workforce and how they feel about work, the working environment, management, and the systems in place. 

If everyone disagrees with the management style, if they feel that they’re never listened to, always talked down to, and nobody every asks them their opinion on anything, your employees are going to have low morale. In this case they’re going to do the bare minimum which allows them to be paid and get their wage packet at the end of the month. Who can blame them? 

Perhaps you’ve been in a situation before where the level of morale in your office or workplace has been near to zero. If so, think back to how it felt when the management didn’t listen; it probably didn’t make you want to work hard, and probably made you dread Monday mornings. 

Morale isn’t about staff jumping out of bed every single morning, whistling their way to work, but it is about them not feeling down or upset about the prospect. You want your staff to be excited about new prospects coming their way, full of ideas to share on new projects, and you want them to want the business to be a success. All of this comes from ensuring that morale is high. 

• So, how can you achieve that, and therefore achieve greater productivity? It’s far more simple than you might realise
• Involve your employees in decisions and ask their opinions on issues which affect them directly
• Set up focus groups to solve problems and take notice of the suggestions that come your way
• Have an ‘open door policy’, so staff can come to you with problems and not feel judged or ridiculed
• Ensure a comfortable and supportive working environment (more on that shortly!)
• Instil a team working environment, with collaboration at the centre of it all
• Celebrate events and bring everyone together as a large working family
• Focus on employee health and wellness, to help your staff feel that you value them

At the end of the day, human beings have a built in need to belong. When your employees feel they belong to your business because they matter, they will work harder for you. They will go the extra mile, they will think harder, they will hit their deadlines, and they will be proud of everything the business achieves. This is the key to productivity and should never be overlooked – do so at your business’ peril!

The Connection Between Office Design And Productivity

If morale is a key factor in productivity, office design is neck and neck. 

The way an office is set out and furnished plays a vital role in morale. For instance, if a staff member is sat in pain every day because their chair hurts their back, and they’re having to sit at an angle, due to storage underneath their desk, they’re not going to feel great.
By not feeling great, they’re probably going to go off sick, and they’re also going to have a low level of morale. If this is happening to one member of staff, the chances are that it is happening to several more too, which sets up a snowball effect, quickly careering towards an avalanche!

Similarly, if an office is dark and dismal, it’s going to affect mood from the get-go. A lack of natural light is uninspiring and drags the feel of the space down, and having to struggle to find the items you need, because the entire space is overcrowded and poorly designed, is just going to lead to frustration, and ultimately, low productivity. 

On the other hand, if you do some research, search around, visit an office furniture warehouse, and ask your employees what they feel they need and how they would like the office to be set out, you’ll find useful information on how to make changes. You can change the colour scheme to bring about morale-boosting effects, you can add in some natural plants to increase the feel-good factor and ensure a boost of focus, and you can look into ergonomic office furniture, to help support those who might already be suffering from musculoskeletal pain, one of the leading problems in office work. 

According to the HSE, UK businesses lost 30.7 million working days during 2017/18, due to workrelated ill health and injuries suffered at work, with around 14 days on average per person for musculoskeletal problems alone. All of this can often be solved with sufficiently supportive desks and chairs. 

Purchasing stylish office desks rather than boring, old designs will instantly make people feel proud of their working space, and that has direct effects on morale, and therefore productivity too. It’s a huge circle that leads back around to one improvement – productivity on the rise! Your business furniture plays a huge part, and it’s important to consult those who use it – your employees. 

When an office isn’t run well, e.g. the office systems don’t work, and they cause delays rather than free-flowing work, employees are bound to spend too much time on tasks which could be done within a few seconds. This means looking into new practices, e.g. perhaps switching to hot desking, installing new working zones, or maybe even purchasing new equipment, which is faster, more efficient, and probably more cost effective to run. 

The way your office is laid out, the design and decoration, as well as the systems which are used day in, day out, are extremely important in how productive your business is overall. All you need to do is head online and search for ‘office furniture near me’ to find suitable choices. 

Why Collaboration is so Prevalent in a Productive Business Environment

When people work together, they get more done. Do you agree with that?

Team working is a cornerstone of productivity too. When staff members collaborate, brainstorm, and pool their knowledge and skills, the outcome is far greater than if they were working alone, feeling like they have no one to share the task with. Stress is far lower in team working environments, and morale is usually higher too. 

Collaboration means that staff can sit together and talk through an issue or problem, coming up with creative ideas and suggestions that perhaps would never have come to the fore. An idea might come from one person, another member of staff will add something else to it, someone else will come up with another addition, and before you know it, a huge money making or problem solving idea has been born. 

In order to help create an collaborative feel to your business, your staff need somewhere they feel free and able to discuss topics, without feeling that they are disrupting other members of staff. Having a separate discussion room is a good idea, but a breakout area, making use of breakout stools and tables is also a great choice. A tub chair is also a good choice for this type of space. 

Of course, you’re still going to have staff who need to do close work, e.g. focus on statistics and figures, writing reports in peace and quiet, and that means having other types of furniture or systems in place which means they are not disturbed whilst also this collaboration is taking place. Installing office privacy screens or acoustic panels are a good choice here. 

Put simply, allowing collaboration and encouraging it within your business will increase morale, increase engagement, boost ideas, and in the end, increase productivity and profits. 

How to Increase Your Business Productivity Level 

Now we’ve talked about what productivity is and the links between various issues and productivity itself, we need to get practice.
How can you increase the productivity level within your business? 

Firstly, you need to have a starting point. Do you consider morale to be good in your office? Do you think the office is laid out in the right way? Do you think the systems you have in place work well? What is your overall productivity level, and are you level with, behind, or in front of your competition? Having a starting point will allow you to find out whether the measures you’re going to put into place are actually working. 

Once you have that starting point identified, figure out which of the following productivity increasing tricks will work for your business. Remember, one size doesn’t fit all, and this is a general list, generic if you will. 

Focus on Morale 

Find out if morale is high within your office by seeking out opinions and see if any improvements can be made. Talk to your staff, include them in decisions, focus on their health and wellbeing, and look at the general feel of your space. It’s a good idea to set up focus groups, having regular catch ups, where you can sit on the meeting room chairs and discuss openly and honestly what is going on within the office space. 

For businesses which aren’t doing anything else wrong, fixing morale can be one of the simplest things. You have human beings working for you, and you are a human being too – treat people how you would want to be treated, and involve them in the key decisions which affect their working lives. Value what they tell you, value their opinions, value them, and you won’t go far wrong. 

People want to work for those who care about them as individuals, so put their health and wellbeing first, their future growth and potential, and you will quickly see morale rise, and therefore productivity. 

Identify if Your Working Environment Needs to Change

Is your office space furnished in the right way? Do the contemporary office workstations you have fit the bill, or are they too small?
Are they placed in the right area? Do staff have to walk to the other side of the office every time they need to print something out?

Making sure that your office chairs are comfortable is a basic rule, because we all know that if a member of staff is struggling with the comfort level of their chair, they’re not going to be working as hard as they could be otherwise! You should check your storage and organisation within the office, could things be arranged differently to enable staff to save time? Walking to and from printers can add up over the space of a day, a week, and a year! 

The same can be said for conference and meeting rooms. Are meetings which go on in there productive, or is the space causing get-togethers to become stagnant and difficult to steer in the right direction? Look into modern choices, such as a boardroom table with cable management, or perhaps some bespoke boardroom furniture, which really fits the space that you already have. 

All of these new additions and changes save time in the long run, and that could be focused on hitting deadlines and ensuring the customer is happy. 

Look Into Your Storage and Filing Systems

A number one time waster is looking for things you simply can’t find easily. Again, time is money! Look at your office storage and assess whether it is sufficient, or whether you have too much. When was the last time you weeded it out? Do you really need to keep all the things you’re storing? By having a clear out, you’re streamlining the working space, and this means that staff will less cluttered in their minds too. 

Think about switching to digital storage and having effective back up methods in place; this is one of the most common modern storage alternatives. If you need to have paper-based storage, choose the right system, and ensure that you only keep what is strictly necessary. You should also think about storing frequently used items close to the areas that need them, e.g. the staff files should be close to managers or the HR department! 

Getting rid of the things you really don’t need will free up space, but it will also declutter the brains of those working in that space too.
A clearer mind means more focus, and that in itself means more productivity. In terms of personal belongings and small items, look into small modern office cabinet options for individual employees’ to use, or go for larger options, such as lockers or storage walls. 

Could You Introduce a Better Working System?

If your productivity levels are constantly below standard, perhaps it is the way your staff are working that is the problem; by that we mean the way you are asking them to work! It could be that the computer systems you use simply aren’t as productive as they could be, which slows down your employees and means more time is spent on tasks than it should be. Again, this could also come down to the placement of specific types of furniture, being too far away from the areas that need them regularly. It could also be the specific working styles of your employees, and perhaps a streamlined version needs to be implemented. 

Offering time management training for your staff could be a useful endeavour, helping your employees understand the importance of prioritising and how to do it correctly. 

Do you need a new office desking system? Could hot desking work for your office or will it cause too much of a wave of anxiety between your staff members. You know your staff better than anyone else, so it’s about coming up with a new system which suits them and also suits the productivity level your business needs to achieve. 

How about offering remote working? This has been proven to boost productivity and morale, which is exactly what we’re trying to achieve. You would also save cash on the latest office furniture design, because you wouldn’t have as many staff in the office at any one time. Maybe a more technological approach could work well, focusing everything online or with Cloud based storage, rather than the paper-based options you have now. 

Look at the systems you are currently using and really scrutinise them. Ask your staff if they can come up with any better suggestions for modern office systems, and really pay attention to what they say. Sit everyone down in focus groups around a conference table and brainstorm some ideas. Sometimes the old ways don’t work as the years tick on, and it’s time to change a few things here and there, to boost productivity for the future. 

Focus on Collaboration 

We mentioned the importance of collaboration a little earlier and this is something you should implement if you really want to boost productivity and morale in a two pronged attack. We mentioned breakout areas and these are ideal not only for collaborative environments but also as somewhere for staff to go when they want five minutes’ to themselves, perhaps if they’re feeling stressed and need to calm down. 

These areas need to be decorated and furnished in the right way, to ensure that you’re encouraging collaborative vibes. You could think about second hand office furniture, but there are many breakout furniture options you can go for too, such as booths, stools, and colourful sets to inspire wonderful ideas!

If you don’t want to go down the route of a specific breakout area, you could look into a separate zone within your office, and use noise canceling endeavours to create a private space, such as acoustic panelling. In this case you could think about office bench desks which allow for brainstorming and ideas to be noted down. It’s not hard to implement areas for collaboration, but you need to show your staff that you’re actually listening to their ideas once they’ve shared them. If you don’t pay attention to the ideas they come up with, they’re simply not going to share them again! 

The idea of collaboration is that you can find fresh approaches to problems and perhaps even come up with new product ideas. All of this ties in with productivity for a business – several heads are better than one!

These are just some of the best ways to increase productivity easily and quickly. Of course, there are other options too, such as completely changing the business and brand you’re offering, and going for a fresh approach. This however would take a large amount of time and an investment of cash. For the purposes of this guide, we’ll assume that you simply want to make changes and tweaks to bring you a greater amount of productivity, and therefore profits. As you can see, the methods we’ve talked about aren’t that huge in terms of time and money, but they will bring you great benefits as a result of investing a little time into them. 

How to Measure Productivity

Once you’ve implemented a few ways to increase productivity, how can you measure whether or not it’s working for you?
One method might not work for you, because let’s face it, every business is different, and that means an individualised approach to any problem you come up against. By measuring your success or otherwise, you can decide whether to stick with the approach you’re using, or try something else. 

You could go down the route of complicated spreadsheets and graphs, but there are some far easier ways to understand whether your new methods are working or not. The main ways to tell that productivity is on the rise are: 

• Your staff seem happier and morale is on the rise. We know that there is a direct link between productivity and morale, so if one is on the up, it’s a good pointer towards the other being high too!
• Sales figures and profits are increasing
• You have more customers than before
• Your market share is growing
• You have more interest from the general public in your brand
• Employee sick days are down; again, this is linked to morale
• You need to order more of the parts, products, or whatever else it is you’re selling or providing
• Your staff have more time, e.g. they are working in more time efficient ways, and deadlines are always met as a result

Put simply, the number one way to figure out whether your productivity is up is that your profits are on the rise too. 

Conclusion

And there we have it, your complete guide to productivity!

Many people assume this mysterious word is difficult to understand and hard to implement, but hopefully this guide will have dispelled those myths. Every business can become more productive by taking a long hard look at the way it works, the systems it has in place, and the level of morale amongst its employees. Of course, you can make it more complicated if you really want to, but by dealing with the basics, most companies find huge rewards start to roll in. 

The single reason why productivity is so vitally important to any business, no matter what goods or services they’re selling and providing, is that it is so intrinsically linked to profits. Every business needs to make a profit in order to stay afloat.
Low productivity means low profits, it’s that simple!

Thank you for reading!