A successful business relies on productive employees. If your employees are frustrated, demotivated, or bored, then they won’t be performing optimally.
Much like you would do regular maintenance on your vehicle fleet, you need to check in with your employees from time to time to see what you can do to make their jobs easier. A poorly performing office can be the catalyst to your business failing. If you want to increase office productivity on a budget, then follow these five simple steps below:
- Provide Healthy Snacks
By providing your employees with healthy snacks you can help them balance out their blood sugar throughout the day. This will eliminate or reduce blood sugar spikes and crashes which negatively impact productivity. This simple solution will stop your employees from feeling drowsy and sluggish, as well as help your business to attract new and valuable talent by showing that you care about employee well-being.
- Fresh Air
Conclusive studies have shown that fresh air increases the oxygen flow in our bodies. This will help to reduce your employee’s stress by lowering their blood pressure and heart rates. Over time this will strengthen their immune systems, energize their bodies, and enable them to focus by sharpening their minds. All of these positive effects on their productivity are triggered by simply opening a few windows.
- New Equipment
There is nothing more frustrating for your employees to deal with than faulty or old office equipment. If you have ever spent the better part of an hour waiting for your documents to print, then you will know what I’m talking about. Take the frustration out of their day by upgrading all of your office’s machines that are more than five years old. Pay special attention to getting new monochrome printers because these are used the most. This may seem like an added expense now, but it will ultimately reduce downtime and save your company thousands of dollars in the long run.
- Ergonomic Chairs
Ergonomic chairs will increase the productivity levels in your office by improving the posture of all of your employees. Poor posture often leads to back problems and extended sick days. These chairs are specially designed to properly align shoulders, hips, and spines to promote health and wellbeing. The specific design of these chairs prevents harmful positions like slouching forward or backwards. Your office employees spend most of their time in their chairs, so you need to provide them with the healthiest seating options available – your productivity levels will benefit greatly from this simple change.
- Flexible Working Hours
Offering flexible working hours to your employees will positively impact your productivity but reducing absenteeism. If your employees are feeling drained and tired from long workdays and the stress of the world around them then they are going to be off sick more often in an attempt to deal with that. Your employees will appreciate the gesture and will work harder during the times that they are in the office. You don’t need to start with a drastic amount of flexibility, start small by allowing for flexible break times and take it from there.