Five Ways to Increase Your Productivity
Posted on 23. March 2011 by Heidi Grant Halvorson PhD
You just have too much on your plate, and chances are, your employees do as well. You suspect that you could all be making better use of your time, completing more projects and achieving more goals. You want to be more productive and help your team be more productive, but you aren’t sure where to start.
If this sounds familiar, you are far from alone in your confusion. Even the most successful and highly accomplished people have difficulty pinpointing why they are so productive. The intuitive answer – that they are born predisposed to having the intelligence, creativity and willpower to get the job done – is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach more of their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. Here are five scientifically-tested strategies that successful people use that are proven to help you reach your goals and make the most of your time.
Lack Productivity? 3 Silent Killers Affecting You, Your Staff and Your Bottom Line
Posted on 8. March 2011 by Janna Rust
Productivity gurus abound, teaching us the best techniques to save time and make the most of our time. We learn to make lists and manage calendars, make plans and execute plans. I coach almost everyone I work with to implement such productivity strategies. Yet while beneficial and necessary, these tools and techniques don’t treat every productivity killer. Read the rest of this entry »
Musings on the future of Work and Organizations
Posted on 18. January 2011 by Gautam GhoshDebu Mishra has a great post on why Performance Management/ Appraisal doesn’t work. He raises some pertinent points, the critical one for me is how HR leaders keep changing and going by latest fads on performance management. Just because it worked in one organization doesn’t mean it’ll work in your organizations.
There are no best practices. They are contextual to the culture and climate of an organization.
However, the nature of work is itself changing. JP Rangaswami (one of the most incisive thinkers I have come across recently) blogged about how the “maker generation” will force organizations to think about work in new principles. Go read the full post, I can’t do justice to all the thoughts here.
So the future of work in the future knowledge-based organizations is all fuzzy. As I noted in my comment to JP’s post:
if these principles are really embraced and integrated – maybe there will not be any “corporation/ enterprise” at all.. just a “brand” and free agents willingly aligning with that brand – to services customers, suppliers (and other stakeholders)
Innovation Skills for Today’s Companies
Posted on 9. January 2011 by HR Bartender
One of the year-end articles I read was about Japan being overtaken by China as the No. 2 economy. The article really hit home with me because I wonder if there will ever come a time when the United States will have to face the same reality.
It seems to me that the only way the U.S. will not face the same fate is to become fanatical about innovation. A couple of major companies have already recognized the importance innovation has on their future.
At the Proctor & Gamble annual meeting, President and CEO Bob McDonald announced that sales grew 3%, market share grew in 14 of the company’s top 17 countries and P&G now serves over 4.2 billion customers. McDonald attributed the company’s performance on innovation:
“Innovation that truly improves people’s lives is more important than ever because many of the economies in which we operate are still recovering from the recession.”
Ford Motor Company’s CIO Nick Smither was quoted in Information Week as saying long-term thinking is essential. “We need to make sure we are sustaining the levels of innovation through a tough economic cycle.” Ford has seen 21% growth in U.S. sales compared to 2009.
Are Your Employees Drinking Coffee to Brew Productivity?
Posted on 1. October 2010 by The Hiring Site
What’s special about today? Well, sure, it’s Wednesday, which means we’re halfway through the work week. And, yes, the first U.S. Congress adjourned on this date back in 1789. And it’s also true that writer Henry Robinson opened his Office of Addresses and Encounters – the first historically documented dating service — on this day in 1650. But no, I’m talking about something a little more… delicious.
It’s NATIONAL COFFEE DAY! Judging by my caps, I may or may not have enjoyed some already this morning. (I did.) To celebrate National Coffee Day in all its glory, I suggest you: Read the rest of this entry »
Improve Your Health at Work
Posted on 22. September 2010 by Alexandra LevitToday’s business environment can be a harsh place, and in addition to being difficult to cope with, it can also negatively impact your health. Check out this eye-opening research courtesy of U.S. News and World Report’s Liz Wolgemuth and learn what you can do to improve your situation.
Stop eating at your desk
According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, workers who sit at desks covered with crumbs from the last few weeks of lunches may be typing on keyboards and touching spaces that have mouse droppings. If infested fingers come near your mouth, there’s a good chance you’ll get sick.
Add plants to your area
A Washington State University study measured the effects of indoor plants on students performing a slightly stressful computer-based task in a university computer lab. When researchers decorated the lab with indoor plants, they found that their subjects’ reactions were 12 percent quicker on the task, and their systolic blood pressure fell.
Do Employers Pay the Price For Employees’ Financial Woes?
Posted on 1. September 2010 by The Hiring Site
Employers may want to pay attention to a new CareerBuilder survey that reveals that one in five workers are having trouble making ends meet. After all, financial worries don’t just take a toll on workers’ stress levels: Studies have shown that money-related distress can negatively affect employees’ quality of work - and, ultimately, the company’s bottom line.
According to the survey of more than 4,400 workers nationwide, 77 percent of workers live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet, up from 61 percent who said the same last year. And as many as 22 percent said they’ve missed bill payment in the last year.
You might not be able to manually solve your employees’ financial problems, but you can help them better manage – and feel more in control of – their finances. As a result, they will be less distracted on the job and more focused on their work:
Ask for feedback. Instead of guessing what your employees want, go straight to the source to find out how you can be of assistance to your employees. From there, you can negotiate which cost-effective benefits you can provide – such as flexible schedules (to cut down on child-care costs or gas) – to best address their needs.
How Workplace Design Can Make a Happier Workforce
Posted on 19. August 2010 by Melany GallantWhen I was in university, I used to absolutely love studying and writing papers. Wait! Before you throw me into the nerd dumpster, hear me out. Okay, the actual work involved with cramming mind-numbing textbook information into my head, or making sure every sentence I typed was properly referenced, quoted, footnoted and endnoted was extremely tedious indeed. But, as endless as some of those homework nights seemed to be, I was genuinely happy to be there. The reason? I had inadvertently constructed a workplace so comfortable, so conducive to both concentration and creativity, that I thoroughly enjoyed hibernating there for hours on end. I say inadvertently, because back then I was relatively clueless when it came to workplace mood-enhancement techniques, and it was only years later that I discovered the value in the things I did.
3 of the 6 fundamental shifts in the way we work
Posted on 18. August 2010 by Gautam GhoshThe collaboration curve supplants the experience curve. We may, for the first time, have an opportunity to turn diminishing returns performance improvement into increasing returns.
As it becomes increasingly possible to scale the number of connections and interactions between participants in a given environment, however, a new kind of performance curve is emerging: the collaboration curve. This is characterized by increasing returns: the more participants — and interactions between those participants — you add to a carefully designed and nurtured environment, the more the rate of performance improvement accelerates.
The Shiny Object Problem
Posted on 26. May 2010 by Inflexion Point
Like you, my weekdays typically consist of an endless series of conference calls and meetings. I run from place to place and call to call with barely time to breathe, clear my head and shift focus to the matter at hand. Days turn into weeks and before you know it a month has passed. You end up feeling like a shark — if you’re not moving you’re dead.
I’ve come to realize that due to this phrenetic activity, workers are becoming increasingly frenzied and highly inefficient. And while we stay in constant motion for different reasons, most suffer from what I call ”the shiny object problem”.
Are we becoming raccoons…
Seattle startup, Qworky, offers a web app for better meetings
Posted on 15. April 2010 by Sourcing SeattleMy wife sent over a clipping from TechFlash’s article about the Northwest Entrepreneur Network’s First Look Forum, which included Qworky, a Seattle based startup looking to “develop software and advanced technologies to help individuals and organizations design a better workday, beginning with better meeting.” She knows how much I despise meetings.
I am always intrigued with companies using technology to improve processes so I decided to take a deeper look at Qworky’s website to see if they had a demo or more information about how they actually plan on help me have better meetings. Here’s what I found out…
Zen and the Art of Focustime: Work/ Life Leader’s Series
Posted on 12. January 2010 by Trish MacFarlaneI am excited to share the first post in 2010 that is part of my Work/ Life Leaders series! This series has given us insight from many of the well-known HR leaders and HR bloggers and I will link to their contributions at the end of this post. Today I am honored to share a contribution by William Tincup of Starr Tincup Marketing.
William is a founding Principal of Starr Tincup and if you haven’t checked them out, you must. Their site demonstrates their unique approach to the market. They are hard core practitioners who are passionate about human capital and providing the best to their clients. William is someone I have come to admire because of his unsurpassed knowledge, his straight-forward approach, his humor, and with him, there’s no BS. EVER. As you’ll see in his post, he’s also someone who is a very caring family man who also is concerned about his community.
Be sure to let him know what you think in the comments after the post. With that, here’s William!
Zen and the Art of Focustime
Tools we like – How to schedule meetings painlessly
Posted on 5. January 2010 by EngaugeThis is the first post in a series about tools we find useful (and think you will too) because they just make work easier. Mostly, they’re quite simple – which is probably why they make work easier, not more complicated.
We like tools that are simple to use. We’ve built that into our 360 feedback and employee survey solutions. What’s the point of having something with so many bells and whistles that people are likely to have anxiety attacks working out what to do next? We believe busy people want things to be clear, straightforward and easy to use. That’s always worked for us.
So here’s our tool of the week. It’s one I use when I want to set a date and I want to find out which date can be made by the majority of the people invited. Meet-o-matic is fabulous. It’s free. It’s so incredibly easy you can’t possibly make a mistake. And it does exactly what it claims to do.
2010 Human Capital Predictions
Posted on 30. December 2009 by Trish MacFarlaneWorkplace privacy will become an issue in 2010
As the need to use social media in the work setting emerges stronger in 2010, there will be more attention given to workplace privacy issues. Employees and companies will begin to figure out how to use social platforms to gain business advantage, however, non-adopters will press the privacy envelope by trying to over-monitor usage. This will lead to employees feeling like “Big Brother” is back stronger than ever. This disconnect may be a competitive advantage for companies who “get it” because they will actually capitalize on the relationship building and knowledge sharing that can be accomplished with social media. The key find for 2010 will be the realization of ROI on social media use.
Technology is the word for 2010
We saw this start to happen in 2009 and the focus on using better technology in the human capital area will continue. Although companies have been forced to make cuts in jobs, many global corporations will set the bar for being able to use great systems to track people anywhere. This need will be facilitated by the increase of workers who demand more flexibility. As more employees work virtually, there will be a greater need for systems to track actual work product instead of face time. Also, there will be cheaper technology available for individuals to carry with them- netbooks, iPhone and android aps, etc.
Office Temperature Affects Worker Production, New Survey Shows
Posted on 15. December 2009 by The Hiring Site
Just in case you weren’t already overwhelmed with trying to keep work place morale up, employee stress low and staff burnout at a minimum…Well, here’s one more thing to consider as you look for ways to maintain office productivity: the thermostat.
While companies may be tempted to keep office thermostats low in efforts to save money this season, the move could actually end up costing them – in the form of lost production. At the same time, however, blasting the heat isn’t any better, finds CareerBuilder’s most recent survey. Read the rest of this entry »
