How to Increase Your Productivity at Work

There never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish everything we want to do. Our to-do list gets longer, but our days don’t.

The key to meeting our goals is to become more productive to make more efficient use of our time. Becoming more productive means becoming better at managing our time, finding ways to increase our focus, and finding ways to work harder, not smarter.

Here are a few ways that you can become more productive at work to accomplish more in less time: Continue Reading

March Madness Costs Employers 3.75 Million Hours Per Day

With the field of 68 teams now selected for the NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball championship tournament – affectionately known as March Madness – companies around the country are preparing for is likely to be a week with noticeably diminished productivity as workers begin the annual tradition of organizing office pools, filling out brackets and watching streaming broadcasts of the games from their desks.

“Monday could be particularly dreadful on the productivity front, as a new study out today from a Penn State University assistant professor suggests that the loss of sleep stemming from the annual change to daylight savings time results in workers to spend more time than normal surfing the web. The ‘cyberloafing,’ as it has been coined, could be particularly robust today as many workers take to the Net to research teams and study match-ups in an attempt to generate a winging office pool bracket,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Continue Reading

March Madness Means Millions of Lost Hours of Productivity

The annual NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball championship tournament, affectionately known as March Madness, kicks off in less than two weeks and companies around the country know what that means: it is time once again to remind employees that streaming live video slows down everyone’s internet speed.

In its annual “study,” that gives legitimate scientific studies a bad name, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. predicts that while March Madness will not be the downfall of the American economy, it could result in millions of hours in lost productivity, or at least diminished productivity, as workers across the nation take time from their work schedules to watch games online, check scores and manage their office pool brackets. Continue Reading

Productivity Gains by Employers Bogus As Huge Contingent Workforce Ignored

By Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler

A very well-written article in MIT’s Technology Review, “Tectonic Shifts in Employment’, contends that Information Technology is reducing the need for certain jobs faster than new ones are being created. Noting that, “6.3 million fewer Americans have jobs than was true at the end of 2007. And yet the country’s economic output is higher today than it was before the financial crisis.”

The MIT article admits several elements are in play but claims that technological obsolescence is the predominant factor. A similar case was made in Bloomberg Businessweek, Did That Robot Take My Job? at the beginning of the year. There’s no question that technology destroys jobs (and creates new ones) but is the gap as wide as these articles suggest?

We’re not sure.

We think the use of contingent workers, for example, has increased to astounding levels and the accounting of this headcount is almost non-existent within companies when it comes to calculating productivity from F/T. As a result, firms show productivity spikes when in fact they may be using as much or more labor to accomplish their goals.

We’re also concerned about unmeasured anecdotal evidence surfacing where well-known large companies consciously ratchet their performance technology tools to push individual workers (in the service/exempt classification) to unsustainable levels i.e. burning them out by forcing them to work longer hours to meet quotas etc. (And no, we are not talking about some other country here perhaps someone has been adopting a few developing country techniques here.) These onerous practices are similar to what we used to study in grad school as abuses from the 2nd industrial revolution, 1880-1920, that led to the rise of unions.

It makes us think some of the productivity gains we report might just be sleight of hand.

– Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler work full time consulting, educating and discovering how talent and opportunity connect through emerging technology. They can be reached via email at mmc@careerxroads.com, phone at 732-821-6652, or on-line at http://www.careerxroads.com.

Average Employee Wastes 12% of Day On Facebook, Twitter

A direct correlation between tracking employee time and an increase in productivity has been observed after analyzing data about how people typically spend their time at work. This information was compiled by DeskTime through its analysis of over one million of work hours.

The study shows that the average employee will spend 12 percent of the working day using what DeskTime considered to be the unproductive applications of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.. This amounts to 65 hours a month, which have not been used productively. Only 59 percent of the day is spent using applications, which DeskTime deemed to be  productive.

The data demonstrated that after a month of using a time tracking system and sharing that data with the employees, the productivity of those employees increased by 15 percent. The statistics also showed that the typical employee used a high number of different desktop applications, web sites, and other applications. That indicates that they did a lot of link-jumping at work. Though this may be a good indicator for, for example public relations employees, it might not be the best result for, say, programmers.

In summary, the results of the analysis demonstrate that access to employee time tracking statistics are beneficial both for employees to self-manage an increase in their own productivity, as well as for managers to understand the working habits of their employees.

Telecommuting Would Lead Americans to Make Sacrifices

What would you be willing to give up in order to telecommute, or work from home or other locations?

TeamViewer® has announced the findings of its survey of over 2,500 American adults aged 18 and older, conducted online by Harris Interactive in January.  The survey found that most Americans believe that more people want the option to telecommute (62%) with an overwhelming percentage (83%) believing that telecommuting is on the rise.  Specifically, the survey found that Americans believe: Continue Reading

Video: Research Links Happiness to Success

We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk from TEDxBloomington, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.

Improve Workplace Productivity by Working Smarter

If being connected 24/7 was supposed to make our lives easier, the business world didn’t get the memo. Most American professionals just can’t shake the end-of-the-day feeling that they didn’t get enough done. So day after day, they find themselves responding to work e-mail on their smartphones right up until their head hits the pillow. Sound familiar? There is good news, says Jason Womack: By implementing a few small changes, you can get more done in less time—which not only staves off burnout, but leaves more time for doing what you love. Continue Reading

Improve Productivity with Outlook Training for Recruiters

Working as a recruiter requires excellent time management and multitasking skills. Professional computer trainer and IT consultant Randall Olson shares expert tips regarding how learning how to make the most of Microsoft Outlook can boost productivity and reduce stress.

How can using Microsoft Outlook help recruiting professionals manage their time effectively? Continue Reading

‘I Hate My Job, But What Can I Do About It?’

The late comedian George Carlin once said, “Do you hate your job? Sorry to hear that. There’s a support group for that. It’s called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar!”
As a consultant on employee engagement to major healthcare companies, Melissa Evans understands that feeling well. Her solution to it, however, is a little “uncorporate.”

“It’s a fact that most people don’t like their jobs,” said Evans, also author of Sole to Soul: How to Identify Your Soul Purpose and Monetize It . “According to a recent survey published by Time Magazine, fewer than half of American workers – 45 percent – are satisfied with their jobs. This is the lowest percentage since 1987.  Gallup reported that this phenomenon also hurt businesses in a significant way. Companies with large numbers of dissatisfied workers experience greater absenteeism and lower productivity. These workers create a turnover rate of 51 percent. Can you imagine working at a company, or trying to run one, that loses half its staff every year?”

That turnover isn’t just from firing or layoffs. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people who quit their jobs from June 2010 through October 2010 was actually larger than the number of people who lost their jobs. Gallup says all these disengaged employees cost the U.S. economy upwards of $370 billion annually. Evans believes that one key way to turn this around is for employees to look inward before they look outward. Continue Reading