10 things that can pull down business productivity

Every business must embrace the right policies to ensure better workplace productivity. Productivity is one of the important pillars for any profitable organization. Hurdles to office productivity can hamper business as well as employee growth.

Improper Communication
Communication among team members is the most important way to collaborate and improve productivity. Many a times there is an atmosphere of hesitation among team members. They may not communicate with each other on a daily basis causing inappropriate levels of team collaboration. Lack of understanding of the roles and responsibilities can lead to unhealthy competition among employees. Moreover, individuals become hesitant if communication channels are not defined properly by the management. Managers must ensure that team members communicate with each other and help each other on the tasks assigned. This sort of communication should be supervised and explained clearly to all the individuals.

Not Using The Right Tools
Using the right set of tools helps in improving the productivity of day-to-day tasks. Every manager must ensure these are being used for effective team collaboration. The manager must himself use the right productivity and project management software to track time and tasks for respective team members. Every individual must be given appropriate feedback on the efficiency levels achieved and the expectations, going forward.

Personal Conversations
Employees as well as senior personnel may spend quite some time in personal conversation, during office hours. The intention for these conversations may be to take a short break and this may in fact be a productivity booster. But, at times, these conversations last for more than a few minutes, causing team productivity losses in the long run. The company must implement the right policies for a fixed break time, to help improve the overall work culture and productivity.

Lack Of Focus
Individuals may lose focus when their job role or responsibilities are not clearly defined. They may undertake tasks which are beyond the scope of their work and this may take away the time required to complete the tasks for which they are most suited. Every manager must ensure that team members are extremely focused on what they are supposed to do. It is the responsibility of every team lead to create specialists in the team. These specialists should be trained to win over every hurdle in the task they specialize in.

Lack of Incentives
Getting more work done and keeping the team happy, is a skill that every manager needs to develop. Giving the right incentives and motivation are the pre-requisites for a team that performs consistently. Cash rewards and appreciation are the most common forms of employee motivation.

Misunderstanding Priorities
It is the duty of a team lead to clearly communicate the most urgent tasks. This should be done on a daily basis to make sure that no important tasks remain pending. Any panic situation is the biggest hurdle to workplace productivity and should be avoided as much as possible.

Internet For Personal Use
Every organization must limit the use of internet for official purposes only. Appropriate policy and guidelines must be communicated to each and every employee. This should be controlled with the help of proper online tools. Individuals found doing personal activity at the workplace, must be penalized.

Late Attendance
Productivity loss may result from employees coming late to office, on a regular basis. Those coming late must be warned about the consequences, well in advance.
Managers and senior employees must adhere to office timings and always reach the office on time. This sets a positive example for the rest of the team.

Excessive Vigilance
The teams must not be subjected to excessive vigilance by managers. This may create frustration among individuals and productivity losses in individual and team performances.

Lack Of Proper Delegation
Many managers are not able to delegate tasks properly. They may assign a task to an individual, but may end up doing it themselves. Expectations from the tasks assigned, must be clearly set. It must be ensured that the task is completed by the person who has been assigned that task. This is important for maintaining better workplace productivity throughout the organization.

(Veronika Tondon is business enthusiast. She writes about emerging technologies and opportunities for business.
She is working as a Marketing Manager with Invoicera, a leading cloud invoicing solution. www.invoicera.com, https://www.facebook.com/Invoicera , https://twitter.com/invoicera )