Roughly 1 million tweets per year come from fearless employees openly expressing negative feelings about their work! As a business, that’s quite alarming since employees these days are closely tied to their employers via social media. A yearlong social media study found interesting tidbits such as, 8 out of 10 “job lovers” work in the western half of the USA, technology employees tweet less frequently about job satisfaction than any other industry and 3 of the top 5 “job hating” states border the Atlantic Ocean
Statistics like these are interesting if you’re not the employer but if you are, they can be harming your business’ first impression online by spreading negativity. Or if you’re employees are happy, they can positively impact your business for the same reason.
Can you encourage job satisfaction while increasing productivity for your teams? We think so and came up with several ideas to help you drive success and productivity for your next cross-team project:
Boost team productivity via “noise” reduction
Interruptions cost organizations an incredible amount of money each year and by incredible, we mean in excess of $580 billion per year just in lost time. Minimize downtime for your project team by reducing time spent on Instant Messaging apps like Skype and gChat, and email and other tools that can become a big distraction. Encourage teams to think before pinging a co-worker by asking themselves, “is this really necessary, right now?”
Encourage the right kind of “work time”
Studies show that workers waste around 20% of their workday on non-work related tasks. Which tasks, you ask? Socializing, Internet for personal use, and conducting personal business like setting medical appointments. While some of this can lead to more productivity and employees working harder or longer, too much leeway results in massive downturn in overall productivity. The trick is to find balance.
Lead by example for good physical and mental health
Regular physical activity plays a major role in reducing stress. Many organizations realize this and have begun adding things like gym memberships for employees, healthy meals, activity trackers, and standing desks to their roster of job benefits. But when it comes to encouraging your teams to take part in the offer, nothing can compare to the value of leading by example.
S.M.A.R.T project are successful projects
Every single project ever conceived began with an idea but not all ideas are great or feasible or worth it. That’s where the SMART test comes in to hedge your bets before a project takes flight. Ensure projects are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely at every turn. Doing so will go along way to helping teams achieve the best project outcomes and boost team productivity every step of the way.
It might be surprising that workers are brazen enough to post anything negative about their place of employment online. But with job seeking sites like Glassdoor keeping anonymity and the popularity of apps like Yelp, expressing opinions are commonplace. Add to that the fact that negativity dominates our language (and therefore our thoughts) and it explains a lot about why we have no problems expressing negativity about our jobs in a public forum. Taking responsibility for the company culture and job satisfaction of your team is your first line of defense against employees airing their work related grievances in a public forum.
Looking for more productivity tips and tricks to grow your business? Check out our blog!
