The Work Foundation has recently made a research related to work and the workforce in the knowledge economy. The main idea was to find out details related to job characteristics, organizational structure for specific companies and the detailed information about workers’ knowledge reflected in their jobs.
The result was that many companies are failing in the fight against recession because of the inadequately equipment they hold. More than that, managers are not taking full advantage of their employees considering that 40% of workers have more skills and aptitudes than their job requires. The main idea is that employees are actually doing the same/similar tasks while particular ones are in a very decreasing number. 65% of the employees said that the motto applied within the company they work for is “rule and policy bound.” Regarding the flexibility at the workplace, 40% admitted that the schedule was rigid and they have no flexibility or had little and 20% considered they were in jobs that are not making use of their value and talent.
Ian Brinkley associate director at The Work Foundation, said: “Trapping so many workers in roles in which their skills and abilities are poorly matched with their jobs is a waste of economic potential and human possibility.” (Source)
The desk is your brain’s reflection: unorganized and messy or well organized.
Some people said that having a messy desk means having a well organized mind. Well, I don’t totally agree this. There was a period when my desk was full with papers, a total disaster and every time I was looking for specific information took me some time to locate it. So I can’t say I was very productive. 
Continue reading ‘Are unorganized people little Einsteins?’
If your first thought was that this is just a garden shed let me tell you that you were wrong. Like its authors said it is a “full service system for employers to lease home offices for their employees to reduce costs, attract and retain staff, reduce CO2 emissions, increase productivity and adapt to change”.
This might be a solution both for reducing company’s costs and for increasing employee productivity. What do you think about it? Would it work for other regions that UK? Read more bout this here.
Human resource is a precious resource, that why employee’s health is the primary business issue for every employer. This is a clear thing and most of employers recognize the importance of health and wellness and the impact on business productivity and profitability. With all these, there are only a few employers that currently developed a formalized health and productivity strategy.
According to a Hewitt’s survey which collected information about the health and productivity actions organizations are taking or are interested in taking, only 23% of companies have at this time a formal health and productivity strategy while 18% do not anticipate developing one.
Continue reading ‘Healthy employees increase business productivity’
Lately, I’ve met more and more people concerned about their workplace situation and job position. Poll results from previous years showed that the people were living with extreme stress and the main source of stress was the work.
This is a well known fact, but what we don’t know is that the stress level has increased significant during this financial crisis. Accordingly to a non-scientific poll 70 % of the participants confirmed that “Yes, I’m very stressed about it right now!” and only 10 % said that the financial crisis does not influence their life at all.
“Financial stress can cause your whole cardiovascular system to be off,” says Louise Hawkley, PhD, associate director of the Social Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Chicago.
Continue reading ‘Managing stress during financial crisis’
We are running to find ways to increase productivity. We are striving to reach a top of productivity, even if we don’t know where or how does it look like. But we definitely became enthusiast of it and it’s the dream of each employer.
Getting things done is a basic step in increasing productivity process. There are many tips and resources available all over the Internet, but I made a list of most important tips you have to follow in order to GTD.
Use the right technology
Technology often creates new troubles while solving old. Before deciding what tools you need to incorporate in your GTD system, make a short research and ask for advices. There are many peoples that already implemented the system and can offer you valuable information. Continue reading ‘Tips to get things done’
According to a Network Solutions survey conducted in conjunction with the University of Maryland’s Business School, in December 2008 and January 2009, small business owners do not necessarily think the grass is greener on the other side.
Source: SmallBizTrends.com
The recession seemed to hardly impacted only about 36% of the small business owners. But half thought their competitors had been significantly impacted by the downturn. And 31% thought their own businesses had been relatively unscathed — nearly twice the number who thought the competition was left unscathed.
Roy Dunbar, CEO of Network Solutions, says he was struck by how optimistic small businesses are, especially considering that the survey was taken deep in the midst of the economic downturn.
Continue reading ‘Grass Not Always Greener in This Economy’
According to Business Week, companies pay out more than $1 billion per year to settle “wage and hour” lawsuits—typically violations of overtime. Of course, from the point of view of the employee every hour spent over working time should be rewarded. But is this overtime justified? Is the employee productive during overtime?
One of the reports we have implemented in Cyclope, our productivity tool, shows exactly how much time an employee has spent at the office over working hours during a period of time (a day, a week, a month, etc) and what were the applications the employee has used during this time.
Below you can see screeshots of the “Overtime Report”. Click on them to take a detailed look of the report from the online demo.
Continue reading ‘Is Overtime Justified?’
Either we talk about employee motivation, business profitability or any related subject, they all depend on managers. We all know that the business profitability basis are in the managers’ skills and not necessary in the strategies or companies’ system.
The way managers implement motivation among employees will further influence the company’s financial results. Recent researches revealed that in most cases, the organization’s success is correlated to the standard establish within the company and to the excitement of each employee in regards to its job. If managers are not giving to employees the resources they need, if they are not motivating them and are acting without integrity than the performance level will decrease. Continue reading ‘It’s All About the Managers…Duh!’
Recent Comments