Productivity Can Be Improved Through Greater Choice

 

If fostering greater productivity among your employees is one of your organization’s key strategic planning goals as you move into 2014, one survey has shed some interesting light on the subject.

Gensler’s 2013 Workplace Survey, which was released earlier this year, suggests that employees are most productive when they have some choice about where and when they work.

This could be important information to bear in mind as you begin your strategic planning efforts for 2014, as it could inform the business technology choices you make in the year ahead.

For example, some employees prefer the option of working from home from time to time – and while some employers may initially be hesitant about this practice, they may find that their staff members prefer to spend the majority of their time in the office. In fact, the survey showed that 70 per cent of the respondents who had choice about where to work still opted to spend the majority of time at their workplace.

The survey also found that employees who have a wide range of innovative choices about how and where they work are 12 per cent more satisfied with their jobs than workers who do not have these same choices.

If your organization plans to make work practices more flexible in 2014, you may wish to begin the process by clearly communicating your overarching goals and expectations.

Ensuring that everyone is on the same page when it comes to their role in the workplace – regardless of where they choose to carry out their duties – can make this transition a smoother process for everyone.