Some interesting thoughts from Dr Marc Nickell, a Forbes Business Council member and co-founder of Rocket Station – he is ‘obsessed with the pursuit of better practices’ – extracts from a recent article follow The success of your business depends on the team of people who work in your office. Their productivity is directly …
Category: 11. Motivation
Sep 09
Collaboration Overload Is Sinking Productivity
An article about employees’ changed workloads in this new post-pandemic era, published by the renowned Harvard Business Review , written by Rob Cross, Mike Benson, Jack Kostal and R J Milnor – and precised below Collaborative work — the time spent on email, IM, phone and video calls — has risen 50% or more over the …
Jun 29
Prioritise employee wellbeing
A chap called Barney Cotton, writing in the Business Leader, recommends prioritising employee well-being, the latest hot business topic, or companies may suffer greatly Personio, a European HR software for SMEs, is calling for businesses to prioritise employee wellbeing alongside company culture – or risk a boom of burnout, and in the worst cases, …
Jun 18
A 5-hour workday is most productive?
Douglas Perry, writing in the Oregonian, claims the 8-hour workday is a ‘holdover of old ways; research suggests 5 hours is the office time sweet spot’ Eight hours is too long to spend at work. Recent research says so. The 8-hour workday has been the norm for more than a century, but employee surveys suggest …
May 09
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Kindness at Work
An important article follows on the powerful impact that kindness can have on a range of productivity issues, especially as we move from an era of materialism to mentalism – it was published in the Harvard Business Review, written by Ovul Sezer, Kelly Nault and Nadav Klein and clearly supports my wife, Rhona’s quote: “There’s no …
Apr 11
Flexible work schedules are attractive to many remote employees.
Jesper Schultz is CEO of BasicOps, a San Francisco internet-platform, who allowed his remote employees to set their own working hours and found they were way more productive and much happier as a result. During the pandemic, he allowed his small team to adjust their preferred working hours. The flexibility encouraged workers to prioritise their …
Mar 03
Now is the time to embrace a four-day workweek
Brad Badelt is a freelance science and environment writer – a Canadian based in Vancouver – his article below adds weight to the increasing momentum for a reduction in working hours per week for most employees – albeit not all – for example, brainworkers work 24/ 7 In 1930, at the onset of the Great …
Jun 27
Tolerance is good for all
Given the current demonstration marches ongoing worldwide following the shocking killing of George Floyd, there are many issues being raised to be faced by all – and, in particular, as far as this website is concerned, by many people at work regarding how they treat each other there: The overall mantra should be ‘ALL lives …
May 14
The post-pandemic world?
An article by Hubert Joly in the HBR (Harvard Business Review) raises some interesting thoughts on human needs that leaders should consider once we’re through this pandemic and past these ‘watershed times’ During the Covid-19 crisis, I’ve spoken with many CEOs who have said that a key priority for them, naturally, has been the …
Mar 21
Covid -19 should make ‘working from home’ the norm
A flash of insight from New Zealand Go to any technology website right now, and you’ll see headlines about Google now holding job interviews on Hangouts. Or IBM stopping all domestic travel for meetings. Or Twitter encouraging all of its employees to work from home to prevent spreading the virus. David Court says working from …
Feb 18
Mavericks don’t fit straitjackets
Recall what the great Steve Jobs said: “Think differently” when giving reasons for the global success of Apple Then consider the spat between Finn Russell, the supremely talented Scotland fly-half and Gregor Townsend, the current Scotland rugby team manager and ex-fly-half, which was reported on in the Sunday Times by ex-England fly-half, Stuart Barnes Russell …
Oct 26
Wasting time is not wasted time
Rest periods, R & R, tea breaks, lunch breaks and most meetings – call them what you will – are essential for brawn workers’ muscles to recover – they couldn’t work at full speed for a solid eight hours – just as Usain Bolt couldn’t run full pelt over 400 metres compared with 100 metres …
Jul 20
At work but not working
According to the CEBR (Centre for Ecoomics and Business Research) UK businesses don’t know how to maximise their human capital despite the vast majority being ‘concerned’ or more about their people productivity – indeed, a survey they conducted found that: Some two thirds have not looked at ways to boost employee well-being and so motivation …
Jun 22
The Secret Sauce for productivity?
Greg Hanover, CEO of Liveops Inc, claims organisations that tap into the power of the gig economy see much increased (% ?) workforce engagement and productivity Why so? He believes it’s because independent workers are empowered to follow their unique goals and create satisfying careers for themselves And he’s right – it’s not only good …
May 20
Ethical capitalism
We have waxed long and hard on these pages about CEOs acting like pigs at the trough, robbing their businesses, the golden geese that should be improving the lot of all in society, by paying themselves huge unjustified pay and bonuses and maximising their share prices (and hence their shareholdings) whilst paying their employees the …
May 19
Where measuring engagement goes wrong
An article by Peter Cappelli and Liat Eldor in the Harvard Business Review is reproduced below close to its entirety Surveys to assess how engaged workers are in their jobs are highly popular among employers, who hope the results will help them improve employee productivity and creativity and reduce turnover – but consultants and academics …
Mar 31
Productive recidivists
Over 70% of offenders re-offend within one year! Why is this? Most prisoners are locked up for most of the day and not treated well by the officers which surely makes them worse than they were at the start, not better – in these Universities of Crime, they learn to despise authority, not learn a …
Feb 09
4 day weeks to boost productivity
A new report by Autonomy – a thinktank focusing on the future of work – argues that a shorter working week should be a central pillar of our economic future. They say calls for a shorter working week have gathered pace in recent years, with the TUC, the Green party, large and small unions and now the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, joining …
Sep 14
A famous fire that changed workers’ rights
The following are extracts from a publication by the AFL-CIO, America’s Unions On Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York Firefighters arrived at the scene, but their ladders weren’t tall enough to reach the upper floors of the 10-story building. Trapped inside …
Jun 01
Unmotivated workforces cost $7 trillion, annually!
‘Employee engagement and workplace productivity are inextricably linked’ according to an article from Consultancy.uk Engagement apparently means ‘absorbed in and enthusiastic about work’ – just don’t ask why the word engagement is preferred nowadays to the straightforward motivation ! Gallup have just issued a report entitled State of the Global Workforce covering employees in 155 countries (of the 192 …
May 05
The bullsh**t job phenomenon
According to The Times, in 2013 David Graeber, a professor of anthropology at the LSE, created quite a stir when he wrote an article about people in meaningless jobs with meaningless titles in meaningless industries – since followed up by his book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory It prompted a YouGov poll which established that 37% of …
Apr 05
Time to change time at work
An interesting article by Business Leader columnist James Phipps, a ‘serial entrepreneur and investor’ and Exec Chairman of the Excalibur Group, about effective ways to improve employee productivity We see relatively little about how to improve the awful productivity we have in the UK. We in the UK have a business culture which says …
Mar 02
Low productivity for low wages – and vice versa
One of the greatest capitalist entrepreneurs of all time, Henry Ford, famously declared: “There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible – it’s not the employer who pays the wages, employers only handle money – it’s …
Jan 08
Flexi-time and flexi-places of work
Why is it we now work 9 til’ 5 for 5 days a week? Many years ago, people worked 7 days per week – then this fell to 6 days per week, but 12 hours per day It took Henry Ford, back in the 30s, to reduce the working week to 40 hours – 5 …
Dec 28
Work hard, then play hard, for best results
Very very few can run at speed for long, like Mo Farah – we need to pause, rest and recover – only then can we rejoin the race and compete Nils Salzgeber (aka Hacker Noon), in a recent post, claims this is because ‘all organisms on this planet follow rhythms’ The most famous is the …
Nov 20
Employee engagement drives productivity?
Employee engagement is nowadays seen as essential if an organisation is to perform well Gallup report that business units in the top quartile of employee engagement outperform bottom units with 17% higher productivity, 20% higher sales and 21% higher profitability – all big performance differences MGI – McKinsey Global Institute – report that productivity increases by …
Nov 18
Lifestyle changes are on the move
The UK’s CEBR – Centre for Economic and Business Research – claim an important change in preferences towards work is now on the move Many people are choosing jobs which offer less pay but more attractive lifestyles or ways to help others This change in attitude is already ‘a key element in around a third …
Nov 06
More job satisfaction, more pay!
“Life is not fair – get used to it” – so said Bill Gates Many bosses might agree with him, if they were honest – they’re good examples after all As people climb ladders at work, so their job satisfaction also tends to rise – more status, responsibility and power – bigger decisions to make, …
Oct 16
Depression costs billions
A study by the LSE – London School of Economics – found that depression costs South Africa a massive R232 billion a year, equivalent to around 6% of its GDP – this is due to lost productivity caused by absence from work or attending work whilst ill Janet Yellen, when Chair of the US Federal …
Sep 17
Core human needs at work
Much has already been said about hierarchies of human needs which need to be met if workers are to be motivated However, a recent study of 12,000 white collar workers by Tony Schwartz, CEO of ‘The Energy Project’ and Professor Christine Porath of Georgetown University is well worth noting They claim that employees have four …
Sep 03
Remote working
A Northern Ireland finance firm, AKFP Group, closed its HQ for a full month in July for a ‘remote working initiative’ They found it boosted both staff morale and productivity Staff were allowed to work from locations of their choice – the result was ‘they reaped the benefits of being able to change venues, eradicate …
Sep 02
Wages up, demand up, productivity up
Some say low productivity growth results in low GDP and wages growth – and productivity growth depends on new labour-saving inventions or new managemet practices that come along which allow companies to produce more output with fewer hours of work But others question this – does low productivity cause low wages and growth, or vice versa? …
Aug 08
Happiness at work
Undoubtedly, productivity growth has made a huge difference to the quality of lives of billions of people, first by reducing work negatives – tasks that are dull, dirty, dangerous or difficult – and then increasing work positives by adding many more jobs which are interesting and fulfilling whilst also enhancing social lives with greatly improved …
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