Terminating Time Thieves
 How many minutes of every day do you purposely waste? How about unintentionally, through poorly planned meetings, ill-defined research tasks, or strategic plans that change direction halfway through?
According to a study by America Online and Salary.com, the average employee wastes 2.09 hours a day. Now, if you factor in unintentionally wasted time, how much time are you and your employees actually spending productively? Half the day?
Defining time bandits
The term "time bandits" defines anything that "steals" away time from the workday. Obvious examples of this include:
- Personal issues
- Disorganized work area
- Surfing the Web
- Conversing with co-workers
However, more cleverly disguised time bandits include:
- Poorly planned meetings
- Ill-defined tasks
- Not prioritizing a to do list
- Almost all research tasks
- Training and learning required to do tasks better outsourced
Preventing wasted time
Here are three steps to help your staff with their time management success:
- Training tools. Building time management skills has always been underestimated as a way to improve results. Without effective training, employees can miss deadlines or waste time due to stress, confusion or agitation. To improve employee morale and productivity, provide your staff with the best resources for time management. Explore your company’s specific needs and find books, multimedia, or consultants that can address those needs.
- Set goals, expectations, and agendas. Get in the habit of setting due dates, requirements, and priorities. When you give an employee a research project, they should understand the goals, appropriate time allotment, and due date. Give meetings time limits and set clear agendas. Ask employees to clock time spent on certain tasks to help identify time bandits.
- Outsource whenever you can. With outsourcing, you alleviate strain on your staff, reduce the need to hire new employees, and receive high quality, professional work from experts. To better sharpen your company and eliminate excess costs and time, opt for outsourcing whenever possible.
While we all need respite during the day, measures can be taken to ensure your time is more productive.
Business success starts with better communication. Contact the professionals at Proven Systems at (800) 720-5398 or info@provensystems.com. |
