Low Productivity at Work: Causes and Solutions

10 of August, 2022

As an employer you want to get the best out of your team. Recruitment is essential, but you also need to take into account how to maximize the productivity of your team you have in place. For this, you need to be analytical and know what causes low productivity at work. Therefore, in this article, we are going to take you through a step by step guide on the reasons for low productivity and how to solve these issues.

How to measure productivity

Employee productivity can be measured with the labor productivity equation: total output / total input. Let’s say your business earned $180,000 worth of goods or services (output) utilizing 2,500 labor hours (input). To calculate your company’s labor productivity, you would divide 180,000 by 2,500, which equals 72.

The first step on how to measure productivity though is not to panic, research shows that more than half of all companies are not as productive as they could be, so you are not alone. By taking the first step researching, you are already a step ahead of your competition.

Labor productivity formula

Total Output ($ or €)  ⁄  Total Input (hours) = Labor Productivity

You can then divide this amount by the amount of employees you have in your organization to see the Labor Productivity per employee. This gives you an idea about what the median employee produces in terms of value for your company.

However, the issue with this basic measure of productivity is that it takes into account several factors that do not include employee input. The causes of low productivity at work from an HR perspective can be addressed through a set of other analytics and behaviors. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Reasons for low productivity at work

One the main causes of a decrease in employee productivity is simply the inability to focus on one task. The modern worker often tries to multitask and is not able to concentrate, losing valuable time doing several tasks at once in a half-baked manner rather than a focused approach. They also have issues relating to time management that do not help with productivity. Trying to do several things at once will lead to them eventually not fulfilling several of those tasks at once.

Another lack of productive behaviors can boil down to poor management: managers allocate too much time to tasks that the employee completes seamlessly or less to ones they find difficult. This leads to lots of idle periods for your employees not knowing what to do for several hours of the week. Or they simply do not train the employees properly or offer good advice, leading to employees being lost.

These are all examples of employee productivity being low, but remember it can also be related to the tools at their disposal or other factors. Make sure you check their software is updated and efficient, and give them as much help as possible in this respect. Let’s look at some other solutions to low productivity.

How to increase productivity at work

For the issue of multitasking, you might want to consider introducing a task tracking software so employees can regulate their working habits in a healthier manner. This can either take the form of procrastination whilst trying to do a task or simply having too many tasks on one’s plate and trying to do all of them at once.

Overwork can be just as key a cause for low productivity as lack of work. The issue of multitasking goes as well for overwork and burnout behavior. With a time clock employees can ensure they are working regular hours and not being over-worked to the point of burnout.

Another way to tackle lack of productivity is to improve management techniques. For small businesses especially it can be very difficult given the lack of a managerial nebulous to rely on compared to big corporations. There are some techniques that are worth remembering when trying to improve your team in light of the reasons given above:

• Employee satisfaction is usually correlated with productivity. The more satisfied your employees are, the more productive they are. Make sure you monitor employee satisfaction rates.
• Try and also think about how your physical workspace can be set up to create a positive, productive environment for workers to come into. This can include things like acoustics or where the office windows are placed in relation to the sun.
• Set feedback meetings so you can tackle the issues the employee faces at work.

Apps to improve productivity

By using an all-encompassing Human Resources app like Sesame HR you can have positive results through the following ways:

• Have schedules that are respected by the employer and the employee, leading to less burnout but also less absenteeism.
• Be able to monitor whether workers need more hours to fulfil certain tasks or less for others.
• You can visualize the extra hours put in to compensate your employees and improve their satisfaction with in lieu days.
• Create an employee break regime so they are not overworked and make sure they are taking adequate pauses rather than working flat out.