Scrolling on social media, sending a few text messages and checking personal emails may not seem like huge sins to your employees; in fact, they may not give it any thought at all. However, the reality is that these seemingly small distractions can add up to big losses for your business.
Let’s take a closer look at exactly how distracted workers impact your business’ bottom line and examine some solutions so that you can keep your business running smoothly without going tyrannical on your staff.
Distracted Employees Are Less Productive
This one is pretty simple and straightforward. When your employees are focused on social media or a group chat with their friends, they’re not concentrating on their work.
As a result, they’re likely to make more mistakes and take longer to complete tasks.
This lack of productivity can have a major impact on your business, both in terms of the quality and volume of your output.
A survey by RescueTime, a time-tracking software company, found that 40% of employees never work for a full 30 minutes without interruption. In fact, 17% of workers surveyed said that they never go more than 15 minutes without checking their personal phone, email or social media.
So how do you overcome this problem and keep your staff focused?
#1 – Set Realistic Expectations
While it would be nice if your entire team was 100% focused 100% of the time, this isn’t exactly a realistic goal. After all, human beings need breaks and a little bit of downtime throughout the day to stay fresh and productive.
Instead of setting an impossible standard, have a realistic conversation with your team about what you expect from them in terms of productivity. Make it clear that you understand that they need breaks, but explain how much time you expect them to be productive for each day. It should be clear to your team that spending time on their phones and social media is not part of that productive time.
If you can’t manage your team’s expectations, you’ll never be able to improve their performance.
#2 – Take Accountability
It’s easy to sit back and blame your employees when they’re not meeting your expectations. However, it’s important to remember that as the leader of your team, you play a big role in setting the tone for how things are done.
If you’re constantly checking your own phone or email when you’re supposed to be working, it sends the message to your team that it’s okay for them to do the same. Instead, lead by example and make it a point to stay focused throughout the day.
It could also be that your team simply isn’t being motivated to work hard. Perhaps there’s a lack of clarity about what needs to be done or they don’t feel like their work is important. In this case, it’s up to you to take accountability and make sure that your team knows exactly what needs to be done and why it’s important.
#3 – Introduce a Phone Free Hour
You can’t treat your team like school kids and take away their phones for the entire day. However, you can encourage them to put their phones away for a set period of time each day so that everyone can work at optimum levels of productivity.
One way to do this is to institute a “phone-free hour” where everyone is expected to put their phones away for one hour each day. This will help your team to stay focused and get their work done without distractions.
During a phone-free hour, checking email – whether work or personal – is also usually discouraged in order to allow people to really focus on their work.
If you want to take things a step further, you could even consider instituting a “phone free day” each week to help your team to really disconnect and focus on their work.
#4 – Encourage Breaks
Often, your team are on their phones because they aren’t getting a real break. However, switching from one screen to another doesn’t really constitute a break.
Encourage your team to take real breaks throughout the day where they can step away from their work and clear their heads. This could be a 10-minute walk outside, a quick coffee break or even just a few minutes to chat with a colleague.
he important thing is that they’re taking a break from their work so that they can come back feeling refreshed and ready to focus.
Final Thoughts
Distracted workers can have a big impact on your bottom line. In order to overcome this, you need to set realistic expectations, take accountability, introduce a phone free hour and encourage breaks. By doing so, you’ll be able to improve productivity and keep your team focused on their work.
