The modern human resource professional is faced with several problems. Many of the issues that face these professionals are new to this era, or they are at least a new twist on an issue that has always been present. One of the old problems that has a lot of new angles to it is the issue of productivity. Managers and HR teams are always looking for new ways to identify problems with productivity and for new ways to address them.
In some cases, the problem is to address the things that cause lost productivity, but you are not always going to be able to recover all of that time. Instead of trying to recover every lost minute, the smart move is to focus attention on gaining ground in other areas. Using new technologies and processes like document management software, the modern HR professional can help to make up for some of this lost time.
The Struggle with Productivity
The issue of lost productivity in the workplace is one of the oldest and most constant issues for people that manage employees. In the past, the common answer was more oversight and discipline, but we have since come to realize that you can only push that line so far before it becomes counterproductive.
In addition to this, you have new wrinkles to the productivity question that are difficult to resolve with many of the older methods. The internet and use of social media in the workplace are two of these issues that can be terribly difficult to address with the traditional practices of an HR team.
The first line of defense that most companies employed in addressing this new time-waster was to block these popular sites from their network. However, this method is easily thwarted when you consider the fact that most employees have internet access through their phones. This makes blocking the sites almost pointless and ineffective.
Research has been performed to determine whether the use of social media in the workplace is causing productivity to lag, and many of the findings are surprising. The statistics indicate that the average workplace with blocked access to social media is actually less productive than a work environment that allows access to these sites.
How Can HR Managers Bridge the Gap?
With issues like these, you don’t have a clear solution to stop the practice, but there are some ways that you can make up for the time that is lost. When it comes to the use of social media in the workplace, there may be a few ways to manage usage in a way that limits the impact on productivity.
The intuitive answer might be to block it altogether, but as we have seen, this strategy doesn’t seem to be working. Instead, the best option is to accept limited usage that is allowed within well-defined guidelines. When it is forbidden, employees will spend time trying to find ways around the rules. With some limited allowance, they won’t be doing things like spending time in the bathroom to check their phones, they will feel comfortable taking a few seconds to do it at their desk—this will actually result in it taking less time from their work.
Going Paperless with eFileCabinet
Aside from finding ways to manage some of these employee behaviors in a way that limits the impact that they have on productivity, HR professionals will need to find ways to improve processes to make up some of this time in other areas.
One of the ways that this can be achieved is by using technology to work for you instead of against you. Going virtual with your document management is the first step many companies are taking. If documents are still being stored and organized in their physical form, you are not only wasting the space that is used to store these files, but you are running a system that takes a lot of time and effort to maintain.
When you have document management software, your documents will be better organized, more accessible, and easier to share with people in the working group. With a system like the one from eFileCabinet, employees will spend less time retrieving files and bringing them back to their proper storage location, and it will require less effort to keep these things organized. That time goes back into working on tasks that are associated with their duties.
With document management software for the HR professional, it also helps to make running the department more efficient. All of the employee files are more organized and easy to retrieve, so you can easily access all of the information associated with one employee or an entire group.
When it comes to productivity optimization, there is no silver bullet that is going to make any company’s output skyrocket. It takes several steps, analyzing the situation, and careful planning. However, systems like document management software can play an integral role in gaining ground on the issue of lost productivity.