Imagine driving cross-country but having to stop every mile to refill your gas tank or reading an enthralling novel but losing your place every few pages and having to repeatedly find your place. That’s what poor productivity feels like—incessant interruptions, diminished focus, and the inevitable postponement of objectives.
The incessant interruptions, diminished focus and postponement of objectives always come with costs that go far beyond wasted time. I’m going to share a few that I’ve seen come up frequently.
First, there’s the financial drain. When productivity declines, it’s not just time that gets wasted; it’s money. The average person wastes 2.09 hours per workday, which doesn’t count lunch and scheduled breaks, according to a Salary.com survey. Multiply those lost hours by the number of employees and the average hourly rate, and it becomes a significant financial drain. The same is so for business owners, so do the math with the 2.09 hours per day and what your hourly rate would be, and you’ll see the possible financial drain on your business.
When productivity is low, projects and innovations slow down. Everything slows down and the door to losing your competitive edge opens. This gives competitors who are more efficient an opportunity to outpace you in the market. Whether it’s launching a new product or responding to market trends, a lag in productivity can mean missing critical windows of opportunity that could place your business ahead.
Then there are the inefficiencies which often lead to longer work hours as you and your team struggle to meet deadlines. This results in increased stress and potential burnout, which can further reduce productivity in a vicious cycle. The longer-term costs are high team/employee turnover rates and the costs associated with replacement and training.
Finally, poor productivity can even extend its tentacles into how a company is perceived externally. Delays in service delivery or frequent mistakes can quickly tarnish a brand’s reputation, which can take years to rebuild.
So then, what’s the solution? Trust me when I say, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. It just doesn’t work and if you want to avoid these and other costs, improving productivity should be at the core of your business strategy. Making productivity personal removes the boxed solutions and gives you and your team tools, processes and strategies that support you individually and collectively. Your approach and what you use to get things done should fit you like a glove. When they do, everyone’s productive and you avoid the costs of poor productivity.