In most workplaces, there’s some time for the odd digression in one’s duties. It’s necessary for workers to take breaks, get to know their colleagues better, and ultimately remain sane.
That said, it’s possible some of these tangents can evolve into something more worrying; full-fledged distractions. Major disruptions to the working day can mean that your employees find it much harder to get back on track with what they were doing pre-distraction.
In your effort to reduce distractions in the workplace, it’s also possible that you could make things worse for all your trying. Solutions aren’t always straightforward in this arena, and it’s important to take distractions seriously and manage these situations carefully.
Here are our top tips to help you minimise distractions in the workplace.
Maintain a Clean Workplace
The work environment must be clean at all times. That said, even cleaning can be a distraction, especially for workers with busy schedules involving other matters. Having a strict desk policy could be a good idea. A cloakroom for cloaks and bags can also remove unnecessary debris. Having regular offerings of bins will also help, as well as rules that specify that no eating or drinking at desks can occur.
Paperless solutions can also help. If workers’ important documents can be found on a secure cloud server, they’re less likely to have their desks littered with paperwork, ring binders, and other associated clutter.
Employees can do some things to maintain a clean workplace, but not everything. For the tougher side of things, it’s best to work with services like Brightr, which specialises in providing commercial cleaning services. Deep cleaning, floor cleaning, and computer cleaning are just some of the solutions they provide. They only recruit diligent and trustworthy staff and supervise them closely to ensure high standards are met. Working with them is a great way to ensure your work isn’t distracting.
Reject Micromanaging Tendencies
Before you start thinking about what you should do, you should first consider what you shouldn’t. After all, some bosses can go overboard when attempting to minimise distractions. There’s a fine line to tread here. After all, workplace bosses that engage in micromanaging can often make employees fearful about their jobs. What distraction is greater than constantly worrying about overbearing superiors and whether one will have a job this time next year? Thoughts like these shouldn’t be swirling around in your employee’s minds.
The trick is to hone your employee’s focus from behind the scenes, subtly creating better work conditions that incline them to concentrate. If rules are too keenly enforced, it can lead workers to burnout and misery.
Remember, the aim is to minimise distractions, not eliminate every trace of them completely. It’s human nature to occasionally become side-tracked, so adopting a more reasonable approach to these matters will benefit everybody.
Discuss Personal Problems
Poor mental well-being is a lot bigger than a distraction. Still, these major problems can manifest in those ways, with workers seeming ‘distant’ as they ponder personal matters. No employee should be pressured to air their dirty laundry in the workplace. However, workers are increasingly encouraged to discuss personal problems and report their struggles. HR staff and managers must be comfortable navigating these dialogues, providing adequate support, and temporarily adjusting workloads to not overwhelm employees.
Remember, the employee may need to take compassionate leave or adjust their work hours if there’s flexibility. If the work culture is too results-driven and the worker doesn’t feel like they can speak up, then whatever personal problems they’re dealing with can worsen over time. Sometimes vocalising these challenges can make them real and put them on the path to recovery sooner, so it’s vital to speak up.
Try to be sensitive to today’s common but major issues, too. For example, there’s a cost-of-living crisis dominating many people’s lives. If your workplace isn’t paying enough to help employees cover their expenses, it may be worth trying to shift some money and deal out some strategic raises where possible. Ultimately, a worker burdened with worries is far less likely to be productive than one who’s calm and composed.
Streamlining Communications
A lot of wasted time can occur during ‘work-related’ discussions. It’s worth reevaluating these dialogues and deciding whether they’re really adding value to the business.
How often are emails being sent? Is each one of them truly necessary? Flooded inboxes can be a distraction, and so can constant communications, so these correspondences should be short and timely. Only work-related discussions should be fed into the inbox, and informal chatter should occur elsewhere.
Some meetings can also be a source of wasted time and thus be a distraction. There are meetings that can be wholly unnecessary for the start and likely would have served better as a document shared on the company cloud server. Others can have a useful purpose but are poorly prepared for and presented, leading to a manager muddling their way through and ultimately wasting workers’ time. Set the meeting agenda early. Invite relevant colleagues only. Ask for feedback on meetings to keep improving things.
