The Top 4 Productivity Obstacles Every Business Must Overcome

What is Slowing Down Your Company?Successful companies run like a well-designed engine, with each part moving precisely to drive the business forward.

When a team member first begins to become less productive, it’s almost unnoticeable, but over time it can start to have a noticeable impact on margins, project timelines, client satis-faction, resource utilization, and more.

While there is no way to eliminate every obstacle that affects produc-tivity, there are three major obstacles complicating business processes and creating ripple effects through services businesses today.

As discussed by efficiency and workflow consultant Edward G. Brown in an inter-view with The Washington Post, work

There are several elements that can negatively impact productivity, with variations based on industry and how individual businesses are run. However, the four major obstacles most frequently encountered across modern businesses are:

• Downtime and Lagtime Leave Resources Underutilized

• Over-Connectivity and Alerts Create Distractions

• Time Lost Switching Between Applications

• Multitasking Overwhelms Team Members

This ebook will help you learn more about these obstacles to workplace productivity, their effects on your business, and how to overcome them. The ability to understand how productivity barriers can affect your workforce, in often unseen ways, can help your company identify and elim-inate distractions and complications that are eating away at your margins and utilization rates.

interruptions pull team members away from work, costing companies time and reducing utilization. Interruptions also eat up additional time spent restarting progress on a task, losing momentum at work, redoing work due to errors, and dealing with stress and fatigue that slows down business processes.

Distractions and decreased productivity are becoming more and more common in the workplace. The average office worker cannot focus on a task for more than 11 minutes at a time, according to research from The New York Times, even without taking unnecessary disrup-tions into consideration. Beyond the initial disruption, The Wall Street Journal reports that it takes approximately 25 minutes for an individual to fully refocus on the original task following a distraction.

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Downtime and Lagtime Leave Resources Underutilized

Over-Connectivity and Alerts Create Distractions

Time Lost Switching Between Applications

Multitasking Overwhelms Team Members

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Consistency and reliability in business depends on resources being able to move smoothly between each assignment.

This means having a clear schedule for each workday and tasks that can be started quickly and with little to no need for further explanation and approval. Ideally, each resource’s tasks would be prioritized clearly and made ready to begin whenever the resource is ready.

When this isn’t the case due to lag in resource and project management processes, a team member can begin to stall through no fault of their own while simply waiting for the informa-tion they need to proceed or assign-ments needed to fill their time. Having

Lag and Downtime Leave Resources Underutilized

resources sit on the bench between assignments can seem like a minimal amount of downtime at first, but these minutes can slowly add up over time, leading to significant amounts of unbillable hours. In addition, lag in approval regarding project tasks can cause projects as a whole to be delayed and compounding underutili-zation for all involved.

While productive and motivated employees will try to make the most of this free time, they are often limited in what they can do. Even the best use of downtime is often devoted to non-bill-able tasks, reducing the utilization rates of each affected resource and cutting into a company’s profits. 1

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Increased Bench Time Across Resources

The greatest harm caused by down-time is that the resources affected will most likely not be able to fully commit to a new project while waiting for the approval and direction they need. As a result, the average bench time for each team member will increase.

There will always be some down-time for any resource, but excessive non-billable hours can quickly hurt project margins and overall company profits. Lag in resource assignments and project tasks can cause critical project delays that push delivery far past the due date. This will result in numerous repercussions, including being unable to assign resources to different projects and lower rates of client satisfaction caused by not being able to deliver projects on time.

Streamline Work Through Gantt ChartsGantt Charts are designed to create a clear and interconnected visual timeline that dictates the flow of the many tasks that make up a project. Each task has a scheduled start and end date, assigned resources, and tracked burn rate, giving both individual team members and project managers a better understanding of any delays or approval lags that may be affecting project completion or resource utilization. Being able to see the timeline and how each task relates to one another helps users better understand the bigger picture of the project for more informed work.

Cascading Dependencies

Interdependent tasks will be connected, with the completion of one task enabling the start of the next. The chart will auto-matically make updates to start and due dates of dependent tasks if something has been changed.

Project Burn Rates

Being able to easily see how a task is moving forward through its burn rate helps team members keep track and keep work moving forward through greater awareness of project progress.

Effective Alerts

Customizing how teams receive alerts regarding task assignments, changes, impending due dates, and more through emails or in-app messages can help keep resources aware of their assign-ments and their role within the project.

The sooner a manager can see how and why resources are being underutilized, the more effectively downtime can be addressed. As a result, resources become better utilized and can move on to the next task or project quickly.

Elements of an

effective Gantt

Chart include:

Impact Solution

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Being online both at work and in our free time has created an “always on” mentality.

Workers receive alerts from apps on a daily or even hourly basis. While these apps are meant to help people stay informed and send important notifica-tions, they are also causing an increasing amount of distractions from daily work demands. Smartphones combine with the various systems used for work and the everyday distractions that occur in the workplace to create continual distractions for the average worker.

A survey by Udemy found that 70 percent of workers polled feel distracted at work, with this increasing to 74% for Millennial and Gen Z employees. These distractions come from a wide variety

Over-Connectivity and Alerts Create Distractions

of sources, including app notifications, office chatter, emails, and much more. According to WaterLogic, the average person checks his or her phone up to 80 times per day. In addition, the average desk worker spends more than two hours every day checking email an approximate 50 times and his or her instant messaging screens 77 times. Mashable reports that these distractions cost U.S. businesses a total of $650 billion a year, averaging out to $4,452 per company.

What was designed to help keep people connected has pulled them further away from the task at hand, with both work communications and personal life contributing to these distractions on a daily basis.

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Excessive Time Lost Due to Distractions

It’s not just that the time spent distracted impacts productivity, distractions have also been shown to reset a person’s thought process, leading to delays in work even when he or she is not actively engaged in a distracting interaction. Alerts cause employees to change their attention and reset their concentration each time they refocus on work. The result is that while statistics can illustrate how much time is spent in distrac-tion, it can’t show how much time is lost by simply working at a slower, less concentrated state.

Even after refocusing on the task at hand, employees may struggle to regain their concentration and pick up precisely where they left off. This can have varying effects on the overall quality of work and cause team members to become misaligned with one another in the project lifecycle, but will most certainly result in a two-steps-forward, one-step-back approach to work, leading to longer production schedules that can seem incompatible with the projected completion rate.

Consolidate Communication Channels on a Single PlatformCommunication is critical in making sure your teams’ tasks and goals are aligned, so removing all commu-nication channels is not the solution. Instead, orga-nizations would benefit from consolidating the many different channels used on a single platform, which will help them to reduce the number of applications while still benefiting from their strengths. In addition, routing communication channels through a single platform can lessen the number of distractions coming from alerts and messages generated by the many different apps being used simultaneously. This consolidation will also help resources have easier

access to data and insights when communicating through integration with project and resource management solutions. These insights can be quickly communicated between team members to support more effective collaboration throughout the company and ensure that team members are aligned in their goals and projects.

Impact SolutionReal-Time Updates

Task completion and the generation of important data can be synced with the communication channel to send alerts about important milestones being reached.

Customized Notifications

Customizing how often and to whom notifications can be sent will help each team member consciously reduce his or her distractions and make concentrated efforts to be more focused during work.

Contextual Collaboration

Being able to access important informa-tion and quickly communicate with other team members means that collaboration can happen within the context of related projects, reducing time spent messaging and increasing time spent in tasks.

The features of

a well-integrated

communication

channel include:

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Years of technology adoption have led many businesses to have too many disconnected systems and experience diffi-culty in accessing information.

Time lost in navigation is also ham- stringing businesses, with 73% of companies in the 2019 State of the Services Economy report stating they spend more than one hour per day on average navigating from app to app. The influx of applications designed to improve efficiency can have the oppo-site effect if they are not integrated and poorly implemented.

Time Lost Switching Between Applications

It’s common for a business to regularly use multiple applications throughout the course of a single workday in order to access the wide variety of benefits provided by each. However, this means that team members may continually switch back and forth between these multiple solutions throughout the workday. While this may provide them with the support they need to complete their jobs, it can also lead to significant time lost in navigation between apps.

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Potential Billable Time Lost in Navigation

The time spent opening, closing, and navigating through applications in search of needed data and tools often goes unnoticed by companies because this is technically part of business processes. The navigation process is part of the average workday and is done in service to completing various tasks, but quickly adds up as time lost could be spent on more effective work.

With more systems being used on average by companies than ever, the result is that there is even more time spent in navigation and employees often become less acquainted with the systems they use. Struggling with systems that they do not completely understand will only increase navi-gation time and the total time spent completing each task. While this may not be categorized as bench time or time spent distracted, it causes task work time to balloon as business processes become more complicated.

Integrate Applications for Faster ProcessesApplication integration provides a host of benefits for teams who depend on multiple solutions for their everyday needs. Most importantly, the platform used to integrate should create a user-friendly and comprehensive work environment that will enable its users to do their jobs more efficiently than what occurs when needing to navigate from app to app throughout the workday.

Fast Access

Effectively integrated systems provide access to data and tools in a more convenient manner, with re sources having access to the support they need in a simple and easy-to-use interface.

Project Awareness

Integration means that team members can more easily understand project and resource statuses so they can prioritize and become more efficient within their roles.

Dependable Data

Integrating the systems that generate your data can eliminate discrepancies and create trustworthy data insights that have been vetted by multiple sources.

The combination of less time spent searching for answers and better-equipped team members results in the efficiency needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive business landscape.

Well-integrated

applications

can support

your teams by

providing benefits

including:

Impact Solution

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Multitasking has become more prevalent than ever and even celebrated in both work and personal life, with many feeling as though juggling as many tasks at the same time as possible is the most effective use of time.

In the increasingly fast and competitive services industry, many employees and contract workers may feel that working on multiple projects at once can keep their company moving forward and prove their value.

Multitasking Overwhelms Team Members

However, much like app switching and constant alerts, moving between multiple tasks and balancing various goals interchangeably throughout the day can cause major distractions, slow down project pace, and lead to unfocused work efforts. According to a study by TalentSmart, multitasking temporarily drops a person’s IQ by 15 points, which causes the multitasking individual’s cognitive capacity to become equal to an eight-year-old child.

Without clear priorities and timelines, resources may fail to push their tasks toward the finish line in a timely manner despite working hard at their tasks.

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Never-Ending Tasks Delay Projects

The immediate benefits of multi-tasking, such as making progress on multiple tasks within a short amount of time, make this method of work seem preferable instead of taking on one task at a time. However, while multitasking means that a large number of projects will receive work quickly, very few will actually have a meaningful amount of effort expended toward their goals.

Multitasking means that a team member will put enough time and effort into a task to make some progress, but then switch to another before they reach a meaningful mile-stone. As this cycle continues, tasks can fail to complete on time, which push back other dependent tasks and create delays across multiple projects all occurring simultaneously. As more and more projects become delayed, the ripple effects can impact even more resources and tasks over time, creating cascading delays that can be prevented with simple solutions that keep employees focused.

Clarify Project Priorities and TimelinesResources may be inclined to multitask out of habit, but project management strategies that underline the priority and timeline of tasks and their related projects can rein in these habits to keep employees on track.

Focusing on a single task does not necessarily mean that it will hit its due date, but it does mean that meaningful progress will be achieved by eliminating focus on other projects. When combined with the other three solutions previously discussed, resources can fluidly move from task to task and remain effective in their daily work.

Impact Solution Understanding Urgency

Some tasks need to be done immedi-ately because of promised deadlines or their effects on cascading tasks. Others can wait. Measuring the consequences of delayed tasks will quickly help in prioritization.

Assessing Project Value

Every project has a related value, both in terms of profits and overall benefits to the company. Determining how these factor into each project will help in prior-itization in both the long- and short-term.

Estimating Needed Effort

An effective project management soft-ware solution will help you determine what skills and how much time will be needed to complete a task. Knowing this will help you position it accordingly in your roadmap and prevent tasks from interfering with one another.

Creating effective

task prioritization

and timelines is

the result of:

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ConclusionStaying productive and focused at work is a consistent challenge for every employee, no matter his or her commitment to the company.

A good manager will work to eliminate the causes of low productivity that can arise from complex business processes and the variety of technology solutions being used today.

Combining a strategy to eliminate these distrac-tions and delays with an effective Operational System of Record, which integrates and orches-trates the various project, resource, and financial management solutions used by your company, can empower and refocus each team member. The combination of being empowered by data, able to quickly transition between tasks, and free from major distractions creates more effective individual resources who are better able to under-stand and support one another’s work needs.

By taking the following steps, you can systemati-cally eliminate the obstacles to productivity we have covered and begin making a noticeable impact on individual utilization and company-wide profits.

Streamline the Work Day with Gantt Charts

The effective workflow that is created will help move resources from task to task and eliminate costly downtime.

Remove Distractions and Consolidate Communications

Keeping team members focused on tasks and removing unnecessary distractions results in greater efficiency.

Integrate Systems for Less Time Spent Navigating

User-friendly integration platforms cut down on navigation time by bringing tools and data directly to the user.

Eliminate Workflows That Encourage Multitasking

Prioritizing tasks and encouraging resources to finish one task at a time creates a more focused workforce.

Together, many small and often difficult-to-eliminate productivity killers found in everyday work can be eliminated, resulting in a more efficient workforce and streamlined processes.

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