Tag: career | The Caraires Recruitment Consultancy

5 ways to boost productivity in the workplace

19th November 2019 by Molly Billings

The goal of any leader is, ultimately, to increase output. In the current volatile business climate simply maintaining allows other key players in the industry to gain advantage.

However, simply brandishing a whip and telling your team to ‘work harder’ is far from a sustainable way to truly up productivity. Whilst you may see a small increase in output in the short term, of course any leader worth their salt will know that this simply cannot last, or will be at the detriment of quality and diligence.

Truly increasing productivity isn’t down to one thing; like most elements of effective leadership, the concept should be approached with finesse and an overarching view of the business’ key functions – one of which should always be to ensure that workers are treated well and with respect. Simply pushing them to their limits will lead to high turnover, poor well being and ultimately a complete breakdown in function.

But then what works? How can leaders actually up productivity without compromising other areas? Read on to find out…

Review functions

Most workers aren’t performing as well as they can, but the truth is that it’s not their fault. Often, good workers simply pick up small voids left by others. This may be as simple as watering plants, or fixing the printer when it jams, yet these little incremental tasks take them away from their actual jobs and waste time. It may take just five minutes to fix a printer jam, but this one task takes them out of whatever they were doing and it may take more than half an hour to get back into the productivity ‘zone’. If you want to ensure that all workers are operating at 100%, take away the fluff that surrounds their core function.

Promote breaks

It sounds counterproductive, yet ensuing that workers are taking the time to mentally decompress between big tasks is massively beneficial to productivity. A survey conducted by Tork in the US last year found that those who took a fifteen-minute break between big tasks to decompress were not only 38% happier at work, but also 22% more productive; the study also found that the quality of their work was better. So, to do more, professionals must work less.

Set small goals

It’s all well and good aiming for a grand company objective – yet often this is vague and sets no roadmap to strive for. Your workers don’t need to know that they’re aiming for ‘excellence’ in customer service. This is a given, and provides absolutely no aide in getting there. Instead, set smaller, far more achievable goals with tangible roadmaps to success. Instead of ‘excellence’, why not ‘Upsell THIS service to 10 customers today’. This is easily achievable, and ups productivity through proper guidance.

Consider work-life balance

No professional is at their best when they can’t mentally divide themselves for their work. Burned out workers get ill, they let things slip and their wellness evaporates, along with their drive and purpose. ONS research suggests that work-related stress was the single largest cause of workplace absence last year. And if you’re their manager, it’s your fault, not theirs. Fight this by ensuring that they aren’t messaged about work outside of work hours, that they go home on time every day, and that they don’t work in evenings and weekends. By dividing these two worlds, they’ll be far more refreshed and ready to work.

Promote collaboration

Good teams work together to achieve goals, and as a worker, knowing that you have a vast network of expertise that you can call upon if you’re stuck is a massive advantage. But this doesn’t come naturally. Workers are far more likely to simply try and keep their workloads to themselves – so it takes the promotion of collaboration from managers to make it happen.

Three strategies to accelerate your career

6th November 2019 by Molly Billings

Never before has self-development and personal training been more crucial than it is today.

In an age where job-hopping is no longer frowned upon, as employees take on new roles and join new companies to find the one that suits them best, employers have slowly begun to stop investing in developing individual workers who may leave before a return on learning is realised.

Therefore, adopting strategies yourself that can accelerate your career can provide employees with the best possible option to get ahead and achieve more.

This is something Jason Wingard, a contributor to Forbes, has put emphasis on in a recent article for the publication. He wrote: “For ambitious employees, self-development is an effective way, and, in some cases the only way, to hasten progress along the career ladder.”

He went on to reveal his top three strategies to help employees assume control of their development and accelerate their career:

Put strategy first

With statistics stating that one-third of employees report that their bosses don’t assist with career development, Wingard believes that the onus should fall on to workers to be proactive and work towards a strategy to improve their own skill-set. They should prioritise ways in which they can gain more experience, attain marketable skills and build a group of supporters.

One way to enhance this is to find a mentor. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a senior leader and could be a co-worker or a junior colleague. As long as the mentor has teachable skills that can accelerate your career, mentor-ship can make a huge difference to the future of your role at work.

Be your own ‘Chief Marketing Officer’

Wingard advised that today’s workers must become their own ‘Chief Marketing Officer’ and therefore should be analysing, refining and improving the way that they appear in the job market. One of the quickest ways he suggested is to embrace education to improve oneself.

These could be in the form of free webinars that inform users of the latest techniques within business, or you could choose to invest some more and take on an online course or attend weekend workshops to expand your skill-set.

Get feedback

While feedback can be both positive and negative, it is all constructive and can help to grow your career. Therefore, it’s essential you regularly ask for feedback. Wingard noted that discovering strengths and weaknesses in soft skills is the first step all employees should take when trying to accelerate their career, and the best way to do that is by asking for feedback.

Ensure you regularly reach out to your peers and line manager to see what you could improve on, while also finding out what you’re excelling at to provide yourself with a benchmark. This will ultimately steer you in the right direction and provide structure to your career goals.

Are you ‘not sure’ if you’re in the right career?

1st November 2019 by Molly Billings

All workers question their own credentials every now and again; maybe a project doesn’t go to plan and the boss dresses them down in front of the team, or maybe they just don’t feel the connection with their job that they once did – it’s completely natural, and often is will pass.

Yet, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes, the little voice in the back of your head telling you that you’re on the wrong path only gets louder and louder, until it’s all you can think about. At this point, it’s time to seriously consider if you’re ready to make a change.

This, according to research conducted on behalf of First Direct which polled a total of 2,000 workers across the country, is the feeling of almost half of the British workforce. When asked in the poll if they felt that they were in the right job, and the right career, 47% admitted that they were ‘not sure’ and that their current positions were not fulfilling enough.

One quarter of respondents were motivated to switch careers in order to learn a new skill and attempt to build a new profession in another industry, whilst one third insisted that the key problem in their current job was the lack of a reasonable work-life balance.

“It’s easy to associate career switching with the early years of your working life, but our research found the desire to do something completely different spans every age and generation,” stated Joe Gordon, Head of First Direct and commissioner of the research.

“Even 42 per cent of the over-45s plan to change careers in the next two years. Money isn’t the driving factor behind a career switch. People are keen to learn new skills, or to do something they find more personally satisfying. Almost one in five are considering teaching, nursing or charity work as an alternative career,” he concluded.

Ignore this TERRIBLE career advice

21st October 2019 by Molly Billings

There is a common phrase most friends, family members and colleagues have offered those embarking on their career.

In order to help you secure your job and position yourself for bigger and better things, the majority of people have been told to ‘make yourself indispensable’; however, it seems that this piece of career advice could be one of the worst ways in which someone can advance themselves in their career.

According to Quartz Executive Coach May Busch, she shares that when you are successful in one role, most people can’t imagine you doing anything else and won’t want you to do anything else. With your manager relying on you and your ability to get the job done, selling yourself as ‘indispensable’ can put you at risk of being pigeonholed.

So how can you perform to a high standard without getting caught up in the indispensable trap? The key, according to Busch, is to be indispensable for what you can become and not what you currently do. She goes on to share four ways to do that:

Help others see you in a different light

It’s important that you showcase your abilities and that there is more to you than one dimension. Therefore, if colleagues or managers only see you as carrying out ‘behind the scenes’ duties, invite them to a meeting where they can see you truly performing. Plus, it is also worth embracing and taking on new challenges so people can see your potential.

See yourself in a different light

“The longer you stick in the comfort zone of the role where you’re indispensable, the harder it will be to envision yourself doing something else,” Busch writes. Instead, challenge yourself to see yourself in a different light and look for new opportunities where you can develop and learn new capabilities.

Prepare for the next level

To get ahead, the best way to prepare is by investing in yourself and your own personal development. Think about the skills and experiences you want to explore and take time out to actively pursue them. Network and talk with others to find out what it takes and the things they wished they’d done to prepare themselves and as such what can prepare you for the next step in your career.

Make yourself move-able

Building a wealth of talent behind you is a sure-fire way to get senior members of staff to feel comfortable moving you to the next level of your role that you aspire to achieve. “If you can create your own back-fill, managers won’t feel as anxious promoting you,” Busch concluded.