A recent study found that only one in three workers feel their manager respects their time, and almost half say they have been asked to do something they could not complete due to timing or staff availability. In fact, 21% of employees reported being pressured into doing things outside of normal working hours at least once per month.
If you are a leader who makes demands beyond office hours, it may be difficult for your team members to trust you and keep control over their workday commitments. You can’t expect people to hold up their end of the bargain if they don’t believe you will!
Time is a valuable asset for both employers and individuals. When someone else has access to this resource, it becomes even more important to ensure it gets used effectively and responsibly. By creating an environment where people feel respected and able to fulfill their obligations without fear of repercussions, you improve employee satisfaction and productivity.
It is also worth noting that research shows that when people perceive their colleagues as trustworthy, they are much more likely to contribute towards achieving organizational goals and staying within budgeted deadlines.
Fortunately, there are some simple strategies you can use to help promote greater respect for employees’ time. In this article, we will discuss some helpful tips for addressing time management issues among coworkers.
Make sure you have enough rest and recovery time
As mentioned earlier, your employees’ performance may be impacted by how well they manage their personal lives. If you notice that some people are constantly busy outside of work, it could indicate something more serious like stress or illness.
As manager, make an effort to create open conversations with colleagues about their workload and responsibilities and what pressures they might be under at home. Ask if they need help meeting deadlines, and if so, offer to do it for them.
It can also be helpful to ask around about whether there is anything else going on in their life – maybe they just got divorced or lost someone close to them. Sometimes workplace issues such as conflict or job loss can contribute to stress.
If you feel things are getting out of control, talk to your superiors and/or HR to see if there are ways to address the situation.
Make sure your work-life balance is consistent
A lot of employers have a policy that says you can only spend X hours at work per week. That sounds good, but what if there’s not much time left after that limit?
If someone comes into work late every day, they will never have enough time to do anything else. They will be in the office until quitting time, which could be very early for some people. Or they may go home before their shift ends so they don’t have to wait around for anyone else to leave.
This doesn’t set a good example or help them feel like it’s okay to take long breaks during the workday. It also isn’t helpful to other employees who might be waiting for them later. When everyone has extended lunch times and/or delayed departures, it creates an uncomfortable environment.
Be realistic
A lot of times, employers make unrealistic expectations for their employees’ time. This can backfire quickly as workers feel pressured to meet impossible deadlines that they have no control over.
This is not only unproductive for the employee, but also for the organization because they may give up and abandon their efforts completely if they do not see progress.
It is very important to be real about what you expect from your staff. If you are too high in expectation, then people will lose motivation and burn out.
On the other hand, if you are too low in expectation, then people will waste time and effort doing things that get ignored or end in failure.
So, how should you manage time at work? First, be honest with yourself and your colleagues about what you can achieve and when.
Second, create clear roles and responsibilities so that anyone can check off these items and feel good about themselves.
Third, use effective communication tools like email, voice memos, and chat apps to discuss business matters.
As we know, technology has made life easier now more than ever before, which means there is less reason why you need to “switch technologies” and use old methods of communication.
Enforce discipline
As mentioned before, time management is an important part of employee productivity. If you are in charge of giving people assignments and meeting deadlines, then it makes sense that they will be constantly putting pressure on yourself to do your job.
This can sometimes lead to poor quality work or no work at all because someone didn’t feel like doing it. It also puts more stress on them since they have to deal with their own personal issues while trying to meet your standards as well.
It is up to you as a leader to create a culture where employees have enough freedom to make good decisions but also enforce some basic rules such as being punctual for meetings and events.
By having this structure, everyone has someone they look up to who sets these rules and helps fulfill other responsibilities, which gives them motivation to do so themselves.
Set personal objectives
As mentioned before, your employees’ time should be their own. You cannot require them to work towards something that doesn’t benefit them personally.
What benefits they gain from doing this project or taking this class depends on what is important to them.
For example, an academic employee may feel compelled to spend his/her free time studying for next semester’s classes. For another employee, spending time with family may make it difficult for him/her to do so.
You can help these individuals fulfill their dreams by giving them projects that motivate them. This will create a sense of motivation in the workplace.
Projects that don’t matter to you won’t inspire much passion and energy. If a person is working on something that makes them feel bad, then why would anyone try hard?
It is your responsibility as manager to make sure that your staff members know about how valuable they are to you. Make sure to always say “thank you” and emphasize that you value their efforts.
Avoid asking questions like “why aren’t you working harder?,” instead ask what types of things they are trying to accomplish and if there is anything holding them back.
This way you are not coming off as accusatory, instead you are gathering information to fix the problem.
Be consistent
Consistency is one of the biggest killers of productivity in employees. If you consistently have poor time management, it can easily create a sense of entitlement for them which allows them to keep putting off things they should be doing anyway.
If their job responsibilities include keeping an eye on deadlines but they never are because they don’t know when the next one will be, then they won’t take any action to fix that until someone tells them or they do something about it themselves.
That doesn’t go well if you’ve already given up and left town for the day because you didn’t seem to be moving forward at all!
It also creates a situation where people get rewarded not for being productive, but for ignoring their duties. A lot of times, those who lack respect for their jobs feel like they’re working hard without getting anything back so they continue to putoff what they need to do.
Be proactive
A recent study reveals that only one in five workers say they spend more than an hour each day on non-work activities, with almost two thirds saying they’re actively engaged for less than 30 minutes every work session.
This is problematic because non-work time can have major implications on employee productivity and engagement.
Time away from the workplace is linked to lower job satisfaction and motivation, as well as higher levels of stress and burnout. These effects can lead to turnover or even quitting your job.
It also means that employees are spending their time working outside of office hours, which may hurt organizational efficiency.
By being aware of how much time people are spending elsewhere, you can take steps to reduce this waste by encouraging socialization at work, limiting offsite trips, and/or giving staff access to other resources they could use for self-care.
Make it clear what is expected
As mentioned before, time management is an essential part of employee productivity. If you are aware of how much time your employees spend away from their work, you can begin to address that by giving them more responsibilities or even letting them take over some projects!
But before you do either of those things, you must first make sure that they understand what expectations they have as employees at this company.
Make it very clear what hours they should be in the office every day, what days they should attend meetings, what time they should get home after working, and so forth.
This will help them know when to expect themselves to be around the company and give them enough notice to prepare for everything.