“Making work more efficient, effective and productive.” Those are three wonderful management terms. What do they concretely mean to the organisation and to employees?
- Efficient: organising work in a way that requires minimal means and effort. -> practical
- Effective: ensuring the goal can be achieved. -> effectual
- Productive: a similar effort leads to better results. -> fruitful
From the perspective of an employee: An employee lives and works in a 24-hour society. There is no end to the stream of information we are all constantly subjected to. Wherever you are - in the office, at home, on the road - there are stimuli everywhere and the latest news is always instantly available. By handling this information stream correctly and by structuring your time at work more effectively, you can keep yourself from becoming overstimulated. Imagine this: instead of starting your day being stuck in traffic, you turn on your laptop at home and reply to some emails, before getting in your car and driving to work on nearly empty roads. That is a much more efficient use of your time and saves you a lot of frustration during your commute. You can start your day feeling more relaxed. That, in turn, will make you more productive, since you avoided a lot of unnecessary stress.
From the perspective of an employer: In the average office, 50-60% of the workstations are occupied. The fact that not all seats are taken is due to the presence of part-time staff. However, these empty seats do cost money. With NWoW, the "permanent” workstations of old are replaced by "flexible” workstations. As a result, a company has to provide fewer workstations, which can save a significant amount of money. This is a good example of efficient entrepreneurship. Note that this does require employers to equip these flexible workstations with easily adjustable accessories (a monitor arm, chair and desk, for example) to allow employees to do their job effectively.
The work environment
“Putting employees first in order to give them the ability and freedom to choose how, where and when to do their work. This is only possible if the organisation is set up accordingly. It is therefore essential that employees are allowed to do their work anywhere and anytime in a healthy and productive manner with the help of appropriate, high-quality solutions.”
We have now come to the point where employees and employers meet. One wants optimal freedom, while the other wants to save costs and achieve maximum results. If there are fewer workstations and these are flexible to boot, an employee will have the freedom to choose where they want to sit. The big risk is that their workstation does not meet the requirements of a good workstation. In the office, at home or on the road: a well-designed workstation boosts your productivity and lets you do your job in a more efficient and effective manner.
Some activities are poorly suited for noisy open-plan office environments. I am writing this article while sitting by myself at a focus workstation, wearing noise-cancelling headphones and listening to my favourite music, all to allow myself to focus optimally on the task at hand. I try to schedule administrative tasks and calls for those times when I am working from home. This ensures I do not disturb my colleagues with my calls. My administrative tasks, on the other hand, require a different kind of focus. Besides, I don't want just anyone to see what I am doing. In short, if you are thinking about creating a flexible work environment, it is important to think carefully about the functions it must have.
Did you know that a poorly designed workstation leads to a loss of productivity?
With a few relatively simple measures, you can make sure your workstation is equipped with the right accessories. Don't sit at your kitchen table on a chair that is fine for a dinner party with friends, but poorly suited for sitting on for hours on end. “Working on laptops should be banned,” says John van Hooft. “That is, a laptop without a laptop stand, external monitor and separate keyboard and mouse. With these accessories, using a laptop not only becomes a more comfortable experience, but people will also enjoy their work more - in the office, on the road and at home. To top it off, their productivity will increase by more than 15%.”