How a Clean Workplace Impacts Team Productivity

Your team plays a big role in driving your business to the direction you want to take.  Their invaluable support is greatly significant in making your vision come to life.   Thus, you exert an effort to boost your team’s productivity and efficiency to ensure the growth of your business. 

You empower them by not micro-managing but allowing them instead to make decisions and be made accountable for these decisions. You give out incentives and bonuses to those who performed beyond expectations.  Team building activities are regularly done to encourage teamwork.  You may have developed or installed project management software or tool to ease communication, task monitoring and completion of certain projects that need the cooperation of several members of your team.

But did you know that one of the things that you need to do to boost the productivity of your team is very simple, yet too often, disregarded – providing your team a clean working environment.  Below are some of the ways a clean workplace can impact your team’s productivity:

1.Create a professional image

A professional is not only someone that has a technical expertise, say, an accountant, engineer, doctor,and others. It goes beyond that. A professional image is one of competency, reliability, dependability,integrity, respect and discipline among many other values and attributes. This should encompass all the aspects of your business, including the cleanliness of your workplace which is representative of all the values of a professional.

2.Improve efficiency of transaction flow and processing.

The common scenarios in a rather disorganized and untidy workplace would include: rummaging through a pile of documents for that one file that needs immediate approval; going around the longer way to another table which is supposed to be of arms-length just because of boxes piled between you;not wanting to work because of a foul smell coming from trash not taken out regularly. These are just some of the cases that show how a dirty workplace can delay transactions and reduce employee’s focus and functions.If unnecessary things, smell, dirt or trash are out of the way, it would be easier to find files, faster to get documents to intended recipients and easier for your employees to gain focus. An uncluttered and pleasant-smelling work environment can help get things done fast and efficiently. The turnaround time of processing your transactions can be reduced to a level that allows your employees to work on other equally essential transactions.

3.Prevent employee sickness and diseases

Another thing that can affect your team’s productivity is employee absences because of sickness. While it can be reasoned that they could have caught the viruses elsewhere, you cannot deny the possibility that it could be because of an untidy work environment. Your employees spend a great deal of time in a day, interacting with different people in the office or workplace. If the work environment has become a breeding ground of bacteria and viruses then a lot of cases of sickness and contamination can be expected.Your employees are exposed to health risks especially if they are dealing with customers who come and go. Who knows where they’ve been or what viruses they’re carrying? If they get exposed and contaminated, that would spell absences and delays in your transactions. All the more you have to be cautious since it could be contagious and before you know it you have several employees down with the virus at the same time. You can afford to lose more opportunities just because your employees cannot work.The simple installing of hand sanitize dispensers in easily accessible locations within the office can be a significant preventive measure.Or, you install air purifiers to remove contaminants from the air in your workplace and improve the air quality. This will also create in your employees a culture of keeping health a priority and be capable to be a productive member of your team.

4.Boost employee morale

As it is believed to be one of the cornerstones of your business, employee morale is something that you have to understand by heart. It is your employees’ feelings of job satisfaction, well-being, and positive outlook. Here, we speak of emotions, attitudes, motivation and self-esteem that generally make up the overall behavior of your employees. It answers the simple question on how your employees feel about coming to work daily. Are they dragging their selves to work? Or, are they enthusiastic about starting another work day?A cluttered and disorganized workplace will also bring more clutter in your employees’ working mind set and can affect their concentration and focus.Being able to work in an environment that is clean and conducive to working with thoughts of being well taken-cared of by you, your employees will be more willing and focused to work.And,as a result be a productive team member.As a business owner, of course you would want all your employees to be excited to come to work and to work for you. This excitement will be manifested in their output, covering quantity and quality at the same time. This ultimately serves your goal of growing your business as you have a team of driven and motivated people.

5.Retain top performing employees

The great contributors to your success should be rewarded. Oftentimes, we give incentives and bonuses as rewards for exemplary work. But it’s not the only thing that can keep your top-performing employees to work for you.Your employees that are of high calibre, well-skilled and exceptionally talented, deserve a clean workplace as a form of respect to them. These are individuals that value focus, discipline and organization. These are the individuals that you need to keep in your team.If the workplace is not well kept and maintained you will surely lose them to companies who can give them a higher pay plus a very well-organized work environment.

A Clean Workplace Makes a Happy Worker

This is true indeed. A clean workplace sends out a vibe that you take care of your employees and their welfare.And, who wouldn’t want to work with an organization that values them? There could be tons of ways to make your workers satisfied with their jobs. There could also be external factors to consider.But what’s important is that you find ways to make your office as another place for your employees to feel at home in.