HCW Benefits Blog

This is a guest blog post from our HR partner CAI. CAI is a trusted resource for N.C. employers for HR, compliance and people development.

Did your week start like this? Your biggest client got the wrong order; your CEO received a company report, which had a high-priority deadline, two-days late; and your accounting department cannot figure out how the organization is over budget for the month already.  Meanwhile, your employees are excessively chatting about their weekends, checking their friends’ Facebook statuses and taking numerous breaks.  If so, your company could be facing a problem with a lack of employee focus.

Ensuring that workers pay attention to details is critical to the success of your organization. Even small mistakes can disrupt business goals if they happen frequently. Instead of punishing your staff members for not staying on task, help them see how their efforts affect the bottom line. Motivate them to perform their best and stay on top of their work assignments with these focus-finding strategies:

Create Goals for the Day
Most employees establish goals for the year and sometimes for the month as well, but focus can be lost quickly with broad goals that stretch over long periods of time. Making daily goals helps employees define and prioritize the assignments they need to complete. To further help employees keep their concentration, have them set a time limit for each project they want to accomplish.

Discourage Multitasking
Many people boast about being exceptional multitaskers. Although juggling multiple tasks seems like an effective skill, research reveals that creating high-quality products with this method does not work. The ability to focus on details decreases when we tackle more than one project. Working on too many assignments can also create stress, which increases our chances for making mistakes. Encourage employees to complete one item at a time. Once they finish one, they can move on to the next one.

Schedule Distraction-Free Times
Coworkers can often be the cause of preventing others from completing their projects. Whether teammates want recommendations for good lunch places or help reviewing a spreadsheet, time for employees to focus on their individual tasks gets lost. Prohibiting staff interruptions (unless necessary) during specific work hours can give employees an opportunity to work on their assignments without distractions from their coworkers. Time blocks tailored to the entire company or individual worker are both effective approaches.

It is easy for workers to become complacent and careless in tasks that they perform frequently. In addition to the pointers above, consistently remind them that they are integral components of your organization and their contributions assist in making your business a success or a failure.

For more guidance on keeping your employees focused, please contact a member of CAI’s Advice & Counsel at (919) 878-9222 or (336) 668-7746.

Photo Source: febuiles, Sam Pullara