Business Management & Office Ethics

Week 7: Increase Productivity in the Office

Reporters: Eula Hernandez, Amybelle Lasquite, Ruth Jumawan, & Angelo Laher (HE 1-1)

EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT

Effective - producing a desired or definite result

Efficient - producing a desired result with a minimum of effort, expense, and waste.

TIME WASTERS IN THE OFFICE THAT AFFECTS OFFICE PROFESSIONAL DUTY

Everyone receives an equal amount of time each day. However, it does not appear to be equal since some
people can accomplish more than others. It is important, therefore, that as an office professional, you should
manage your time in the office. Managing time means managing yourself to use time profitability.

Understanding how time can be wasted will encourage more effective time management. Time wasters or
interruptions come from many sources such as:

1. Excessive Socializing – Sociability is one personal trait that an office professional should develop proper
communication. Conversation with co-workers and other persons who may be in the office to talk about
something other than work cannot be avoided, but too much time can be wasted during the workday in
excessive socializing.

2. Social Media Sites – Visiting social media sites is the black hole of workplace productivity. Facebook is
the top social destination where office workers logged in.

3. Personal Business – Employees use work time to check personal e-mail accounts, make personal phone
calls, send texts and do other personal such as online shopping and gaming.

4. Excessive or Prolonged Breaks – A 15-minutes break stretches to 20. A 30-minutes lunch break turns
into 45. Arrive a few minutes late in the morning. Leave a few minutes early in the afternoon. A few
minutes here, a few minutes there, it’s no big deal; right? These seemingly tiny bits of lost time, add up
to valuable hours squandered each week.

5. Inefficient meetings – While many employers tend to overlook their own contributions to inefficient use
of employee work-time, 47 percent of workers surveyed cited unnecessary or unproductive meetings as
their number-one waste of work hours. This should be a red flag to business owners and perhaps the easiest
problem to repair.
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Business Management & Office Ethics
Week 7: Increase Productivity in the Office
Reporters: Eula Hernandez, Amybelle Lasquite, Ruth Jumawan, & Angelo Laher (HE 1-1)

6. Disorganization – One of the major time wasters for the office professional is a disorganized and
decluttered desk. The habit of putting on your desktop all items that you are using and will not be using
momentarily is not good. You may stack unrelated items on top of each other and run in the risk of getting
a paper mixed where it does not belong.

TIME MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

1. Establish Priorities – it is necessary to organize the work to be done so that the most important tasks are
carried out first.
 Priority Tasks – are those tasks that you must finish today.
 Non-priority tasks – are those tasks that can wait for tomorrow or even the day after.
2. Prepare Daily To-do-lists – before closing time each day, prepare your schedule for the following day.
 Coding System
o Color Coding System
o Letter Coding System
3. Keep Schedule – after you have thoroughly analyzed the way you have been spending your time, you are
ready to make new plan by drawing up a schedule.
 Long term schedules – meeting, inventories or tax report
 Weekly schedule – will help you set aside blocks of time for tasks as they become due.
 Daily schedule – might be grouped under the headings or routine works, regular work, and special
work.
o Routine work – opening the mail, processing outgoing mail, ordering supplies and other.
o Special work – handling the employer’s tax record, helping with community charity drive
headed by the employer, preparing expense report, making travel arrangement and others.
4. Handle Paper Work as Quickly as possible – handling papers over and over is a big time waster.
5. Simplify Repetitive Work – repeating work is one of the time wasters.
 Example: Filing of correspondence and report.
o Batching techniques
6. Perform Tasks Correctly the First Time – it is important to produce acceptable work on the first try.
Plan each task before you begin.
7. Develop a Procedure Notebook – there are special assignments that vary with each employer that need
a definite steps to follow.
8. Utilize Slack Time – if you have slack time, you should use the time productively. Use these less hectic
period to accomplish a number of office odd jobs.
 Clear away papers no longer needed
 Rearrange the files
 Replace worn file folders
 Store obsolete file in transfer drawers
 Arrange for needed equipment repairs
 Create more efficient routine for repetitive work.
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Business Management & Office Ethics
Week 7: Increase Productivity in the Office
Reporters: Eula Hernandez, Amybelle Lasquite, Ruth Jumawan, & Angelo Laher (HE 1-1)

ERGONOMICS AND OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY

Ergonomics
 derived from the Greek word ergos which means work and nomos which means natural laws which
refers to how the work place is set up.
 is the study of all office equipment and environment factors that contributes to worker’s productivity and
job satisfaction.
 is the science of designing machines, operations, and work environment that best meets employee’s needs.
 it see to it that people fi and perform with tools they use and the physical setting where they work.

It is important to understand how ergonomics affects you and the office work force. A comfortable work
environment contributes to the overall productivity. Efficiency is increased by ready access to necessary
equipment and materials, lighting, some degree of privacy, and appropriate arrangement of desks, chairs, and
files. The use of space and color arrangement of furniture and the regulation of the lighting and the noise in the
office are important factors for efficiency and productivity in the environment.

Important Factors To Ensure Productive Office Workplace

1. Color – it has been established that color affects the human emotions, senses, and thought process. Warm
colors such yellow, red, and orange create cheerful environment. Poorly painted and unacceptable color
scheme can arouse doubts and mistrust. Tones of gray and dull colors induce workers to sleep and laziness.
Cool colors such as light green and blue produce a calm and tranquil atmosphere. Color influence the way
office callers regard a company. The productivity and morale of the work force are affected.
2. Lighting and Ventilation – Adequate light is essential to the successful operation in the office. Good
light lighting of sufficient quantity, diffusion, and brightness should be maintained. Eyestrain, which can
cause fatigue may be due to improper lighting. The use of draperies and screens are recommended to
diffuse light and deflect glare. It is also necessary than an office be well ventilated. Air conditioning helps
to control air temperature, circulation, and humidity. For efficiency and productivity, the office must be
comfortable place in which to work.
3. Acoustics – sound in the office affects the efficiency and productivity if the office professional.
Uncontrolled noise makes concentration difficult and interfere with proper communication. Employees’
health is also affected because too much noise may impair hearing and can induce emotional disturbance
and cause lack of sleep. The control of noise, on the other hand, will enable the office professional to
concentrate on her work, decrease errors, and increase efficiency, and have pleasant disposition.
Acoustical control should be used so that the sound does not disturb office workers and conversation
cannot be easily overheard.
4. Furniture and Equipment – Office furniture is the vital working tool of the office professional. It makes
up a very important office physical environment. Suitable office furniture favorably influences the
behavior of employees, economizes on the necessary operation. Modular furniture (made up of
independent work surface and storage units with panels used as end panels or space dividers. It includes
all modular furniture components that collectively are required to complete a workstation.) can be
arranged in a U or L shaped providing the worker additional space on one side of the desk. Office Chair
(Posture chair or Ergonomics chair) is a most important physical facility in the office. It is personal to
the office professional and intimately affects the ease and comfort with the work is done.

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Business Management & Office Ethics
Week 7: Increase Productivity in the Office
Reporters: Eula Hernandez, Amybelle Lasquite, Ruth Jumawan, & Angelo Laher (HE 1-1)

5. Floor Plan/Office Layout - the efficient management of the work depends on the efficiency of the general
layout. To achieve efficient layout, one must know the workflow from one individual to another, special
requirement of employees as stated above. Workflow refers to the movement of people and paperwork
through the office. The trend in office layout is the “open” office, design without conventional walls,
corridors, and floor to ceiling partition. The modern office, called the office landscape, is the result of a
new approach to the space planning.

Reference: The Administrative Professional in the Global Office. L. Alegre