Experts have estimated that it will take nearly 30 minutes to refocus after a distraction. Now, consider the consequences this human weakness could cause your company. When a worker gets distracted, he or she will spend half an hour at a lower productivity level.
Therefore, it is important to eliminate distractions from your workplace. One way to do this is to make sure that each worker has a clean desk.
Yes, a messy desk can distract your employees. In addition, there are many more ways it can cause a productivity drop. If you’re interested in learning what these are, read on.
Keep Your Employees Mentally and Physically Healthy
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Are your employees calling off sick often? Implementing a clean desk policy may cause the number of these sick days to drop.
Consider first what happens when surfaces aren’t wiped down frequently. In such conditions, bacteria and mold will grow. It is these very things that cause employees to become ill.
The more bacteria and mold that exist in a place, the more illnesses will occur in it.
In addition, psychology experts have long known the effect that unhygienic and disorganized environments have on the mind. Multiple studies have proven that people in such situations will feel more stressed and engage in unhealthy behaviors like procrastination. Obviously, this will affect the productivity of your workers.
Keeps Your Employees Confident and Less Judgemental
Besides the above issues, an employee without a clean desk can have lower self-esteem. This happens because he or she will judge himself or herself and will feel others are judging him or her. Sometimes, his or her coworkers may even point out the messy desk and/or call them unkind things.
Also, an employee with an unclean desk may feel overwhelmed and out of control because they can’t remain tidy. This can cause a drop in their confidence, which may translate to difficulties in their productivity.
The coworkers of an employee with an untidy desk may also be less productive. They may believe their coworker is not very capable of tasks. Thus, there will be less team synergy as they won’t trust the messy desk employee to accomplish his or her share of the work.
Keeps Your Employees From Wasting Time
An organized employee will know the location of their pencils, paperclips, etc. They can then retrieve them in little time for a task. It can take a lot of time for a disorganized employee to find their important items.
Any time in which your employees aren’t actively working is time that they are creating profits. Therefore, it will be profitable for you to stop any time-wasting habits. Consider putting a ‘keep desk clean’ sign on or over each employee’s desk.
If Your Clean Desk Policy Is Successful, Consider Reading Our Other Articles
As a last tip, if you implement a clean desk policy, make sure that you also apply it to your own desk. This will help set a good example for employees and make them feel they’re being treated fairly.
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