4 ways to help employees work smarter, not harder

By Alyssa Place, This is my expertise
Published Updated 2 Min Read

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With the holiday season fast approaching and workplace burnout on the rise, getting employees to stay productive and focused on work is a huge challenge for managers this year.

“Everything is happening in our homes — employees are monitoring their children, doing their day jobs and taking care of the cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping,” says Carson Tate, founder of Working Simply, a workplace productivity consulting firm. “That takes a toll, and it’s very difficult to consistently show up as your best self when you feel pulled in multiple directions and don’t feel like you have the support to concentrate.”

Look at the upcoming week and look for meetings that don’t have an agenda. Those are meetings that you need to very thoughtfully consider declining or requesting an agenda for, because a meeting without agenda is like going on a road trip without a destination. Then look at the agenda and find your specific role. Do I have a purpose? Am I representing a constituency? Am I a subject matter expert? If you can’t look at the agenda and discern why you were invited, there’s an opportunity to decline.

Then ask your team to do that same audit and come together and look at recurring meetings to question the purpose and the return on time investment. Just because you have a standing meeting on Mondays at 9 a.m. doesn’t mean it’s still serving the purpose or is needed.

Alyssa Place
Editor-in-chief

Alyssa Place is the editor-in-chief of Employee Benefit News and has been with the team since 2019. Her work covers mental health, DEI, women at work, financial wellness, retirement and workplace … Read full bio


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