It can be incredibly frustrating as a business owner, to experience the moments when the input of your business (work orders, sales, inquiries, etc.) exceed the output of your business (the execution of the input, and, the catalyst for the revenue). Understanding the dynamics of productivity within a typical workday is crucial for business owners aiming to optimize their operations. If you’ve ever taken a day to observe your employees throughout their natural workflows, you’ve likely noticed that on average they are really only productive for about 3 to 4 hours during an 8-hour scheduled shift. While this may seem like a surprisingly low figure for productivity, this figure can be attributed to a wide variety of disruptions to focus and efficiency. Factors such as frequent meetings, unnecessary administrative tasks, leadership allowing workflow interruptions, and even the mental toll of balancing personal and professional responsibilities play significant roles. By recognizing these barriers, business owners can implement targeted strategies to foster a more supportive and productive work environment, ensuring that their teams can perform at their best.

There are a number of steps you can take to improve the overall productivity of your business. Firstly, reevaluate the necessity and frequency of meetings. Meetings can be a valuable tool for collaboration and communication, but when overused, they become time sinks. Implement a policy where every meeting must have a clear agenda and objective. Encourage brief stand-up meetings or asynchronous communication methods, such as emails or collaborative platforms, which can save time and empower team members to manage their schedules more effectively. Secondly, streamline administrative tasks by leveraging technology. Automate routine processes such as invoicing, scheduling, and data entry using tools designed to simplify these tasks. This not only reduces the burden of repetitive tasks but also minimizes the risk of human error. Additionally, delegating tasks to trusted team members or hiring virtual support can free up your time to focus on strategic business activities and personal growth.

Lastly, it is vital to establish boundaries and prioritize self-care to combat the mental toll of balancing personal and professional responsibilities. Schedule dedicated "focus time" where interruptions are minimized, and use techniques like the Pomodoro method to maintain productivity without burnout. Equally important is carving out personal time for relaxation and hobbies. Remember, your well-being is integral to your business's success. Seek support from mentors, peer groups, or professional networks that understand your unique challenges and can offer guidance and encouragement.

By taking the steps above to manage disruptive factors, you not only enhance your efficiency, but the efficiency of your team and overall business. Yet, even with all of these refinements in place, the average number of productive hours in an employee’s shift only increases to ~5 to 6 hours. That still leaves 2 hours minimum per day left unproductive; 10 hours per week, and 40 hours per month. For perspective, that is the equivalent of giving each employee a one week paid vacation every month. While this may seem like a wonderful perk for the employee, that gap in productivity is detrimental to the business. Labor expenses make up the highest percentage of spend across all expense categories for most businesses, causing this gap in productivity to have a dramatic impact on your business’ bottom line. It also hinders your business from being able to scale to meet your growing demand, as the cash flow that is budgeted for more labor is being used to pay your current employees for those 0% productivity hours.

So, how can you achieve maximum efficiency from your team? Reimagine their current work week. Before we hop into the details of how to implement these changes into your business, let’s review a few global truths. To start, transitioning or reducing the overall number of hours employees will work should not reduce their overall take home pay. By removing the excess required hours, the employees will be scheduled for less hours, but will still render the same, if not more, results. Therefore, they should not be punished for our misconception of how many hours they need to be scheduled to meet our expectations, but instead rewarded for being able to meet and/or exceed our expectations with less hours. For salary employees, not much will change other than total hours expected per week. For hourly employees, they will require an hourly raise that matches or exceeds their current take home with the new scope of hours.

Additionally, it is time we debunked the old school way of thinking regarding employee investment and productivity being correlated to how closed off they are from the outside world; long hours, no outside views, no personal time, etc. A dated concept from the 1950's, companies thought that if employees couldn’t see outside, they wouldn’t think about life outside of work, and therefore be more productive in the absence of distractions. Today we know that the opposite is true; workspaces with an open layout and natural light are easily twice as productive and creative as those without. The same can be said for a company’s thought process on the number of hours per week employees have to work to be considered productive. The 8-hour work day stemmed from Henry Ford in the dawn of the production line era. However, even production lines no longer require that standard in today’s world of machine and AI assistance. The more advances we make as a society, the more advances we make in business, and the more efficient and productive we become. The 8-hour work day was brought to life before we had the internet...let that one sink in for a minute. The reimagined workweek has been gaining steam in a few industries over the last few years, but is still thought to be too progressive for most. To those still holding out, I say, “Just because it’s the way it’s always been, does not make it right”. The reimagined work week can take many shapes, depending on the needs of your business, and the workflows of each type of team within your business.

Once those global truths have been accounted for, it is time to determine the best type of work week for your business. Some industries would benefit from longer shifts with fewer days per week, such as the programming world, in which developers often execute “sprints” (12-48 hour staggered all hands on deck work periods) for large projects, launches, etc. This approach benefits the programmers’ ability to “wire in” (get in the zone), and maintain the pristine level of focus required to write thousands of lines of code and complex formulas. Labor intensive industries that don’t require (remember, a luxury is not a requirement) full operating hour coverage, such as warehouse positions or tattoo artists, would absolutely benefit from less hours per day. These types of roles benefit from demand-based scheduling greatly, as they are able to rest their bodies and use that extra time for much-needed self-care. Mental intensive industries, such as SAAS or strategic roles, would benefit from less days per week. These roles would greatly benefit from less days of work, as the additional days off would give them time to rest and inspire their minds. For businesses with multiple revenue streams, the best work week may look different per department, or even role level. The needs of your business, as compared to the needs of your team to meet and exceed your expectations, will be the equation that renders your unique solution.

Reimagining your team's work week is not just a trend—it's a transformative approach that can unlock unprecedented levels of efficiency and engagement. Yes, it might feel progressive, even unconventional, but remember: true innovation often begins where tradition ends. Your business has unique needs and strengths, and by tailoring work schedules to optimize these, you're not only investing in productivity but also in the well-being and satisfaction of your team. Consider this your invitation to explore the road less traveled. Embrace the flexibility to design a work environment that fosters both personal and professional growth. You're not just rethinking work—you’re redefining what it means to be a forward-thinking leader in today’s world. Whether it’s adopting a four-day work week, flexible hours, or rethinking workflows, the key is to remain open and adaptable. With the right support at the right time, you have the power to create a thriving, dynamic workplace. 

When you’re ready to take the next step, we’re here for you.