Author: Priya Shetty

The world is obsessed with productivity. Everybody wants to know how we can get work done quickly with minimum effort, so we can lead a fulfilling life.

There are a huge number of apps that claim to increase productivity, but research suggests something that cannot be obtained from these apps – physical vitality.

The practice of work flexibility is in sharp contrast to the traditional approach where there is a defined set of work hours for everyone.

But the most important thing to keep in mind while implementing the flexible approach in any organisation is, to very closely assess the mutual benefits to both the employees and the organisation, otherwise it may lead to chaos and failure.

A recent study reported in the International Journal of Workplace Health says that, other than a good night sleep, exercise is the most effective productivity tool at our disposal. This report also mentions that people who exercised during the day time were 22% more productive.

Restore and Energize

It is a well known fact that the quality of work hours is more important than the quantity. Research shows that exercise build new connections among neurons of the brain that helps increase attention and focus.

Just like our smartphones, we need to recharge our batteries. This can be done through exercise, rest, play, pursuing your hobbies & passion that restores and energizes us.

As the old saying goes about the carpenter who didn’t have the time to stop and sharpen his axe ended up doing the work slower than his partner who was smart enough to take time off and sharpen his tool. This enabled him to do his work faster and more effectively.

How to Implement Work Flexibility Without Compromising on Productivity

Work flexibility does not mean coming and going as you please. It is a well-structured well planned framework . It needs to be well aligned with the values and mission of the organisation . The employees need to be tuned in and proper training provided. The first step is to choose the appropriate flexible work management based on the needs and requirements of both the organisation and the employees.

Compressed Work Week

Compressed work week involves working the same number of hours in a week but in fewer days. Most of the organizations have five working days with eight hours working each day. Under the compressed workweek schedule, the employees could choose to work ten hours everyday for four days and take the extra day off.

FlexTime

This gives the employees complete right to choose where to work and how many hours to work. Most organizations who follow this, have set some core working hours that they expect the employees to work . They have a good system in place to track remote working, through IP based attendance that helps to maintain great culture that fosters productivity while encouraging flexibility.

Customise to Meet Your Needs

Before implementing the flexible work hours structure, talk to your team. Ask for their inputs and analyse their needs. When this is done along with the decision making process, the flexible time management can be made a success. The employees get to enjoy the benefits that come along with this while the productivity and work quality still remains the best.

Tips for the Team to Attain Work Life Balance

Set Clear Cut Goals

This will allow us to be more focused and productive at work. Know exactly the work that needs to be completed and the timeline for the completion.

Take Ownership For Your Work

For some, total autonomy can lead to sloppy work as they are used to someone supervising them all the time. Be accountable and responsible towards your work.

Respect boundaries

Separate your work life from your personal life. Never discuss work related stuff at home and vice-versa.

Plan your day

Always have a to do list with you. Plan the day the night before and set priorities.

Vacations with family

Plan vacations with family. Spending quality time with family and friends will get you re-energized and come back to office with new zeal and enthusiasm.

Anger and stress

Anger and stress are hazardous to performance. As much as possible to achieve efficiency at work, we need to work on our emotional intelligence. Positive emotions build interest and energize. Negative emotions restrict thinking. A person with a positive outlook are more satisfied with work and this in turn increases productivity.

An alarming report from a research conducted in 2018, states that people spend an average of 2.8 hours only on productive tasks per day. The rest of the day is spent on neutral activities and distracting activities!

It also states that only 70% of the work gets done in the normal working hours.

Biggest Threats to Work Life Balance

Workplace distractions, wasting time and simply being inefficient are all eating into your work life balance. The biggest offender to maintaining a good work life balance is found to be  the habit of Checking e-mail and IM frequently. Most people are spending quality office time on checking email and other communications tool. 21% of our working hours is spent on our devices for entertainment, news and social media.

Our Ultimate Goal

The line between work and all other things in life is becoming increasingly blurred. We have less time than we usually think, and we end up working later in the evenings and on weekends just to catch up. The more we are able to set the boundaries on our workdays and counteract the distractions, multitasking and communication overload that take away our precious productive time, the more we can stay healthier, happier and find a balance.

Life @ PQube

At PQube, we understand the significance of maintaining a work-life balance. It all starts with setting up the ground rules first viz communication and proper training. We utilize a task management software, that helps us to be accountable and encourages work-life balance. Our performance oriented work culture allows our team to spend time on their personal pursuits while still engaging in meaningful work. To accomplish this everyone in the team is aware of their goals and what is expected from them, at the same time they are accountable for those outcomes.

Managing recruitment and selection process is one of the most critical, time consuming tasks. It is essential for any organization to recruit well qualified and suitable employees. As a growing company, you need the right tools to manage your hiring process. A significant amount of time and resource can be taken up with the hiring process unless you automate.

According to LinkedIn, the most important recruiting KPIs are:

* Quality of hire

* Time to hire

Experts believe that by streamlining some aspects of the recruiting process, recruitment automation will enhance a human recruiter’s capabilities.

Here are some major ways recruitment automation is changing recruiting

• Assess them Before You Interview Them

You could assess or gauge prioritization abilities, IQ and other relevant qualities even before the aspiring candidates step into your office. A vast majority of talent acquisition leaders say the hardest part of recruitment is identifying the right candidates from a large pool of applicants. The system assesses prospective candidates by surfacing key data points that cannot be found on resumes. It can be used to track the candidates’ career highlights, likelihood of switching jobs, company fit and aptitude.

• Ensure Consistency in Hiring Process

The recruitment process involves a number of steps and when done manually there are huge mistakes created due to human error. The entire process can be streamlined and automated.

• Free Yourself for More Productive Tasks

Free yourself or your team from mundane tasks that can be automated and utilize the same resources for other productive tasks, thus increasing efficiency and productivity.

• Automate Screening Questions

Filter through hundreds of applicants and end up with only those candidates who are apt for your organizations vision and values, in the process helping you weed out the candidates who do not meet your requirements. Just imagine the number of hours you would have otherwise spent interviewing these candidates, setting up infrastructure for assessment tests and multiple rounds of interviews. Evaluating Common Sense, Emotional Intelligence, Communication, Fluency and many important KPI’s are key to “Quality of Hire” while screening for prospective team members, and this can be fully automated with industry standard baselines.  

• Keep Candidates Informed via Automated Emails

Recruiters waste a lot of time responding to calls/emails from candidates they have interviewed. Use automated emails to let them know the status of their application.

• Automate the Offer Process

The system can generate automatic offer letters, contracts and other documents along with rejection letters based on customizable workflows tailored to each organization’s recruiting standards.

• Automate Employee Onboarding

Aspiring applicants have already gone through the process of application and filling in details and majority of the organizations have to go through the same basic information to be filled in again with the employees who join. By connecting the Recruiting Platform with Company Portal systems, a vast majority of the data can be copied over and will assist in speeding up the on boarding process from Day One. There are some MNC’s who have even adopted completing paperwork via digital transformations even before the employee show up on Day One. Automation can help with a number of activities such as setting up IT access, notifying Product/Project stakeholders, operations workflow for new joiners and so on.

• Screening resumes: Automate score | rating

Industry experts consider screening resumes is still the most   time consuming part of recruiting. Upto, 88% of resumes received for a role are considered unqualified. On an average, a recruiter spends 23 hours screening resumes for a single hire. Through the hiring automation platform, the score/ rating is allocated to the candidates based on the inputs they provide. They are assessed on several levels such as aptitude, technical skills and other relevant skills. A filter incorporated in the system helps to select only relevant skill assessment categories for a particular role.

•  Helps in having a pipeline of Talent

Using the hiring automation platform helps in creating a database of the qualified candidates you were not able to hire, but is suitable for another role, down the road.

Looking Ahead…

In 2019, finding top talent will depend on the recruiters’ ability to intelligently automate their work flow.

It is imperative to ensure that the recruitment process is conducted in a smooth and consistent manner so as to ensure that we hire the best talent in the market. Just as salespeople and marketers have benefited from software enabled automation in recent years, recruiters are increasingly turning to automated platforms for hiring the best talents

Armed with cutting edge tools and insights, recruiters can refine the process, eliminate inefficiencies, mitigate biases and get across to the top talent in minimum time. According to a survey conducted, 75% of recruiters say technology will play a big role in their company hiring process in 2019.

 Majority of recruiters worldwide are happy to consider a more data driven approach, most of them do not have time to turn the data to actionable insights. It is found that data driven recruiting teams are far outperforming their peers. Leveraging these insights, to optimise the recruiting strategy, increases the team productivity and gives the organisation a competitive advantage. Intelligent and smart way of recruiting through hiring automation helps to analyse candidates’ data quickly and make decisions faster. It helps to ensure that all the best fit candidates were identified and engaged, resulting in better quality hires and a higher performing organisation

Adopting automation platforms is helping recruiters screen candidates and shortlist quality applicants in record time.

Research also suggests that most companies depend on employee referrals for some important roles to avoid hiring misfits. This could negatively impact their ability to attract the best talent. Utilising automation, increases efficiency, offloads tedious mundane and repetitive tasks. As a result of this, it helps in reducing time-to-fill and cost-per-hire.

PQube has been in the forefront to address these pain points of sourcing and recruiting process. Get yourself a top notch, best in class, custom made hiring automation platform and some peace of mind. Through our end-to- end automation platform, you can speed up candidate discovery and qualification processes and float best-fit candidates to the top of your talent pipeline. Work Smarter, Not harder!

“Technology is not a tool. It can give learners a voice that they might not have had before“ – George Couros