Sure you’d like to think your finance staffers are working at maximum productivity levels every day of the week.
But we all know that’s not the reality. What you might not know, however, is just how much more productive some days are than others.
And if harnessed properly you can use it to your advantage, both inside and outside of Finance.
Here’s what a recent survey by Accounttemps found and how to harness those findings to boost productivity all week long.
Tuesday tops the list
When the folks at Accounttemps surveyed HR professionals on which day employees are most productive, here’s what they heard:
- Monday: 24%
- Tuesday: 39%
- Wednesday: 14%
- Thursday: 3%`
- Friday: 3%
(Another 14% thought no day in particular, while another 3% didn’t know.)
Nothing too earth-shattering in the findings, though a bit of a surprise in spots.
Mondays not getting everyone down
Maybe you thought Monday was a waste as many folks are still trying to recover from their weekends. But it turns out at least a portion of the workforce come in revved up and refreshed after the weekend.
And you can use that to your advantage. The key: Don’t let anything stand in the way of that momentum.
So, for example, encourage staffers to get right into business instead of slogging through the mass of emails that built up in their inboxes over the weekend. (Yes, they can scan for an emergencies, but then resist the urge to click through everything.)
You might even encourage staffers to make a Monday morning action plan for just what they’ll tackle first before they leave for the weekend on Friday. (That’s a great idea for the low-productivity window that almost no one is immune from late Friday afternoon.)
Taking advantage of Tuesdays
While it’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all scenario, you probably want to do all you can to ride the productivity peak that hits most offices on Tuesday.
A few strategies to do that, both with your own Finance staffers and for the other departments Finance interacts with:
- Avoid meetings if at all possible. Yes, the occasional brainstorming session might prove fruitful, but you probably don’t want a standing staff meeting on the most productive day of the workweek. It’s no slam on your meetings, but because the perception of meetings is that they’re a major time suck, many staffers will view them as drain on their time (and overall productivity).
- Consider moving deadlines to that day. Most people have expense reports due mid-week for a Friday reimbursement. But by backing the deadline to Tuesday, people may knock them out when they’re crossing things off their to-do lists left and right. Your staffers may have to do less chasing down, and you have an extra day built in for stragglers.
- Build in small wins. Speaking of to-do lists, there’s a lot to be said for being able to check things off. That sense of accomplishment breeds more accomplishment. So be sure staffers responsibilities have enough of a mix of short and long-term projects that they can experience some kind of win every day. And if folks are tackling more long-term initiatives, try to build in some milestones along the way to boost spirits.
- Set up ongoing group projects for downtime. Of course, there are still those times when folks aren’t feeling their most productive. It’s natural. But you can still make the most of that by having certain ongoing projects that require a little less thought but can still have staffers making a contribution. A few ideas: scanning documents for storage (or filing old documents), updating finance info on the company intranet, etc.
