It is common knowledge that a company’s performance is as excellent as its employees’ productivity. Indeed, if your workers aren’t performing as expected, your enterprise’s productivity levels will plummet. Low productivity affects your profit margins and hinders efficiency besides simply hurting staff morale. One disengaged employee will reportedly cost you about $16,000 per year at the average salary level. Consequently, it is vital to know some of the not-so-common reasons that may explain why your employees may be unproductive. Here are four alternative reasons why your workplace has low productivity.

 

• Cyberslacking

 

 

Internet access is now a mainstay of the modern workplace, but it could be doing more harm than good to your overall productivity. This may be due to cyberslacking, which refers to employees being distracted by office technology in the workplace due to personal and non-work-related internet usage. Wasted hours equate to wasted money, so your bottom line may suffer a lot if your workers spend hours surfing various sites daily. You can leverage a web filtering tool to limit, block, or monitor access to these sites to decrease idle browsing and protect your network from viruses and data loss.

 

 

• Lack of socialization

 

Employees who do not socialize at work feel isolated and lonely and may be demoralized and less productive. Indeed, human beings are fundamentally social animals, so your workers must interact with one another to be better engaged at work. Employees’ interactions in and outside the workplace build trust and connection, making working together more enjoyable. Also, socializing leads to improved communication, better work ethics, and a greater understanding of each worker’s responsibilities to avoid confusion, leading to lost productivity. 

 

 

• Substance abuse

 

Drug and alcohol testing is compulsory if you hire employees in government agencies like the Department of Defense or safety-sensitive industries such as mass transit, aviation, trucking, and construction. Several private employers are not required to test for drug or alcohol use before hiring, which may explain why productivity levels are at an all-time low in your company. However, many experts believe that pre-employment drug and alcohol use testing should be the norm. This recommendation is because employees who take drugs or alcohol are likely to be late to work, be involved in a workplace accident, and file a workers’ compensation claim. Luckily, urine toxicology testing, a technology being perfected by experts like Brad Schaeffer MedComp, can help you identify drugs and alcohol in potential employees to aid in your hiring decisions.

 

 

• Limited food options

 

The food and snack options in the cafeteria and vending machines may be the last thing you consider when seeking to explain low staff productivity. However, it may surprise you to learn that unhealthy eating is linked to a 66% increased risk of lost productivity. The kind of food your employees consume at work matters, so it would help to reduce processed foods and other unhealthy options in the cafeteria and vending machines to ensure maximum productivity. Also, you can inquire about the healthy food choices in your locality and whether they can be delivered to your premises. It is also an excellent idea to put up fliers of restaurants providing healthy food options in break rooms to encourage employees to watch their diet.