How to Identify Your Team’s Most Productive Working Hours

Traditional working hours may be convenient, but not everyone operates at peak productivity on a standard 9-to-5 schedule.

Some people work better in the mornings, some in the evenings, and some even at night.

If you’re thinking about allowing your team more flexible working hours to optimize their productivity – great. However before you can plan a schedule for your team that takes that into account, you first need to identify when your team members are most productive.

Track Working Hours and Productivity

To truly identify your team’s most productive working hours, what you really need is a way to track their activity. That is where computer activity monitoring software like Controlio can help as it will enable you to track the time and duration that your team is working.

The data you gather from Controlio can then be correlated to the tasks team members were performing during that period – which will let you gauge employee productivity. Alternatively, you could rely on the productivity score that Controlio will calculate on its own for each individual.

In short, this data can be used as a basis for you to quantify the productivity of employees at different times of the day, and from that find the time when they are most productive.

Monitor Distractions and Loss of Focus

Another way to gain insight into your team member’s most productive working hours is to keep tabs on distractions that cause them to lose focus. That includes social media, online video, IM messages, or anything else that isn’t work-related.

If your team members are consistently distracted and losing focus more frequently at a particular time, odds are it is not part of their optimal working hours. It is easy enough to use Controlio to monitor all of your employees’ activities and see exactly when they’re distracted.

Based on Controlio’s data, you can then narrow down the most productive working hours of your team by removing hours when they are most distracted.

Check on the Well-being of Your Team

When identifying productive working hours, you should also check on the well-being of your team. More specifically you will want to determine whether or not any team members are overworked and at risk of burning out.

A quick glance at Controlio’s reports will let you check the total hours that individuals are working every day and how frequently they work more than the recommended 8 hours. Once you know that you can take steps to ensure that employees are taking adequate breaks throughout the day spaced around their optimal working hours.

At times you may even want to adjust the way tasks are distributed so that employees aren’t at risk of burning out.

Talk to Your Team

Taking these step-by-step procedures to enhance your team’s performance is a good start – but don’t forget to also talk to your team. Ask them what hours of the day they feel they’re being most productive, and what their ideal work schedule will look like.

While talking to your team, be sure to also ask what other needs, challenges, or issues they may have. After all in some cases employees may not be as productive at specific times of the day due to external factors that are beyond their control – but that you may be able to address.

Last but certainly not least – remember to periodically check on how each team member is doing. It is best if you repeat these steps every so often to check that your team’s most productive working hours haven’t changed – or make adjustments if they have.

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