Increase productivity in the employee experience
NPR (National Public Radio) recently ran the story of Maneesh Sethi who literally hired someone to sit with and slap him (a slapper) each time he got off course while working virtually. The British version of the slapper may also have productivity effects but we’ll leave that for another story. Maneeshi’s slapper would physically slap him each time he looked at social media or some such thing rather than work. Maneesh reports that his productivity increased by 98%. He measured his productivity using an app called Rescue time. It measures how much time is spent on web sites you visit.
Maneesh reported that he spent almost 19 hours in non-productive activity in a given week without his slapper representing 35-40% productivity. When the slapper was on the job with Maneesh his productivity increased to 98% (i.e., he only spent about 1.5 hours unproductively).
You might think it was the fear of the slap that resulted in the boost in productivity. Maneesh doesn’t think so. He names the more coaching oriented stuff as ultimately responsible like having:
- Someone to push him through the dull and tough bits
- Another pair of eyes to review his work
- Someone beside him who knew what he wanted to accomplish that day
- A sounding board to bounce ideas off
That may be the case but I think Maneesh may have taken notes from Reebok who apparently knows a thing or two about boosting productivity. See how Reebok helped Felcher and Sons improve their productivity.
