What working style is the most efficient?

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What working style is the most efficient? What working method would be most effective for Zhang Xiaoming to improve labor productivity? It has always been an important issue in human resource management. With the rapid development of the new economy, information technologies such as computers, mobile phones, and the Internet have entered modern offices, putting traditional working methods under severe challenge. How can we improve office efficiency and help everyone reach their full potential? Business communities at home and abroad have carried out fruitful explorations in this area. In the realm of competitive offices, researchers at the University of Michigan in the United States recently conducted some interesting experiments. They had a team of workers work together in a specially designed \"competitive room\" for several months, and found that the workers’ efficiency in this new type of office was twice as high as it was in traditional offices. This astonishing discovery left the researchers overjoyed. Stephanie Tisley, an assistant researcher at the Electronics Industry Research Collaboration Laboratory at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, said that recently many software development companies have tried to place their employees in \"competitive rooms\" to foster better communication and more intense collaboration among them. Employees no longer work in separate small cubicles as before; instead, they sit at workstations in an open-plan room. This unique type of room is a typical workshop equipped with a central workbench, whiteboards, and card files, and it facilitates **discussion**. The company hopes to benefit from this arrangement, while employees are skeptical about it, fearing that their personal privacy will be exposed and that they will be disturbed while concentrating on a task. Researchers at the University of Michigan say that their study was conducted with both work efficiency and employee satisfaction in mind, and they tested the impact of this setup. The project team tested six groups of software developers from a large automobile company; these employees had little experience working in \"competitive rooms\". Using the evaluation methods commonly employed in the software development industry, the researchers assessed the productivity of these employees. The efficiency data of those who worked in the \"competitive rooms\" was then compared with their efficiency under normal conditions. The researchers also interviewed the employees participating in the experiment and had them fill out questionnaires before and after the experiment. In addition, they observed two groups of software developers very carefully to watch how they solved various problems, and recorded their actions. Tests showed that in the “competitive room,” employees’ work efficiency was more than twice that of before, and in the 11 subsequent tests, the researchers obtained almost identical results, with some even increasing efficiency by 4 times! From the questionnaires filled out by the employees before and after the experiment, the researchers found that they preferred working in the “competitive room,” and this was much better than what they had imagined before participating in the experiment. The employees say that when thinking about problems, they are not disturbed by their colleagues around them; they have learned how to regulate themselves so as to be able to focus on their work promptly when important tasks arise. Indeed, occasionally hearing others’ conversations and observing their behavior might have some impact on work efficiency. However, when an employee is concentrating on a software programming problem, those passing by will stop to offer help, and when an employee explains a problem to a colleague, others can occasionally add a comment or correction, which allows the collective wisdom to be fully utilized. So, how can the privacy issue be resolved? For example, making a private call to ask a bank to process a loan, or calling a doctor to inquire about test results. The researchers set up several separate small rooms equipped with telephones and computers next to the “competition room,” which made it easy to solve the aforementioned problems. Flexible working refers to a work arrangement system under which, provided that the prescribed tasks are completed or a fixed working hours period is met, employees can freely choose their own specific working hours, as an alternative to a system with fixed start and end times. Currently, there are mainly three forms of flexible working hours: the first is a combination of core hours and flexible hours. A day’s working time consists of core working hours (usually 5–6 hours) and flexible working hours surrounding them. Core working hours are the specific hours each day when all employees must be at work, while flexible hours allow employees to choose their own start and end times within this period. For example, a company may stipulate an 8-hour working day, excluding 1 hour for lunch breaks; the core working hours can be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., while the office is actually open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. During the core working hours, all employees are required to be at their posts, but during the flexible time periods before and after this core period, employees can choose to work any 3 of those hours. The second is the outcome-centered system. The company evaluates employees’ work based solely on the results achieved, without setting specific time limits; as long as tasks are completed to the required standard within the given timeframe, payment is made. Third is the shortened working hour system. Employees can compress the work for a week into two or three days to complete, using the remaining time as they see fit. With fewer working hours, they can save on transportation costs and improve the utilization rate of the company’s equipment. Flexible working hours have clear advantages over the traditional fixed working hour system. The advantages of flexible working hours for enterprises or organizations mainly lie in: (1) it can reduce absenteeism, tardiness, and employee turnover. (2) It can improve employees’ productivity. A study found that in the companies surveyed, flexible working hours reduced delays by 42% and increased productivity by 33%. This outcome is attributed to the fact that flexible working hours allow employees to arrange their work time better according to their personal needs, giving them a certain degree of autonomy in managing their work schedule. As a result, employees are more likely to adjust their work activities to the most productive times, while also coordinating their working hours better with activities outside of work. (3) It extended working hours and reduced overtime costs (for example, after adopting this system, an entreprise in Germany saw its overtime decrease by 50%). Flexible working hours are also beneficial for employees. On one hand, they have a certain degree of freedom in choosing their working hours; they can arrange their schedules according to their own needs, avoid traffic congestion on the way to and from work, and rid themselves of the stress associated with being late or absent. They can also find time to attend important personal social events, which makes it easier to manage family life and hobbies. On the other hand, since employees feel that their rights are respected, their higher-level needs such as those related to social interaction and recognition are met, which leads to a sense of responsibility and increases job satisfaction and morale. The hierarchical barriers in the workplace are a major reason why relationships between people cannot be harmonious. The ideological gaps that arise from these different levels are difficult to eliminate, and their existence hinders communication among people, preventing employees from forming a strong cohesive unit that can work together toward a common goal. Therefore, in management work, its impact should be eliminated as much as possible. This is exactly how Microsoft handles internal employee relations. In the equalitarian office environment, every employee at Microsoft has their own office or room. Each office is separated from the others, with its own door and windows from which one can look outside. The size of each office is more or less the same; even the offices of the CEO Bill and President Shelly are not much larger than those of other employees. Everyone has complete autonomy over their own office and can decorate and arrange it as they wish, with no one having the right to interfere. As for the location of the offices, it is not determined by management but chosen by the employees themselves. If multiple people in an office have choices, a draw can be used to make a decision. Additionally, if you’re not satisfied with your first choice, you can try again until you find something you like. Each office has doors that can be closed at will, and the company respects everyone’s privacy rights. Microsoft’s approach is different from that of other companies; it makes employees feel interested and happy. At that time, the most popular joke among Microsoft employees was: Your office is just like the weather in Seattle; it’s okay if you don’t like it – things will improve soon. Whenever possible, employees should be able to choose a work environment that satisfies them and is completely under their control, so that they don’t feel constantly monitored, which would help them approach their work more comfortably. On a morning of mobile working, Sun Zhenyao, President of HP China, went up to the 10th floor of the HP building located by Dabeiyao Bridge. As usual, the first thing he did was to find his workspace for the day. Is it strange? The president of HP, who holds such a prominent position, doesn’t even have an office of his own. During the latest adjustment to working arrangements at China HP, Sun Zhenyao classified himself as part of those employees who travel frequently and do not need a fixed workplace. This group comprises over 600 people, accounting for 54% of HP (Beijing)’s total workforce; the company allocated 200 workstations to them at a ratio of 3 to 1. Thus, in this building, which is currently the only one in Beijing to offer mobile wireless office services, it’s common to see scenes like this: people rush into the elevator, holding their mobile phones in their left hands and wireless phones in their right hands, talking about business as if no one else is around ； Someone is sitting in a coffee shop, drinking a hot drink while \"fiddling\" with a laptop; a square wireless network card is inserted on the left side of the laptop. “It’s sufficient to provide each of them with a laptop, a wireless network card, and a wireless extension phone. ”Yuan Wei, manager of HP’s administrative department in China, said that HP has carried out very thorough reforms in this regard. Not only are the employees from sales, marketing, and field service departments, who frequently meet with clients and travel on business, involved in this new approach to mobile working, but even the processes in the back-office areas have had their standards unified. Yuan Wei said, “This open-style mobile working approach not only makes communication between departments much easier, but it also gives employees a sense of freedom and autonomy. With just those three devices, they can move around the building freely without any disruption to their work, which **improves work efficiency. More importantly, *Si has indeed saved a large amount of money as a result: originally, more than 700 employees worked across 8 floors, but now 1,100 employees work here. Rent always ranks first among the costs for large high-tech companies like ours, but adopting mobile work has allowed HP in Beijing to save at least one-quarter of its office space. ”An employee of a world-class multinational company said that the amount allocated per employee for office space, various utilities, and maintenance costs amounts to over 8,000 dollars per year (not including the annual salary). Under the pressure of costs and profits, no boss would be uninterested in reducing high office expenses; perhaps it won’t be long before the moving scenery inside the HP Building replaces cubicles as the new trend in office buildings in the capital. The office in this playful work style involves typing on the keyboard while wearing headphones to listen to music; working more than 10 hours a day is still seen as enjoyable, and after work, friends and family are invited to the company for parties... This is the workplace of Germany’s new economic era, one that blurs the lines between work and entertainment. In the beautiful world of the new economy, work should be enjoyable for web companies, web designers, and media consulting firms – so enjoyable that they feel no fatigue even after working 10–12 hours a day. But German experts warn that although these new economic elites are willing to invest so much effort and energy in their work, only a healthy body can enable them to achieve their work goals; it is essential to pay attention to the warning signs sent by the body at the right time. Seven Elephants Communications in Hamburg, Germany, is a typical example of a workplace in the new economy. In the modern office, there was silence aside from the sound of keyboards being typed; some employees were wearing headphones, listening to their favorite music while working. The company’s leader, Wagner, said cheerfully, “It’s a pleasure to wake up in the morning and think about going to work.” ”Wagner has a relaxed attitude toward work, with the aim of motivating these young employees. This tactic indeed worked; in Germany, which is known for having the shortest working hours in Europe, the employees of Seven Lions were willing to work 10–12 hours a day. Long working hours are a nightmare for ordinary office workers, but for the young people in the new economic era, they pose no problem at all; in fact, they are willing to work such long hours. The new economy has given rise to a new group of workaholics who live solely for work, rather than for living a life. The emergence of the new economy began in the United States; thus, the concept of a fun office was introduced from there. Colleagues became close friends, and work life turned into a big party, with all activities taking place in the office. When work hours ended, these newcomers to the new economy didn’t rush home but instead invited friends and family to the company for impromptu parties. The bosses would also provide food and drinks for the employees, so that no one got drunk, as they had to get up early the next day to meet clients. Rose, the project manager at Seven Images, said she loves her job; even after working 12 hours, she still has energy to do other things. When she used to have a 9-to-5 job, she would leave work on time every day but would feel very tired. Wagner said that “freedom” is the most important factor in new economic workplaces, and employers must strive to create a pleasant working atmosphere for their employees. But psychologist Glaser says that new economy workers who work hard while also having a lot of fun need to have a healthy body in order to achieve their professional goals; everyone must ensure that they have enough “energy” and keep recharging it, otherwise the future will be dangerous.