9 Productivity Hacks for Busy HR Professionals

As HR professionals, you probably encounter many different tasks each day. Whether its recruitment, payroll, performance management, team building, or some other HR task, you probably have a million things to do each day.

It’s times like this that we wish to supercharge our productivity. You’re not alone – consultancies, authors, and other ‘productivity gurus’ have created a multi-billion-dollar industry out of worried professionals. But, with our simple hacks, you too can get more out of your nine-to-five and make daily tasks go by more smoothly.

1. Work Out a Daily Plan

When you create a daily plan first thing every morning, you give structure to your day. With this in mind, you can list out all the tasks you need to accomplish for the day. Think about what must be done today, what can be delayed until tomorrow, and what your overall goal for the day should be.

2. Sort Out Your Inbox

There are two types of people in this world: those with zero unread emails, and those with 5,000. Whatever the case, mastering your email/Slack/messaging app inbox is crucial to productivity.

As an HR professional, you’ll likely get hundreds of emails a day. Don’t read or respond to them the instant they arrive. Instead, spend something like two hours each day managing your inbox. Using that window of time to respond to each email ensures deep focus for the rest of the day.

3. Adopt the Pomodoro

Time management is key to productivity. And the time management technique that’s gotten the most praise is the Pomodoro technique.

Invented in the 1980s, the Pomodoro technique was named after a kitchen timer – and that is what you need. Essentially, the technique entails:

Set your kitchen timer (or any other timer, really) for 25 minutes. Work on your chosen task for the 25 minutes. Once the 25 minutes is up, take a five-minute break regardless of completion. Continue the cycle until your task is done. The work-then-break cycle ensures focused attention, with a break to manage stress levels. You can easily adapt this to the office – just use a quiet timer to avoid disturbing your colleagues.

4. Stop Multitasking

It doesn’t matter how good you think you are at multitasking. Research has shown that trying to multitask lowers productivity and increases errors. Our brains are simply not designed to multitask. This is why scheduling and daily plans are so important as it helps organize your time.

5. Don’t Get Distracted

According to a study by University of California Irvine, it takes an average of 23 minutes to get back on track after an interruption at work. It might be tough for HR not to be distracted, but you do need this headspace to do deep work like resource planning, writing job descriptions, and other focus tasks.

To do this, schedule an hour or two each day for serious, head-down work. No meetings, no notifications, no chit-chat – just a pure state where the productivity should flow freely.

6. Learn to Say “No”

As an HR professional, it’s hard to say “no” to someone. You want to help out and be a team player, but sometimes you need to set boundaries to stay productive.

Doing tasks that are ultimately not within your job scope is a surefire way for productivity to slip away from you. Of course, it is important to help where possible – but not at the expense of your own work. Consequently, set your priorities and deadlines and stick to them. This will help you say “no” easier.

7. Go Natural

Being cooped up in a stuffy office is no one’s idea of a productive time. Natural light and fresh air are crucial to wellness and productivity; hence productivity will increase in a healthy environment. It’s also no coincidence that modern office design emphasizes bright, open spaces with plenty of ventilation.

8. Make Time for Yourself

It may sound counter-intuitive, but people who take breaks tend to be more productive. Thus, making time for yourself is important not only for productivity, but also to avoid burnout. Taking a break and relaxing enables you to recharge your energy, get back your motivation, and return to the job with renewed productivity.

9. Automate Tasks with HR Software Like Leave Balance

The HR function is full of repetitive tasks, such as payroll, expense claims, leave tracking, and more. Doing all these manually is slow and error-prone.

With automated time-off management solution of Leave Balance, you can manage time off and payroll with ease.

Contact Us today for a free demo