To increase the productivity, focus, and concentration of your employees, you should ask them to take work breaks and stop working for a while. Taking occasional five-minute or ten-minute breaks can help your employees to stay focused and restore their energy level and also help reduce mental stress.
Breaks can also help in the reduction of fatigue-related accidents because breaks allow the employees to bust off the extra stress which can help reduce the accidents or errors that might happen by the employees when they are stressed out including damaging equipment, forgetting about an important task, throwing work goals off the track, etc. As breaks are good for the health of employees, both mental and physical health so, let’s have a look at some benefits of work breaks:
What Are The Benefits Of Work Breaks?
The benefits of work breaks are many. Because humans are not built to function non-stop for eight hours a day or longer without a break, breaks are necessary for humans so they can perform their job properly.
Research has shown that short periods of breaks can increase a person’s ability to focus on a task for longer periods of time. Breaks are very important for people who are involved in work and tasks that require creativity & problem-solving because a brief break for 5-10 minutes or talking with a coworker can give a mental boost that can help improve the overall productivity and creativity of the employee.
Also, talking with another person about a problem during the break can be helpful since that person might suggest an idea or a new perspective that can help solve a tricky problem in no time.
For workers who are involved in operating heavy machines and long-haul drivers, these minor breaks can be very helpful as from a safety point of view, they can prevent any damage from happening. And employees, who interact with customers all day long, a few minutes away from the job can help them to do their job in a better and more efficient way.
How To Encourage Employees To Take Work Breaks?
The best way to encourage employees to take breaks is to let them know how important their work is to the company and schedule them into your employees’ schedule. You also make the requirements of the break clear with all the new and existing employees of the company and let them know that they are important for proper functioning and are scheduled into their workdays schedule.
You can also have a designated place for work such as a common room where all the employees can come during break times and have a chat on Whatsapp Plus with family and each other. Having a designated place or room for a break makes it easier for the employees to take their minds off from work which can help them relax.
In the United States, there are no federal laws that require employers to give work breaks to their employees, however, Federal Law does require that when rest breaks are offered then they should be included in paid time.
What Kind Of Breaks Should Your Employees Take?
Since work breaks are meant to keep the employees refreshed and get them to work again on the assigned task with the same energy, you should get your employees to take work breaks that are actually beneficial for them.
Some employees would like to chit-chat with other coworkers which will help them feel refreshed and some would like to play word games that can help a person to relax and feel calm which will relieve the extra stress. Since word games are good to relax your minds and keep your minds focused have many variants, these can also be a good source of entertainment for a short period.
While you cannot have a say in how an employee wants to use his/her break, you can use work meetings and newsletters as a way to make them educated about work breaks. The best breaks are those that can make an employee feel relieved from physical and mental stress.
During a lunch break if an employee is checking his/her emails or GBWhatsApp then it is not exactly the break that would help him/her. If you are the owner or a manager then you should set an example and take work breaks yourself to alleviate your employees’ worries.
