Houston Expert: How to Use This Viral Trend to Boost Your Workforce’s Productivity

Popular corporate gun videos depict times of the day when employees put their phones down, ignore distractions, and get a lot of work done in a short period of time. Influencers also discuss their “corporate gun daily schedule,” which describes the ebbs and flows of their productivity throughout the day.

Managers can implement several strategies to leverage the corporate weapons mode for performance management.

Discuss performance with your team

The corporate weapon is a way to discuss productivity and time management with staff. The videos have attracted attention because professionals consider them noteworthy, hybrid and especially remote.

Even if you don’t send your employees videos of corporate weapons, you can still start a conversation about the daily ebbs and flows of productivity. Personal factors like childcare responsibilities, commute times, and circadian rhythms can all affect a person’s daily productivity schedule. Your team can improve collaboration by understanding each other’s workflows and optimizing team schedules to maximize productivity.

Solve the problem of digital distraction

Working remotely can help employees create a distraction-free environment. That said, phones can become a distraction, whether your employees work in an office or from home. In corporate videos with guns, professionals typically put their phones away before fully focusing on their work.

Statistics show that many professionals struggle with online distractions. Research from nonprofit Screen education suggested that employees spend an average of 2.5 hours per day accessing non-work-related digital content.

Managers should proactively address digital distractions in their teams in a non-judgmental way. They can also suggest time management tools, such as screen-restriction or time-tracking software, so employees can understand how they can use their time more effectively.

Encourage employees to focus deeply

Corporate Weapon Mode demonstrates the importance of deep focus in performance management. When an individual is in deep focus, they focus solely on the task at hand, without distractions.

Too many meetings can limit employees’ ability to work with deep concentration. In fact, research from Harvard Business Review shows that when 76 companies reduced meetings by 40 percent, employee productivity increased by 71 percent. Additionally, employee satisfaction increased by 52 percent.

One option to create additional time for deep focus is to designate a few days or times as “meeting-free” across the entire company. Managers can also help by encouraging their teams to block out windows on their calendars for independent work, which won’t require the organization to change its overall policies.

Corporate Weapon Mode is more than just a TikTok trend, it’s an opportunity for leaders to initiate transparent discussions with their employees. By managing their time more effectively, employees can optimize their performance and contribute to the success of the company.

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Jill Chapman is the Director of Early Stage Talent Development Programs at Insperity, a leading provider of human resources and business performance solutions.