AS A business owner, you want your staff to maximise their potential and complete their workload efficiently. Productivity is an important part of any business. When we’re all given a set amount of time to get through the working day, we need to ensure we’re working smarter to get everything done in the hours we have.
If you find that your team members are working overtime a lot or productivity levels overall are slipping, it could be that you need to introduce ideas that help your staff streamline their work-related tasks. By adding a fresh take, you could find that your employees perform better and more efficiently. Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling.
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Why is efficiency important?
If your team is working efficiently, they’re being more productive. This reduces time spent on tasks and, in turn, boosts profits as output is enhanced. Everyone is working in a useful, meaningful way, rather than spreading themselves thin and trying to do too much at once without adding value to the tasks at hand.
Efficiency can also increase competition. By transforming your processes, you can find new ways to grow your business. This means that you pose a challenge for your main competitors.
Also, if your team feels like they’re being more productive, they’re more likely to feel like they’re doing a great job too. This increases the likelihood that they’ll stick around and not move to a different role.
How to be efficient
Utilise technology
How we approach work has transformed significantly in the last two years. Where once working from home was an occasional option for many, now those who traditionally worked in the office have the option to split their time between the main workplace and home.
As a result of the sudden shift to many workers being home-based, 40% of firms invested in IT solutions. This showcases the importance of having good-quality tech in order to operate in effectively in this new hybrid working model.
As well as ensuring your staff have access to the best tech for the task, it’s worth investing in storage so that everything can be saved and easily accessed by your team members. Setting aside the budget for cloud-based solutions and introducing USBs can make data transfer smooth. Again, this is important when workers are switching from the office to working from home.
Hold meetings
We’re communicating both in-person and online, using Teams, Slack and Zoom to speak to clients and colleagues alike. But these meetings need to be necessary and meaningful. It can be easy to fall into the trap of booking a meeting to discuss the next meeting, but in reality, it’s more efficient to hold regular catch ups that cover the essentials and don’t take up huge chunks of the workday.
Having regular checking-in meetings with your team can also showcase areas where you might need to introduce new processes to make things run more smoothly. Perhaps from these catch ups you’ve noticed that everyone’s accessing different spreadsheets or there’s a need for training in a certain area. These little conversations can encourage significant changes in how things are done, resulting into everyone being more productive.
Reduce multi-tasking
Multi-tasking can result in confusion, things not being completed properly, or things being missed. Instead, encourage your team to focus on a task at a time. To do this, try setting out deadlines and project timescales to help guide your workforce towards a thorough task completion.
How will you make your workplace more efficient?
