In 2023, every organization needs to strive to be as
efficient and productive as possible. Managers and leaders need to consider
each business activity and there should be an exploration of alternative
working methods if they can lead to a more streamlined process.
The current economic landscape is challenging, with
higher-than-normal inflation levels resulting in increased costs for raw
materials and supplies. These costs will eventually need to be passed to the
end consumer in the form of higher prices. However, this may lead to a situation
where lower sales volumes are generated, which can directly impact a firm's
profitability.
If a business can improve its processes and operations, so
that it functions more efficiently, it may be able to enjoy a competitive edge
over its rivals by keeping prices low. However, it can often be difficult to
take an impartial look at the many operations that take place in your business
and try to determine where improvements can be made. Often, they may not be
obvious, and a working culture can develop where the accepted way of
undertaking tasks is viewed as the best method.
In this article, there will be a discussion of seven unique
ways in which a business can boost efficiency and productivity levels. Many of
these examples can be adopted across a range of industries and business
sectors.
Keep track of your vital inventory
All businesses will hold some form of inventory. These are
the assets of a business that may be used regularly. For example, a building
firm will have a wide range of tools and construction equipment and an office
will rely on a range of IT equipment and infrastructure.
It is vital to keep track of where this inventory is, what
condition it is in, and if it needs to be moved across different business
sites. Thankfully, there are modern inventory applications that can streamline
the management of these items of equipment. Building firms, for example, should
invest in a tool tracking application as this will be vital when moving equipment across a range of project sites as the inventory can be
scanned (using a barcode or QR reader via the tool tracking app on a smartphone) which will then provide
an update of its location to managers. These tracking applications can also be
used to record when tools and equipment need maintenance or to be replaced.
Similar tracking applications can be used to track and
manage IT equipment in a corporate environment. Put simply, this inventory
management tracking system will ensure that your business uses its key
inventory as efficiently as possible, and that the location of key items is
always known.
Hold essential meetings only
Many employees will have vivid memories of attending
meetings that seemed to go on for hours and lacked any specific purpose or
measurable outcome. Such meetings can often serve to demoralize the workforce
as there is a perception that the event was worthless and only resulted in time
being lost to complete important working tasks.
Managers and leaders need to recognize that some meetings can be eliminated from the working week and may lead to improved
levels of productivity due to the time saved. Periodically, company meeting
schedules should be reviewed and any that lack measurable outcomes should be
either changed in content or abandoned.
In addition, time can be saved in some meetings by
requesting that staff stand up during the entirety of the event. This simple
technique can have a dramatic effect on the total meeting duration and the
speed at which agenda items are discussed. Stand-up meetings are popular with agile working methodologies and typically only
last between 5-10 minutes. They involve a rapid sharing of ideas and objectives
before being drawn to a close. Workers then have far more time to focus on
their tasks and projects, driving increases in productivity and efficiency.
In short, consider the complete meeting schedule for your
organization, eliminate meetings that are deemed to be unnecessary (many of
these can often be replaced with a group email that includes important company
updates), and hold shorter, stand-up meetings to promote efficiency.
Eliminate wasteful business practices
In addition to taking a thorough look at meeting schedules
to eliminate unnecessary group events, managers should also conduct an audit of
all their business practices. Tasks and activities that offer little or no
value to the business should be eliminated or automated where possible.
There are a range of business methodologies that can be used
to achieve this, including the total quality management approach and the lean model of Six Sigma. These
methodologies seek to put the customer at the focus of all business operations,
whilst shedding any tasks or activities that do not add value to the
organization.
Any firm that produces goods should also aim to identify
practices that result in the generation of physical waste. For example, if a
manufacturing firm produces significant amounts of unusable materials in the
production of items, the manufacturing process should be reconsidered to either
produce less waste or recycle that which is produced as a by-product of the
activities.
In a corporate environment, a key way to reduce physical
waste is by moving to a purely digital working culture that does not rely on
printing documents. Companies can save significant sums of money by moving to a
paperless office working culture and many forms of technology (such as the use of
tablets and cloud-based applications) can support this change.
Support remote working
Millions of employees were required to work from home during
the height of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Governments needed to restrict the
movement of citizens to lower the infection rate of the virus and protect vital
healthcare systems from overload.
Today, the worst effects of the pandemic seem to have gone,
but remote working practices are still widely adopted across many business
sectors. When effective remote working practices are adopted, this can often
lead to efficiency gains for the organization. There is evidence to indicate
that remote workers are more productive than their counterparts who work in a
centralized location. There are several reasons for this fact. Firstly, many remote
workers enjoy the freedom over how they can approach their working day and
manage other personal responsibilities. For many, it is a more flexible method
of working which motivates them to work harder and more efficiently. In
addition, travel and commuting times are dramatically reduced or even
eliminated in remote working models. The time and energy saved from having to
drive to a shared workspace each day can result in a higher level of output
from a home office.
In short, businesses should offer their staff remote or
hybrid working opportunities wherever possible. When they are supported with
suitable technology (such as video conferencing apps, cloud-based services, and
collaborative online platforms) efficiency gains can be realized across the company.
Embrace the power of staff surveys
Staff members at all levels of an organization often have
specialist knowledge and expertise that can drive improvements in efficiency
and productivity. Workers will become highly proficient in their regular tasks
and projects and may be able to see more efficient ways of undertaking this
work.
It is vital to consult with your employee base to request
ideas for service improvement and feedback regarding how working methods can be
changed that lead to productivity gains. Managers and leaders should send out
short staff surveys to their workforce inviting feedback and improvement ideas.
This can be achieved quickly and easily using online survey platforms such as SurveyMonkey which are emailed out to the staff. Keep the
survey short (ideally, taking less than ten minutes to complete) so that you
receive a high response rate and include space for staff to go into more detail
on specific improvement feedback.
Automate business processes
Many business processes can be automated to save time and
money. Automation is widespread in the manufacturing industry where production
lines often rely on robotics and sophisticated machinery to undertake repetitive
tasks instead of using a human workforce. However, automation techniques can
also be applied to office-based firms. For example, chatbots can be incorporated into a business website to guide visitors to specific
pages and answer frequently asked questions. This can reduce the need for a
large customer service department and therefore reduce business spending on
wages. However, it is important to consider that human customer service staff
will still be required to respond to specific queries or deal with complex
complaints.
Investigate VR training solutions
Finally, many businesses can gain efficiency improvements by
modifying their staff training programs. Training days often involve the need
to take staff away from their work for a full day. Typically, a business
location is booked, and the day is broken up into ice-breaking exercises,
training, and feedback.
Corporate training days can be extremely expensive and
result in a large proportion of the workforce being away from their workplace,
unable to complete their roles and responsibilities.
A far better option is to investigate the use of VR
technology for training. This can be incredibly beneficial when staff need to
learn a new skill or technique. With VR training, there is no need to hire a
corporate venue and the training can be undertaken by individuals at a time
that suits their current workload. In short, VR training offers many businesses
cost savings and can help to improve productivity in the workplace.
