Business efficiency does not rely solely on the speed and effectiveness of the employees. Putting pressure on employees and giving them more work with shorter deadlines will only lead to poor quality products and a high turnover rate of burned-out trained staff.
Efficiency in the workplace relies on the support of the management. It is in finding the right equipment to help your employees do their work well. It is in working with the right suppliers and vendors so you can guarantee the quality of the work you put out. Being able to rely on the quality of the product and streamlining the ease of application plays a much bigger role in ensuring efficient service without complaints and having to re-do work.
Especially in businesses that provide coating products or servicing for vehicles, efficiency is in ensuring that the job gets done right the first time. Everything else relies on giving your staff proper training, staying up-to-date on machinery and software that can assist your existing services to function better, and adapting to the customers’ needs.
Automate Where Possible
Use business software, cloud computing, and online payments to help your employees meet efficiency goals. Automating what you can in the workplace is very much a necessity in today’s highly competitive business world. Automated payroll and accounting software allow you to pay your employees on time and maintain a flexible and reliable scheduling system. Customers expect speedy service, and delivering it means giving your employees the tools to respond quickly. An online payment service means that your employees can have the product/meal/vehicle ready for the customers by the time they come in the door. Online order forms help streamline the production process, and an automated system can give employees the time to concentrate on giving customers an improved customer service experience.
Encourage Video Discussions
It is a necessity in business to have a paper trail for interactions and decisions that impact workload. But having to send short emails back and forth can take time away from efficiently solving problems. Encourage your employees to discuss problems and possible solutions via video calls. Video conferencing software allows people to record these discussions and log them. They can then write down emails to confirm the discussed points and agreed-upon next steps. This will cut down on a lot of wasted hours waiting for replies.
Manage Meetings Better
Management tends to forget that while employees are in meetings, however important the meeting may be, it is cutting into their workday. If you want your staff to deliver projects and reports within a time frame, but you are taking time out of that with meetings, you are the barrier to their efficiency. Try to schedule all meetings for one day of the week. This will allow the staff to focus on completing their tasks during the rest of the week. If an inquiry is not urgent, then encourage emailing it rather than calling it in. Limiting interruptions to your employees’ concentration will greatly help them complete tasks well and within expected time frames.
Multitasking is a Myth
Multitasking is something of a difficult subject to discuss in the business world. Employers want to hire people who are multitaskers because they want to save money by paying one salary where three would be needed. But it is not an effective business method. It can be distressing to accept that multitasking is hurting your business more than it is helping. But part of running a business is being open-minded to new research and adaptations in the way people work. Change the way you assign tasks by giving your employees a priority list. Allow them to work on each task singly in order of priority. You will still receive their work promptly, but the quality of the work will be much improved because they were able to truly focus on giving it their best effort.
A good employee can become a great employee by employing this single-task system. The best practices you can use to help your employees meet efficiency goals are putting task management software in place and encouraging open communication. The staff on the ground handling the day-to-day tasks are better equipped to understand the nuances and extra steps they have to take.
Management may not be aware of these extra tasks being carried out by employees when deciding how to conduct workplace behaviors. Including employees in the discussion will allow managers to know exactly what will be of real help versus what would create extra steps and take up more of the employees time. Task management software is a great way to allow employees to handle their work while giving management the ability to oversee without the employee having to make reports, whether in writing or via meetings. It will also allow management to isolate which employees are best with which tasks to be assigned work that is more suitable to their talents.
