While every organization is different, in many ways they all share the same common objectives: Minimize costs and maximize efficiency so that the best results can be achieved faster.
Regardless of their size and scope, all organizations can benefit by being more productive and efficient.Rapid advances in technology has allowed most organizations to achieve significant improvements in efficiency and productivity so that now more than ever before more work is being done in less time and by fewer people.
But beyond investing in technology, there are four simple steps that any company or organization can implement that will instantly and permanently improve the quality of their operations while at the same time reducing their costs.
Here are the four easy steps to reducing costs and increasing efficiency that can be applied to any organization:
Step 1: Planning
Whether you are a master chef, a respected artist or the manager of a rapidly growing business, the best way to achieve the most results is to have a well-planned roadmap before you ever begin your journey. By charting your course and anticipating your needs before you begin; you can assure that you have laid the groundwork for success.
In business, this includes some of the most basic processes, such as how to keep track of your employee’s work hours or how to keep tabs on the status of an assignment or project. Without a game plan in place, even these most simple actions can lead to enormous headaches.
The best way to put together an effective game plan is to start with the simple stuff first. Go after the low-hanging fruit such as investing in a time clock and attendance tracking software before moving on to more complicated matters. Putting these types of systems in place will make your organization more incrementally efficient so you don’t have to waste time on routine administrative functions such as compiling payroll or building reporting structures.
Step 2: Fill Your Toolbox with the Right Tools
A lumberjack wouldn’t try to chop down a fir tree with a hand saw. Nor would a gourmet chef try to cook an omelet using a sheet pan. So why would a skilled business person like you try to make your company operate profitably and efficiently without first making sure you have all the right tools you need to achieve the objectives you want?
These tools include both physical things such as software programs, laptops, mobile devices, personal computers, desks, chairs and file cabinets, as well as making sure you have the right people in the right jobs to achieve the goals you have targeted.
The best way to improve efficiency is to look for ways to automate routine processes that would otherwise slow you down or keep you from focusing on more important matters. These include such things as time reporting, attendance, and processing time off requests. By shifting these routine tasks online, you can benefit from the multiplier effect of enjoying greater time savings, reduced paperwork and less time spent on mistakes made on manual timesheets.
Step 3: Have Analytical Processes in Place
Having a lot of data to look at can be helpful, but only if you have the proper tools that allow you to process large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. By utilizing these types of technological tools – such as seeing how many man hours it took to perform a particular task or how much you spent on a single project – you can glean insights that often have a direct effect on profitability and productivity.
Having these types of analytical processes in place can make it surprisingly easy to implement and benefit from the kinds of improvements that come from workplace management solutions.
Step 4: Monitoring Your Progress toward Your Goals
The best workforce productivity solutions today provide real-time project status updates that allow managers to proactively make changes to both course and strategies. It’s now possible to monitor and direct workers toward successful and timely outcomes even within organizations that have thousands of employees or who employ dozens of outsourced contractors.
Monitoring the status of projects as they are proceeding is an important part of reducing costs and improving efficiencies. These types of tools make it easy to pay attention to such details as hours spent, financial expenditures, project milestones and other important factors. These tools have proven to be hugely important to organizations for bringing projects in on time and under budget.
Because we live and work in a world where technology plays such an important role, delays and procedural inconveniences can be devastating to organizations. So it’s doubly important that you don’t delay the adoption of systems that allow managers and line-level employees to perform their tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.
