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Working Smarter 5 Strategies for Improving Business Productivity

Automate menial tasks 

Big or small, your business depends on a slew of tasks and processes, some of which are mind-numbingly boring, while others are complex and time-consuming. Not all of them, however, are mission-critical and dependent on your employees. 

This is where automation can save you time and money, and most of all, it can alleviate some of the pressure off your employees and allow them to focus on essential projects instead of menial tasks. From payroll, invoicing, all the way to social media management and SEO analytics, you can automate a whole array of tasks that usually take up too much of your time. 

Not only will automation make all of your processes faster and more efficient, but it will also keep your company safe. For example, with automation, you can prevent any accounts payable fraud attempts that might occur. 

Start using analytics and reports

Most companies leverage technology up to a point, and mostly towards the customer. The same learning aspect can exist in your internal operations if you start using those same digital tools to analyze and understand your internal communications and work patterns. Analytics tools serve to help you recognize setbacks and eliminate bottlenecks. They are, above all, unbiased and data-centric.

Create monthly reports on different projects to see if someone could have done a better job, what they need to achieve better results, and if some of those common procedures are failing you. 

Focus on employee engagement

When employees don’t understand your brand’s purpose and they aren’t working towards a common goal, you are likely dealing with disengaged workers with little to no shared passion or values. This creates dissonance in your workplace and leads to poor productivity. Employers that focus on developing employee engagement will actually boost productivity, as well. Everything from optimizing time management, all the way to ensuring communication transparency can help create the right atmosphere. 

Do your employees have the right tools to collaborate and share their rosters? What about chat and real-time video calls? In Australia, for example, companies handle their employees’ workflow with the help of scheduling tools to simplify collaboration and employee engagement. The handy scheduling software in Australia helps companies to manage multiple teams and ensures all employees are on the right track. It’s essential to create an environment that ensures open communication and fosters transparency in the organization. That way, your teams can work together and towards the same goals. 

Empower work-life balance for your team

Work-life balance is that elusive idea that differs from one business to another. Depending on your profession, you need to come up with creative and effective ways to help your teams lead healthy, fulfilling lives. In turn, that will increase their focus, job satisfaction, and overall productivity. Talk to your employees to see what they need the most, be it flexible work hours, daycare support, fitness passes, or psychological counselling.

Try various teamwork effectiveness models, and pick the one that fit’s your team’s requirements. For instance, some of your teams can complete their work in less time, but they are stuck at work simply to clock in the right number of hours – rethink your workload allocation strategy to help people work the appropriate amount of time by giving them concrete, realistic milestones. Instead of looking to work “until five”, their goal can be to work until they wrap up their tasks and then punch out early. 

Set up a feedback loop and train your staff

No industry is immune to progress. Even if some of your processes are impervious to the changes in how we live our lives, you still need to be mindful of the other aspects of your business that are prone to change. For starters, your employees will feel frustrated and annoyed if they are stuck with outdated equipment and tools, and if they don’t get regular training to advance in their field of work. Since you cannot personally keep track of it all, feedback loops should do that for you.

Empower your teams in multiple ways to share their needs and opinions. From anonymous surveys, polls, all the way to brainstorming sessions, your teams should be open enough to suggest ways your business can do better. This feedback will allow you to become a better leader, and it will bring forth some intelligent solutions to simplify processes and use cutting-edge tech to your advantage. Plus, this is a brilliant chance for your staff to tell you when and to what extent they need training and certification.