Efficiency in all businesses is vital. But what does the term ‘efficiency’ actually mean? The definition of maximum gains with minimum effort sits nicely within most industries. In other words, you want your workers to produce the highest quality of work without taking too much time, needing too many resources and exerting too much effort.
Here, we share how to get improved efficiency in your business in four simple steps.
- Provide suitable training
For any work role, the chances are that training will need to be offered. What works within one company may be different in another, so ensure those foundations are in place before allowing any employee to sail free. Training could be as little as shadowing a colleague for a few hours or as detailed as an intensive week-long program whereby you share everything they need to know, including business action plans and workplace policies. Before a new employee starts, build this training into their timetable to support their induction.
- Allow flexible working
When it comes to the old 9 to 5, this rarely works well for every single person within a workplace. If you can offer flexible working, and this pandemic has proven that many businesses can manage to do so, please do. It can help your employees maintain a positive work-life balance, ensuring that when they do work, they are at their absolute best. Furthermore, this negates the need for employees to take an entire day off work for an appointment perhaps, saving the company money, too. If one of your team is more efficient in the early morning hours, allowing them to work the hours that suit them best could improve their work tremendously.
- Keep up to date with tech
Technology can be the making of a business but investing in it and then not updating it could spell disaster. Financial decisions regarding tech need to be considered, however much you want to put them off. Printers that work sporadically could be wasting hours of work time a week when updating the technology, while requiring an initial outlay, would actually save money in the long run. Investing in IT service management can help, particularly if you do not employ anyone who is tech savvy. This can improve efficiency, ensuring your files and folders are safe and secure, as well as improving communication within the workplace, allowing everyone to be kept in the loop regarding changes and incidents.
- Have regular appraisals
Appraisals or performance management meetings are commonplace in many businesses. However, unless they are carried out in a sensible way, they are unlikely to have much impact. Meet individually with staff, asking them to consider anything they would like to achieve in the next twelve months. From that, set SMART goals and be sure to take the company’s action plan into account, too. Ensuring that the process involves regular, but short, meetings where staff members are able to update you on their progress towards any targets set as well as asking for further support in any particular areas will help to make the workplace more efficient.
