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For small and mid-sized companies, the importance of efficiency cannot be overstated. Often, leaders of mid-sized firms are left to rely on data and analytics, but as outlined in a piece by Robert Shier, data and analytics alone cannot drive efficiency. A best-practise approach that drives efficiency and actively encourages productivity within the workplace will be the bedrock of your success.
When it comes down to it, however, efficiency is a challenging metric to actually keep track of. After all, objectively speaking, what is efficiency? These 7 tips will provide a firm basis from which to effectively measure and improve the efficiency of your workplace.
1. Understand your employees and their needs
Technological advancements should serve us massively when it comes to time management, but it is something of a double-edged sword. Our reliance on high-speed internet means we have the potential to be more distracted than ever by our phones. Educate yourself and your employees on effective time management. Encourage and reward good examples of it, and eliminate the need to continually look over your employees shoulders. Trust them and they will trust you enough to work hard.
2. Automate your reconciliation processes
Look to the likes of Xelix to provide the financial protection and prevention of incorrect payments that your business needs. Automation allows us the ability to eliminate mistakes that the likes of Excel will have inevitably brought to previous reconciliation approaches. It’s always worth keeping up to date with the new technologies.
3. Delegate properly
Knowing your employees strengths and areas for improvement gives you a huge advantage, in that you know fully how and where to delegate tasks. Give specific tasks and goals to those that you know will get them done professionally and efficiency will only grow.
4. Train and develop
On that note, setting time for training and development can give you even greater control over where to delegate. Say that your usual delegate for a task is off ill – well now you have someone else just as capable of delivering in as professional and efficient a manner as that employee.
5. Recognise your employees
When your employees have gone the extra mile, give them some recognition. It’s also beneficial to encourage your employees to recognise one another for their efforts. You may not be able to notice everything they do within their role, but their peers will. With that in mind, peer to peer recognition can definitely give the team a well-deserved boost.
6. Give employees flexibility
It is definitely not counterintuitive to allow your employees a flexible work schedule – quite the opposite. Take the four-day working week, for example, which in many instances has actually increased productivity. Furthermore, happier employees can only be a good thing in the long run.
7. Improve the working environment
Allow employees to work in comfort and the efficiency will undoubtedly come naturally to the workplace. Make sure you have comfortable seating, the right kind of monitors for employees, working printers and scanners, and anything else required in order for employees to do the job to the very best of their ability.
And there you have it – 7 tips for driving efficiency in the workplace, which can be sustained in the long run.
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