4 Ways Your Business Can Boost Productivity and Save Money
There are many aspects that need to come together in order to make up a good business. A positive work environment. Productive employees. Transparency between the boss and employees.
Many businesses start off this way, with high energy and motivation to get work done. But even if you feel like your business is running fine, there’s always room for improvement.
I consult to many businesses and noticed that there are 4 main areas where businesses and staff lose motivation. This became especially apparent in the work-from-home era of 2020.
So whether you feel like motivation in the office has been lacking, or you just want to make improvements in general, here are 4 ways your business can boost productivity and save money:
1. Don’t Be Afraid to Retrain
The root cause of unproductive employees might just be the fact that they need retraining.
Maybe they weren’t trained thoroughly to begin with or maybe they just forgot what they learned!
It’s a simple fix.
There are a plethora of online courses for your employees (or you!) to take to relearn certain skills.
Remember that your business has evolved over time too and so what used to be done in a specific way may have changed and is no longer relevant.
2. Use a Time Tracking Tool
Not properly tracking the number of hours your employees work will result in lost money and time for both you and them.
Instead of having them clock in with paper timesheets, which are as passe as the typewriter, use an employee time tracking tool.
This automates the process and eliminates the risk of mistakes that can end up costing you a lot of money. Using a time tracking tool is also beneficial for payroll purposes as it documents and stores important information used for payment.
This is also helpful with remote workers as your employees can access and log their hours from a variety of devices.
3. Delegate Tasks Equally
An office should have an equal distribution of work. There’s no reason why all the responsibilities should fall on one person’s shoulders- everyone should do their part. However, this can get difficult when tasks aren’t clearly distributed throughout the office. You have one person who is sitting at their desk, twiddling their thumbs and looking for more work. And then you have another person who is going crazy because of an upcoming deadline. But neither of them know that the other one is struggling. This is why it is helpful to have a tool that helps with task distribution, so you know that everyone has something they are working on.
4. Have Open Communication
No one wants to work in an office that feels negative and closed off. Just imagine how much happier, productive, and motivated your employees would be if they walked into a positive office every day? The key to that is having open communication. It’s important to establish honesty with your employees so you know they feel comfortable coming to you if they’re struggling with time management or just need help with a task. Be sure to have a way of communicating with the office with a collaboration tool. It’s much quicker than emailing back and forth and waiting for a response.
So in summary:
Having a productive office might be exactly what your business needs to grow. Even if you think your employees are motivated and the business is doing fine, there is always room for improvement. Encourage everyone in the office to keep working hard. Maybe someone just needs to be retrained. Maybe you need to have more transparency in the office. Maybe it’s a combination of all of the above! It might take some time to figure out what you need to boost productivity, but once you do, your business will be smooth sailing from that point forward.
