Five Solutions to Increase Business Efficiency

Every business, large or small, should see improving and maintaining a high level of efficiency as an important priority. Having great efficiency will not only help to reduce costs, but also increase profits and help your business to grow and be competitive in the market.

There is not a one size fits all approach to improving a business’ efficiency, the methods you use can depend on the nature of the organisation, its culture and the budget available to implement any necessary changes.

For those in a leadership role in the business considering improving efficiency, these five possible solutions may be a useful starting point for developing your own plan:

1. Carry out An Examination of Your Operations

You should begin by examining the business’ present situation. Are there any processes or procedures that are currently in place that could be considered to be overly complicated or unnecessary?

It is common for these to develop slowly over time. Assess what can be consolidated or eliminated altogether and plan to evaluate the impact of any changes in the short and longer term.

2. Provide the Right Tools and Training for Employees

When budgets are tight or there is a lack of communication between organisational layers, employees sometimes miss out on the tools or skill development needed for their roles. For example, a subscription to a project management software could save time and resources or training for a HR colleague could help improve how employee disputes are managed.

3. Make the Most of Technology When Streamlining Business Processes

Technology is now so important in every aspect of our lives and should be embraced by businesses. Technology could be used to create automated marketing workflows or to improve security in accountancy processes such as issuing checks.

Introduce technology that compliments your employee’s current ways of working or eliminates mundane activities that eat into their working day.

One simple example of this sort of tech is staff rota or timesheet software. Having integrated software that can plan shifts, record hours worked and feed this information to different areas of the business, such as payroll, not only saves time and cuts back on paper usage but also improves communication and reduces human error.

4. Maintain a High Morale and Good Relationships with Employees

Of course, improving business efficiency cannot be achieved effectively without the support of people from across the business. Employees that are motivated and feel that they are supported and listened to are more likely to buy-in to the company’s vision.

They will most certainly work harder if they are happy and feel that they are being compensated for their efforts fairly. While gestures such as company parties, free snacks and gift baskets are nice, strong leadership that seeks and acts on employee feedback is more important.

Leaders often underestimate the importance of a positive workplace culture in running an efficient business as they are too focused on the bottom line. Remember it is often less costly to improve an employee’s working conditions to retain them than to recruit a replacement when they hand their notice in.

You need to understand that there are simple ways by which the relationship between the management and the employees can be improved. One of the best ways is by inculcating a culture of gifting in the organization. You can reward and recognize hard workers for their effort and commitment. You can also give Christmas gifts for employees that they will be able to share with their family members.

5. Be Prepared to Delegate

Lastly, leaders need to be prepared to delegate responsibilities and tasks to their team. Business owners are sometimes reluctant to share the workload out as they wish to maintain control.

However, the people you hired are there for a reason and are likely experts in their specific areas in the organisation. If you become too focused on juggling the day-to-day tasks, you will be too preoccupied to oversee operations and company growth effectively.

Trust your staff to do their jobs and they will feel valued and are therefore more likely to work to the best of their abilities.

• Prev
• Next