How well your company performs is important to its long-term success. If your business is not performing to your own or customers’ expectations, any other victory may be worthless. To minimize the chances of business failure, you must take the right steps to steer your business forward. For most entrepreneurs and business managers, mastering the art of improving an organization’s performance and efficiency is an uphill battle. But not anymore; here are the key strategies to improve your business performance.
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Discourage ‘got a minute?’ interruptions
One of the most common and inefficient uses of energy and time is the annoying and frequent ‘got a minute’ consultations and meetings. These are unscheduled meetings that can distract you from the important tasks you were handling. According to most business experts, these distractions are productivity killers.
But why are these meetings bad for your productivity? The truth is that there’s nothing you can accomplish in one minute. That means what sounded like a 60-seconds task will end up wasting 10, 15, or even 20 minutes of your work time. Do you now understand why these ‘got a minute’ issues kill productivity in the workplace?
It is recommended to schedule consultations and quick meetings with a designated time span. Stick to the specific topic you wanted to discuss. It’s also important to have support systems for your workers. For instance, having a contract management solution like ContractSafe makes it easier for a marketer or someone in the HR department to access the data they need without bothering anyone. Similarly, having a task management system increases collaboration and better communication.
Promote the culture of open and effective communication
Communication plays a key role in the overall productivity of your organization. This is why effective communication is one of the key strategies to improve your company’s performance. One of the ways to achieve effective communication is to encourage your workers to have face-to-face communication.
Sending a quick email to a co-worker might sound like a more efficient way of getting an answer. But, sometimes this form of communication can have the opposite effect because the subsequent back and forth sending and receiving emails might take longer than a quick face to face chat.
Face-to-face communication doesn’t mean you have to walk into your colleagues’ offices every time you want to talk to them. Various communication channels like zoom, Google meet, Skype, and other online communication systems can help shoot over a message to your colleague within a few seconds or minutes.
A recent study revealed that face-to-face interaction makes the entire process of solving a problem more efficient. It also speeds up the process of getting clarification of something important and answering a question. This doesn’t replace other forms of communication. For example, when sending important documentation, it’s recommended to use emails and other relevant communication channels.
Communication practices in your organization need to go beyond face-to-face chats aimed at solving problems. Encourage your workers to feel comfortable giving feedback on how the entire organization is managed or voicing their concerns about it. Most companies that have witnessed explosive growth in the past decade have a culture of open communication. Encouraging feedback and effective communication between different departments present a unique opportunity for your business to improve its efficiency.
As a business owner or manager, you cannot see everything happening within the organization, and you can’t be everywhere. The good news is that your workers can spot an area of your organization that could be improved or a process that needs streamlining. It is your responsibility to make sure that they feel comfortable giving feedback and voicing their concerns about different aspects of the organization. This encourages them to be part of the organization’s efficiency process and can create a more efficient and productive environment.
Leverage the power of automation
Whether you are sending marketing emails to prospects, sending receipts to vendors, or pay stubs to your employees, automate whatever you can. The concept of automation is more than a luxury. It’s a necessity in today’s super-competitive business world. When implemented effectively, automation can improve the overall functioning of your marketing department, HR department, accounting system, and other aspects of your company.
Automating necessary tasks saves time and allows your workers to focus on other productive tasks that require a human touch and critical thinking. Though the initial cost of implementing an automation system might be high, it will reduce operational costs and increase overall efficiency in the long-run. So, the long-term benefits of having an automation system outweigh the costs.
Minimize interruptions
If your workers are finding it challenging to get their tasks done, it could be because of those meetings you hold every day at 9 am, 11 am, and lunch hour meetings at 1 pm. These endless meetings are disruptions that could be affecting the overall productivity of your employees.
Holding meetings with your team isn’t bad. But when these meetings are too frequent, unplanned, and take longer than necessary, they become productivity killers. It is recommended to schedule meetings in one day instead of scattering them throughout the week. Just think about it; you can schedule a meeting in a single afternoon to iron things out with your employees. This will give them the entire week to focus on tasks that matter.
Note that meetings are not the only interruptions you must deal with. Chat message pop, constant email alerts, and notifications from other platforms such as social media, in-house project management system, and someone knocking on your door all serves as destructions. To address these distractions, get your workers trained on productivity and efficiency in the workplace.
Know when to stop
As much as you want to address all issues affecting your organization’s performance, it’s also important to draw the line. Not every process will be 100% efficient, just like not every meeting will end at the scheduled time. So, smooth out as many kinks as possible but get to know your limits. Consult with all departments to know issues that are a priority and others that can wait.
Neha Nidhi
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