Every business, from big to small, wants to improve its efficiency. When you improve your efficiency, you get more done in a shorter amount of time. This, in turn, helps you to generate more profits at a fraction of the cost.
However, it’s not always obvious how you can go about improving the efficiency of your business. When you take a look at how things are operating, it seems like everything is going as well as it could. But if you take a closer look at some specific areas, you may start to notice inefficiencies. Below are a few strategies you can try out to improve those inefficiencies and boost the efficiency level throughout your business.
Implement a Knowledge Management System
According to a study from Staples, 75 percent of workers feel like they aren’t using the latest productivity tools. A great place to start is with a knowledge management system. Knowledge management systems are tools that make it easier to organize essential business information. Within these software tools, you can store all of the important documents that your business relies on. For example, you may have documents outlining project details or a blog post for your audience.
With a knowledge management system set up, it becomes easier to go through these documents and find what you’re looking for. This allows everyone who relies on these documents to work faster and find the information they need, which can reduce mistakes.
Outsource Specific Tasks
Bringing someone into your business requires a lot of work. You need to go through the entire hiring process, ensuring you find the best candidate along the way, then spend time onboarding them. After all this, you then need to pay your employee a decent salary. Going through all this for very specific tasks can be a waste of resources. A better option is often to outsource these tasks to a specialized service or individual.
For example, one commonly outsourced task is customer service. You can hire a company that’s already prepared to handle customer service requests, rather than creating the system yourself and hiring people to staff it. Another area you may be able to outsource is your HR department. With HR outsourcing, you can hire a service to perform specific tasks for you, such as administering benefits or payroll. Outsourcing areas like HR are particularly useful for smaller businesses, which may not be able to justify paying for an entire department.
Automate Repetitive or Slow Jobs
A major source of inefficiency within many businesses are repetitive tasks. If an employee has to perform the same task over and over again, it’s simply a waste of their time. Thankfully, there are now many software tools available that can perform these repetitive tasks for you.
For example, you may have a feature on your website that allows customers to contact you for more information. Rather than responding manually to each of these messages, you can automatically send out an email to new inquiries. Another great thing to automate is your sales lead evaluation. Instead of investigating each lead to determine its quality, you can have software do this for you and move the best leads to the top of your contact list. This allows your sales staff to focus on the best leads, rather than wasting their time on leads less likely to convert.
Assign Tasks Based on Skills
To get the best efficiency from your employees, you should look to assign them tasks based on their unique skill set. For example, if you need someone to perform outreach to clients, you’ll want to assign this to someone with customer service experience. To do this, you need to learn more about your employees.
A good strategy is to either send out a questionnaire to your employees or schedule time to meet with them one-on-one. Ask them questions about their background and what they feel strongest doing. Record this information, then keep it in mind the next time you’re assigning tasks or projects. Giving tasks to the right people will not only improve efficiency but help your employees feel like they are making a difference.
Make Communication Easier
Poor communication is a common source of inefficiency. In fact, 86 percent of executives cited it as a major source of productivity failures. Therefore, you should look to improve communication throughout your business wherever you can.
There are many ways you can go about doing this. For example, you can set up chat software to help eliminate the need for emails. You can also create a communication plan that details where and when employees should communicate with one another. You can further ease this process by using a platform that allows for multi user WhatsApp Business integration, letting both your employees and your customers reach you on a chat service that they’re already familiar with.
Make Improving Efficiency a Top Priority
Even a few small changes can make a big difference in your business. If you can boost the efficiency of a few employees, this can have a ripple effect that impacts everyone. Spend some time analyzing your business on a deeper level, looking for any tiny inefficiencies. Then consider implementing one of the strategies above or trying out something of your own. With enough trial and error, you should find strategies that boost efficiency and lead to stronger business growth.