Have you ever wondered how much time your business could save if you were able to strip down all of the unnecessary bits? Well, for most businesses, it’s a lot. It’s hard, though, trying to find the problem areas of your company. Business processes need to be refined and revisited now and often to see how you can jump start or resurrect productivity in your organization. So, to give you a helping hand, this post goes through some of the big areas that organisations overlook.
Hardware/Tools
If your staff are forced to use old tools or hardware, it’s likely that they can’t get the job done as quick as it could be. If all of your computers are aged, with slow loading programs and limited storage, you ideally need new machines. If the staff in your warehouse have to use a beaten up old forklift, the odds are that productivity is affected.
To determine what might need replacing, it’s best to talk to your staff. Ask them if they think the job could be done quicker with newer gear. Then, do a bit of your own research. Your employees are experts in their field, but they might just want a fancier gadget!
Training
If your staff don’t know how to use the software or hardware they’re given, they’ll have to learn through trial and error. This will usually take up a lot of time, and things won’t be learnt correctly. To get around this, you have to train your staff. For some things, you’ll be able to coordinate the training yourself. But, for other areas, you’ll probably need help.
If you do a lot of the work within your business by yourself, you may also need some tuition. Whatever you want to do, you can find help online. Companies like Treehouse offer full training in a range of areas. Look at a Treehouse review to see what they offer, and then look at other companies and compare.
Assessment
When it comes to the little things, you need to do some assessment and evaluation. Look into each process that your company uses, and try to find ways to cut down the workload. A lot of online services can be found to cover the small parts of running a business. For instance, Magento CRM will manage pretty much all of your E-commerce data for you. You’ll just need a bit of research and some setup time!
If you find this particularly hard, you can hire a company to assess your company for you. They will usually perform continued audits in the future, to provide peace of mind that you’re not slipping back into old habits.
Action
When you’re ready to put anything into action, you should talk to your employees first. Make sure that they’re happy with the changes you’re making, and give them any new training they need to do. Once everyone is up to scratch you can start iterating! Change one thing at a time with a cooling period. This will give your staff time to get used to the change, and will give you a chance to monitor it.
Ultimately, you need your business to be running at peak performance. Otherwise, you’re going to be wasting time and potentially money. Work with your staff and use them as a retarget, but also do plenty of your own research.