What are ways to improve business efficiency?
- Have a daily huddle
- Channel your focus
- Know what to cut
- Know what to build
- Automate basic tasks
- Build relationships
Running a business is no small feat. Keeping up with the demands of a growing business is even more demanding, which is why efficiency is important. If your business is efficient, you don’t have to worry about the little things and you create a business that’s sustainable in the long run. However, that’s easier said than done. Many businesses struggle to achieve efficiency, especially when scaling up. If this is your current situation, keep reading. We cover six simple ways to improve business efficiency:
Have a daily huddle
You’d be surprised with how daily updates can help keep your team on track.
We highly recommend having a daily huddle — also called standups or scrums — to improve business efficiency. These short team meetings keep everyone on the same page, provide updates on ongoing work, and who needs help with what. It’s also an excellent time to tackle problems or questions that your team may have.
Face-to-face huddles are the most effective, but video calling with remote teammates is also good. With this, you can cut down on those lengthy monthly meetings — and keep the company running efficiently.
Channel your focus
Busy people aren’t always the most productive. Just because your people are busy, doesn’t mean they’re always getting something done.
You should help them channel their focus, and direct their energy where it’s most needed. Keep your people on just one main task or goal at a time, and have them work on the next when that’s done. Once the priority is given to high-value tasks, efficiency will follow.
Know what to cut
One of the biggest roadblocks to efficiency is, of course, your workflows. Map out and examine the operations and the processes you have in place. Looking through this should help you spot opportunities to save time.
Highlight any redundancies, excessively complicated processes, unclear procedures, and outdated practices. Then, decide if you’ll cut them out, revise them, or consolidate them. Doing this will help you save time and avoid duplication of work. The burden on your team should also be lighter and help them use their time more efficiently.
Know what to build
When you examine your workflows, remember that it’s not all about cutting down. Creating new, more effective processes are just as important. This is why we suggest documenting how every process is done — no matter how big or small — regularly.
Doing this helps with two things. One, it serves as a benchmark for future efforts (i.e., were we more efficient before? Or are we doing fine now?). Second, it helps you see processes that you can build up. Then, you can establish newer, better practices, and hopefully improve your efficiency.
Automate basic tasks
If you can’t completely get rid of the repetitive, lengthy tasks that you’ve deemed problematic, you should look into automating them. This strategy will make your team’s life much easier.
By automating tasks, you have more time for pressing matters, such as urgent projects, customer demands, and the like. In the market today, there are many tools online that can help you do so. For example, there are inventory systems, accounting software, and even project management apps that enable businesses to tackle these monotonous yet crucial tasks without much human input or fuss.
Leverage the right tools and tech
In this day and age, simply hiring more people to tackle new business is not enough. Integrating technology into your processes is the most powerful solution that you can choose — and, it ends up costing less, in the long run.
Investing in business software and programs will often repay itself tenfold, just by making your work quicker, more accurate, and more efficient. In fact, solutions like DynamIQ’s SAP Business One empower your people to do many of their tasks in just a matter of minutes. This frees up their time to focus more on value-driving jobs, and the other things that help your business grow.
And, no matter how great and highly productive such tech is, it won’t matter unless they can access it whenever, wherever. Luckily, cloud-based services like ours ensure that your teams have the tools and equipment they need to be able to work properly, even when they’re not in the office. This is key to achieving optimal business efficiency.
Build relationships
That said, it’s also important to look outside your processes to improve efficiency. The people are the core of your business, so building relationships with them and between them are crucial for how well your business runs.
Take time to build trust and rapport within your workplace. Be transparent with your people, empower them to do their jobs, and do away with unnecessary workplace monitoring or restrictions.
This fosters stronger bonds with your team. And, your people feel more valued and free to do their best work. As a result, they’re likely to be honest and to provide valuable insight on projects, products, and more.
Key Takeaway
All businesses should be running at their best, however many of them are slowed down by countless hurdles. But, using these six ways to improve business efficiency should help you get there in no time.
Business efficiency is all about working smarter, not harder — and DynamIQ can equip you with just the right tools you need to do so. Contact us today to learn more about our products and services! We offer the top ERP solutions in the Philippines!
