Every employer wants to improve efficiency in the workplace. After all, time is money, and a business has to make as much money as it can in order to grow. Increased workplace efficiency does not have to involve draconian discipline or patronizing orientation activities. In fact, treating your staff more like equals with agency has been proven to increase their ability to work efficiently. Here are a few examples of organizational and technological methods by which workplace efficiency can be improved.
Train Staff Properly
Staff needs to be trained, but traditionally this has caused a huge amount of workplace disruption. Recently, companies like thinqi.com have pioneered centralized training and education platforms. These essentially work in the same way as a project management platform. All of the resources, feedback modules, and tests are accessible from a single dashboard.
Employers can save a huge amount of time by refusing to engage in fractious training practices. Keeping everything in one place and accessible to everybody is a great way of improving workplace efficiency.
Don’t Cram Too Many Meetings In
It can be tempting to try and communicate as often as possible with staff by hosting lots of meetings. You might think that this would increase workplace motivation and efficiency. The truth is rather different. Employees can understandably get tired of constant motivational meetings and tend to push back against them. Constant meetings also get in the way of any large task your employees might be trying to complete. Don’t drag everybody into your office if you don’t have to!
Embrace Automation
Workplace automation comes in thousands of different forms, and if applied correctly, can make a workplace far more efficient. Everything from automating follow-up emails to automating data analysis to automating employee pay can save hundreds of work hours. Automation is becoming far more accessible to businesses as machine learning algorithms find a place in many kinds of business-oriented software.
Allow Flexible Work Hours
Many businesses have recognized that flexible working hours are not just good for employees – they are good for employers too. Flexible working hours improve workplace efficiency in several key ways:
They Reduce Sick Days
If employees are allowed to choose when they work, they are less likely to need to book time off for minor sicknesses.
They Improve Employee Mental Health
Nobody likes being trapped in somebody else’s routine. Employees who are allowed to be in control of their own work/ life balance are less likely to suffer from burnout and stress. The happier your employees are, the more efficiently they will conduct themselves.
They Allow For hybrid Working
Commuting to work is time-consuming and stressful. By the time an employee actually arrives at the door, they might be far less willing to work to the best of their abilities. Flexible working hours can make room for hybrid routines: where employees can work at least partially from home. This cuts out some of the stress associated with commuting every day. Bin the rat race!
