Every business owner wants to improve productivity, and the question is, how do you go about doing that? Some great methods are available if you’re willing to change how you operate. Below, we’ll outline five productivity transformations to explore within your business.
Allowing Work-from-Home
A great place to start is by exploring work-from-home options. Many business owners assume that employees won’t be as productive if they aren’t in the office. The exact opposite is often the case, however. When you allow employees to work from home, they often get more done. This is because they are in a comfortable environment and don’t have to spend any of their time traveling.
If you want to allow your employees to work from home, you may need to make a few significant changes to your business. For example, you may need to get everyone video conferencing software so you can continue holding meetings. You’ll also want to explore any security concerns that come with allowing your employees to access your important files remotely. However, if you can take proper precautions and plan everything out, allowing your employees to work from home could result in a significant productivity boost.
Automating Repetitive Tasks
The next transformation to explore involves repetitive tasks within your business. If you look closely, it’s likely you can find some tasks that your employees have to perform over and over again, taking up a lot of their time. If you could find a way to automate these tasks, you’d free your employees up to focus on more important tasks, thereby improving their productivity.
Think of a company that produces individual pieces of chocolate. If they had employees wrapping each piece, it would take a tremendous amount of time. Instead, this company could implement an automatic candy wrapper, like major candy companies like Hershey does, and get the job done in a fraction of the time. Plenty of software solutions available can automate your online or computer-related tasks, along with machinery that can automate more hands-on tasks. Explore your options and see if the cost justifies setting up these new tools.
Setting Goals and Tracking Progress
An important element of improving productivity is setting goals and knowing when you reach them. It’s often hard to work toward something if you don’t know the purpose or when you’re finished. While your organization may already have some long-term goals, like “reach a wider audience” or “hire more employees,” these are vague and don’t lead to better productivity.
Instead, you should have concrete goals that you can measure. This includes both long-term goals and short-term goals. Any time an employee is working on something, they should know what they are working towards. Create your goals in a public place and make it so all your employees can see any updates.
Restructure and Redesign Your Office
Sometimes, the space you’re in can restrict your productivity. There may not inherently be anything wrong with your office setup, but if it’s been that way for a long time, it could lead to some feelings of monotony. To improve your office productivity, consider changing the layout of your office. For example, after you hire more employees, you could move desks around so that teams are more closely located to one another.
Also, look at the design elements within your office. Sometimes adding things like some new plants, changing up the lights, or even adding some music can create a better environment. If your employees enjoy spending time in the office, they’re more likely to focus on their work and get it done faster.
Knowing When Not to Work
Finally, sometimes to improve productivity, you actually have to encourage your employees not to work. Taking breaks is essential to retaining focus and ensuring your employees spend their time doing their best work. As the manager, look for opportunities to schedule some fun activities for your team which gets their mind off work. For instance, you could all go out to lunch one day or set up some fun team-building games. Your employees will leave the activity feeling more energized and be able to work more productively after.
Start Improving Productivity Today
As you can see, some productivity changes don’t take a lot of effort. With a few small tweaks, you can improve your company’s productivity today. At the same time, you can start exploring larger transformations and how you’ll go about implementing them. It may take some time, but if you get improved productivity, as a result, it’s likely worth the investment.
