4 Workflow Optimization Tips To Boost Business Productivity
June 24, 2021 No CommentsFeatured article by Liam White, CRM software specialist
Businesses today are faced with so many challenges. Among the many, there’s that pressing need to do and produce more, all within the same timeframe. If you’re faced with that challenge, perhaps, there’s one area you’d want to check on: your workflow.
When you think about what each member of your team does in a day for your company, are all of these geared toward a better workflow? Do you find any area where you know you could be more efficient? Even if it’s just five minutes a day wasted per employee, when you multiply that by the number of employees in your workflow, that does make a difference. Or, perhaps, there are tasks you’re still doing manually, which should’ve already been automated, like through having a CRM software in place.
Fortunately, with the coming in of new technology, there are now so many ways for you to improve your business’s workflow so as to achieve better productivity. It’s up to your business to do the auditing and use the appropriate technology as much as you can in order to be more efficient and productive. That way, your business productivity can greatly improve.
Here’s how you can do so:
1. Study Your Current Processes
Change begins with realizing that there’s a problem. This means that before you can adopt new changes in your system to automate or bring in new technology, you’ve got to study your current processes and identify the areas that you can greatly improve on.
When you begin with your current processes, you’re sure that all of the technologies you apply are related to the problems in your current workflow. Otherwise, you may be spending on installing new technology or software that may not even be relevant to your workflow needs.
2. Stop Multitasking
Contrary to popular opinion, multitasking actually doesn’t enable you to do more for a shorter timeframe. Yes, you may complete more tasks, but the outcome can be compromised. This is because when you multitask, your mind is all over the place. You aren’t able to focus on a specific task at hand when you’re always trying to do more and accomplish more. Plus, it also disrupts the smooth workflow if you jump from one task to another, doing it all simultaneously. So, if it’s been a practice of many employees in charge of your workflow to multitask, this has to stop right away.
Instead, make it company culture to finish one task first, put all your attention and focus on that without distractions, before moving on to the next.
3. Prioritize Projects Based On Importance
One of the best ways to be strategic about improving your workflow is to make it a point to prioritize projects based on difficulty or importance. As soon as you enter your office, start working on those tasks that are due very soon, or that are quite difficult to complete. By doing so, you can get this out of the way, and then focus on the smaller, easier tasks for the rest of the day.
It’s best to focus on the difficult tasks early on, when you still have the mental and physical energy to do so, rather than wait until later, when you may already be exhausted.
Also, there are project management software that you can install and use for your business. This is a gift of technology that you should take advantage of to improve the way that your business and workflow manage all the project that you have to accomplish, at any given time.
Some of the advantages that you can gain through using the right project management software include:
– It provides a centralized approach to managing all the work that has to be done, which means that you’re using one app or tool to monitor, check, report, and do all the work related to tracking the projects and tasks at hand to be accomplished.
– It enables you to track your progress, which makes for better accountability, such that delays are also minimized.
– It’s real-time, which gives you a real-time risk assessment to be proactive about the possible risks, rejections, and difficulties that you’re going to encounter with the projects you’ve got to complete.
4. Practice Open And Good Communication In The Workplace
The workflow won’t be able to go as smoothly as you initially intended it to be if the communication is distorted. Practicing open and good communication is the best way to keep the flow of work in check in the workplace.
For example, if there’s any problem that needs to be given attention to right away, this is solved and addressed before the problem even escalates. If you don’t communicate and talk about the problems that are faced, then this may lead to bigger problems in the long run, which can already be challenging to undo.
With that said, there are many tools that your business can use to improve communication, workflow, and, ultimately, productivity. These are:
– Zoom. Whether you’ve got remote workers or everyone is in your physical office, Zoom is better than an ordinary phone call. Your team members just have to install that app on their devices, and with your meeting ID and passcode, you can do real-time calls, whenever, wherever. This makes for better and more current team collaboration.
– Dropbox. If you’re still using a traditional file cabinet, then surely, now, you also have to back up all of your files. When many files are soft copies or digital, then you need a place to store these safely. Dropbox is one of the best file sharing and file storing applications you can use.
– Airtable. This is better than your traditional wall calendar. It allows you to collaborate and manage all your work deadlines more effectively. Plus, everyone in the team can be on the loop with the updates on schedules and deadlines. Surely, it’s simply inefficient to pass around your personal wall or desk calendar, and manually inform everyone of the changes.
Conclusion
With the tips above, now you can make your workflow improve efficiently to your advantage. Technology isn’t sleeping on the needs of many businesses to improve productivity and meet the demands of their clients. While there are many software and tools that can help you in that pursuit, however, not all of these are also well-suited for your business and your needs. As you can see above, it has to start with identifying what your needs are, and then eventually working your way toward ensuring that all those new changes will fit seamlessly into your workflow system.
Liam White
Liam White is a CRM software specialist. He has been assisting clients in CRM system installation and troubleshooting for over ten years. During his free time, Liam writes guest posts to share his knowledge and skills in CRM. He enjoys jogging, biking, and scuba diving too.
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