Employee efficiency is foundational to a company’s profitability. If your staff isn’t working as fast and as efficiently as they should, they’ll struggle to meet company targets.
Many internal business factors can hinder their productivity: burdensome administrative processes, poor time management, heavy workloads, etc.
If you see these factors hurting your employees’ efficiency, simplify their work with these five practical tips.
1. Organize your employee schedule roster
Managing employees’ schedules can be overwhelming. It entails several tasks on top of your HR department’s other assignments.
They need to arrange shifts according to staff availability, approve requests for days off, negotiate with substitute employees, and so on.
If your HR department uses Excel Spreadsheets or bulletin boards, their efficiency will dwindle. They can also lose and overlook important information.
Simplify your scheduling tasks by using employee shift rostering software. There are several HR software programs with automation and artificial intelligence (AI) features to handle mundane admin tasks.
For example, the AI can assign suitable shifts based on employees’ tenure, experience, skills, availability, and others. The tool can automatically convert working hours into equivalent wages according to your company policies and state regulations.
Employee scheduling tools also have neat, intuitive calendars viewable in various ways (e.g., weekly, monthly). They even have built-in chat systems for internal communications and allow the staff to initiate swapping shifts. The software then updates your calendar instantly.
Automated scheduling eliminates the administrative burden and frees up your HR department for other critical tasks.
2. Use cloud-based forms
Create and work with documents on the cloud. This lets your team and your clients access files quickly and remotely.
Modern equipment rental companies, for example, are using cloud-based platforms to simplify their operations.
Their technicians use digital equipment inspection forms (created on the company’s app) to examine assets. They can tap checklist options and take photos and videos. The app automatically uploads these files and the completed reports on its cloud storage.
Managers can then receive alerts about the uploaded documents and view them immediately. They can check if the equipment requires repairs and need to charge customers for it. Otherwise, they can approve the report and release the asset for rental. Customers can then sign agreements electronically and even receive copies of them via email.
With reports and transactions on the cloud, customers don’t need to head to the shop just to sign. Technicians don’t have to place the inspection forms on their manager’s table or bulletin board and risk losing them.
Cloud-based reports are secure, accessible, and quick to accomplish — simplifying your employees’ work and operations.
3. Automate your customer service
Providing superior customer service is essential to build buyer relationships and loyalty. However, it involves numerous to-do’s that can sidetrack your staff from excellently assisting shoppers.
Boost your employees’ efficiency in this business aspect with customer service automation tools. The software centralizes and automates related tasks with powerful features, such as:
- Consumer data collection, storage, and organization
- Integrated email, SMS, social media, and other communication forms
- Historical documentation of issues, messages, and resolutions
- Ticket generation
- Live chat
- Instant replies
- AI, etc.
Customer service automation platforms even provide robust performance analytics and insights to improve your efforts.
The software’s advanced functionalities help boost your team’s responsiveness and productivity. Consequently, your customer service improves, impressing and satisfying your shoppers (leading to more sales and increased patronage).
4. Centralize your project management
Coordination and clear communication help you and your team complete projects successfully. Without it, the team becomes disorganized, breeding confusion and frustration among team members (and clients).
Prevent that from happening by centralizing your collaborative project management. Use robust platforms such as ClickUp, Trello, Asana, Wrike, and Monday.com. They let you and your team add tasks, post progress updates, share files, and more in one place.
You should also define your project goals, scope, and milestones at the onset. This places everyone on the same track and empowers them to prioritize their to-do’s.
Let’s say you’re organizing an online conference. You can do the following tasks using your project management tool:
- Share the event overview: objectives, theme, target audience groups and number of attendees, partners, etc.
- List, schedule, and delegate pre-conference and post-event tasks
- Check the designs for the e-invitation, banner and announcement images, and other visual content
- Hold periodic virtual meetings to discuss issues and update on the progress
- Upload final copies of speakers’ presentations
- Create wikis containing must-know information, e.g., webinar platform access credentials, brand colors of the online conference
By centralizing your project management, everyone gets clearer visibility on the tasks, can coordinate more smoothly, and access information in one platform.
5. Manage working hours and breaks
Employees need to take care of themselves to remain happy, healthy, and efficient at work. While they are primarily responsible for their well-being, you can contribute to minimizing their workplace stress.
One of the best ways to do that is to manage their working and resting hours — an initiative that also improves your team connection and productivity.
On your end, discourage unnecessary and frequent overtimes and urge employees to take periodic breaks.
You can also help your staff manage their time to avoid working on their supposed resting hours. Share these tips with them:
- Organize your day
- Create a realistic to-do list
- Set goals
- Prioritize tasks
- Delegate when needed
- Avoid multitasking
- Keep distractions at bay.
Use time-tracking tools to help you and your employees manage their work and rest hours. Time Doctor, Toggl, Clockify, and Everhour are some examples of the software. These platforms can notify you when it’s break time and track hours spent on which websites and programs, among other functions.
All these help your staff keep their work-life balance and physical and mental well-being.
Lightening employees’ work burdens leads to productivity
Simplifying your employees’ work improves their efficiency, satisfaction, and chances of staying with your company. So, lighten their workload by applying these and other techniques. Implement any necessary changes in your workflows, accountability systems, and other business aspects.
Observe the results of the adjustments to your staff’s performance and workplace happiness — and your business profits. Then keep improving as needed.
