Your business’s productivity is heavily reliant on your team’s ability to coordinate and get work done. However, there are often a couple of invisible bottlenecks that can drastically reduce their efficiency. In many cases, the design of your office could be the factor that is limiting how effective your team can be. At other times, it could be the software and cloud-based services that you use which are slowing them down.
In this post, we’ll be taking a look at some of the most cost-effective ways to optimise your company’s workflow and get a much larger return on your investment.
Enable remote workflows and support them as best as you can
Many companies have swapped to remote workflows in the wake of COVID-19. Unfortunately, these remote workflows are often put together hastily, meaning they’re still a little disconnected and aren’t as efficient as they could be. Take some time to look at how your staff are doing in regards to their new workflows and ask them how things could be improved.
Perhaps they need a better way to share files and data between their computers, or maybe some of the software they’re using isn’t suitable for the work that they’re doing. You have to lend an ear to your staff and listen to what they have to say if you want to optimise the way they work.
Consider the layout of your company’s office
Office organisation is surprisingly important when it comes to your company’s workflow. One of the best ways to ensure they’re being productive is to build a company that is compact yet still offers a streamlined working experience. For instance, if your staff have to physically meet each other to share designs or collaborate in a meeting, then make sure that the meeting room is accessible to everyone. Ensure that there are no winding corridors and give each member of staff plenty of space on their desk to carry out their duties.
You may want to consider an office refurbishment company like Image Interior Systems to help you redesign your office for productivity. You should also think about the furniture that your staff uses, making sure to upgrade their chairs and desks so that they’re not in pain or feeling sore from working long periods in the office.
Giving your team enough autonomy so that you don’t become the bottleneck
Many offices tend to funnel all of the work to a manager or senior member. This person will check all of the submitted work before it can be passed on to the next team or staff of production. While this can be an effective way to reduce the number of errors, it puts a lot of stress on a single member of staff and bottlenecks your workflow.
In this case, you should consider giving your team more autonomy so they can make their own decisions. You should always have someone looking over their work to ensure they’re working to your standard, but you should give them some control over how they achieve those results so they can work in their own efficient manner.
