Business, Management

How to Improve Workflow and Productivity

  • Mark Edwards ·
  • 0 Comments ·
  • May 30, 2019

A lot of modern workplaces are adept at “making work” but falter when it comes to executing that work in a non-disruptive, timely fashion. Sure, you can gather information on a sales lead, or define a branding project, but when it comes time to actually qualify that lead or execute that project, what system do you have in place to maintain workflow and maximize productivity?

Whether you’re a team lead or team member, there are steps you can take to help improve the process. In this post, let’s look at a few ways to improve workflow and productivity, some of which make use of psychological insights, and others that leverage new technology.

Prioritize by Importance & Automate the Process

How you define importance is ultimately up to you (and the particular KPIs you track), but it’s important to prioritize by importance and automate the process. Thankfully, there are some fantastic products out there that make prioritization and workflow automation a breeze.

There are a range of tools that are out there to help you, and if it makes a business process automatic for you, then it can be a pretty big deal to helping productivity. As an example, you could look to get a multi currency card for your team. This means that transactions can be simplified, as well as claiming back expenses, as there will be no need to chase up receipts and check what each individual has spent. When it is all in one place, you’ll be helping a bunch of the team to speed up what they are doing each day, when small tasks like filing expenses are taken out of the equation. So it can be worth looking into what is available for your business, and what processes can be simplified or automated, to take the time that your team spend out of the equation.

In project management, for example, you can use a unified project platform to work on a collaborative, real-time interface, thereby prioritizing new information and project changes – check out Core for a good PM platform. In sales, you can use a sales engagement software with queue-based lead routing to prioritize important leads – just click on the following link and learn to improve your sales process with VanillaSoft software. In human resources, you can use HR software to prioritize which performance reviews are the most pressing – check out BambooHR for their powerful performance management.

Take Breaks

This tip comes courtesy of a number of recent psychological studies, which together conclude that break time – any time, in fact, that the mind can rest from its work tasks – actually boosts overall productivity. Whatever is lost in time is more than made up for in employee focus and quality of work. This Forbes article, for instance, details how regular breaks can contribute to employee morale, sharpened focus, and an overall greater willingness to work hard.

Emphasize Proper Training

Frequently stopping to explain things to other employees or having to correct mistakes that could have been avoided with proper training, impedes workflow and productivity. Proper onboarding, as well as robust training on all new systems, processes, and operations, are small investments in improved workflow and better productivity down the line. Don’t neglect training!

Remove Distractions

The best way to remove distractions is to compartmentalize your work and daily lives, leaving your daily life at the door when you are working. That means shutting off notifications while you’re at your desk and keeping those red number badges on your social media app icons right where they are. It might also help to keep your desk physically organized; keeping a focused, organized workspace has been shown to increase productivity.

Workflow and productivity are integral to a successful business, but they are often improperly managed and inadequately tracked. Using automation software and some basic psychology, however, you can turn your business into a well-oiled machine.

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