Business is a constant flow of work. You are constantly answering calls, responding to emails, taking meetings, researching, signing documents, paperwork, and more paperwork. As your business or responsibilities grow, getting through the day can become tenuous. As the tasks accumulate, you may find yourself trying to make sense of the chaos.
Even those who thrive in chaos understand that it can be unproductive and inefficient. You may find yourself rushing decisions, missing targets, skipping tasks, or being unable to give your full attention to anything in front of you. To manage the chaos, you need an efficient workflow.
A workflow is a breakdown of your business processes. You can break every operation like manufacturing, customer acquisition, finance, or sales into a step-by-step process. Once you break down the processes, you can lay them down into a visual chart to see bottlenecks and any tasks that need improvement.
Workflow is a direct reflection of a business’s profitability. If the workflow is inefficient, profits will hurt. There are ways to improve workflow that can help increase efficiency, boost productivity, and grow profitability. Here are some ways to transform your workflow to generate more profit.
Get Organized
A disorganized process will waste time and money. Think about how much time you waste looking for something, waiting for unscheduled meetings, or sitting at your desk being overwhelmed by the number of tasks piling up. If you get organized, you will have a less stressful environment, have everything you need within reach, and complete tasks quickly.
Managing a team isn’t easy; team members have various tasks, skill levels, communication channels, and sometimes locations trying to move towards a singular goal. Fortunately, technology has improved collaboration. Team members can access their work, communicate, and plan a project using collaborative project management software.
Using project management software, you can monitor processes, keep everyone updated, and increase efficiency. Several tools are available that utilize methodologies known to help certain types of business, such as agile methodology or Gantt charts.
Assign Specific Roles
An efficient and effective workflow requires each employee to know and understand their role. You are responsible for handing out tasks, so it’s essential that you communicate expectations to the team. When everybody is sure of their role, you reduce the chances of confusion or anyone stepping on the toes of others.
Be sure there is accountability in place for the tasks that need completion. Even if multiple people are involved in completing a task, assign the responsibility to one person to ensure follow-up and execution. Be sure all team members understand their role and responsibility as misunderstandings can damage workflows.
Allocate Resources Properly
Many workflow processes involve complex resources with a lot of moving parts. One of the resources is money; money starts and drives projects, so if your budgeting is off, it will compromise your workflow. You need to have access to adequate funds promptly to get things moving.
You will also need the right balance of quantity and quality in skilled labor. Along with skills, you will need to ensure that there is sufficient equipment. The skills need to match the tools to get the job done. Compromising on either will result in delays and mistakes on any tasks or project.
Map out resource allocations for optimal productivity. Be sure to consider the cost and timelines for utilizing specific resources. In some cases spending more to use a particular resource may actually make you more money if it boosts your productivity.
Reduce Waste
As you audit your workflow, you may come across instances of waste. Waste can be in the form of time, resources, or skills. Waste is a drain on your finances.
Once you see where the money is going and how much you are making, you can reduce waste. You can cut out all unnecessary costs by creating a detailed financial report of your processes. You can also reduce waste by simplifying processes and making them as straightforward as possible.
Eliminate Distractions
Distractions to employee performance and process workflow can take many forms. It can be the constant barrage of emails, a colleague popping in for a chat, that addictive mobile app you can’t put down, background noise, or the kids running around while working from home.
Eliminating distractions may entail training your team to stay focused or organize their days for optimal focus. You can separate emails according to the urgency to respond appropriately, close your office door, switch off your phone, use noise-cancelling headphones, or set work hours that everyone at home has to respect. Once you minimize distractions, you can fully concentrate on the work in front of you.
Automating processes will help keep things consistent and reduce the time people waste on non-essential tasks. Automation uses robot software to complete simple tasks; that way, your staff can focus on more strategic and creative tasks. Automation also helps you keep track of progress and extract information from data pools.
Go with the Flow
Get more done in the same amount of time using a workflow. You will always have 24 hours in a day, so rather than working longer, you can work more efficiently. Avoid project delays, stress, and an unmotivated staff by introducing a workflow that improves the work environment.
