One of the benefits of hiring an IT consultant is the extra pair of objective, outside eyes to improve business performance. Besides systems improvement, software engineering and process management expertise, a professional consultant can help train managers to deploy efficiency directives and implement them in a gradual, as well as effective way.
Let’s explore some ways of improving business performance.
Finding Bottlenecks
Look at the most important or most time-consuming processes you endure and eliminate the bottlenecks. Meetings should have clear objectives and pre-determined end times.
When possible, reduce the amount of people needed for decision making and keep communication direct. Often, an investment in software can save tedious hours of paid labor.
This is just one of the benefits of having an IT consultant on your team. Reducing tedious tasks can empower employees to focus on more creative tasks.
Improve Communication
Did you ever imagine that you could save more time by writing shorter emails?
By keeping emails shorter, readers and writers benefit from concise, clear communication. With the amount of time that employees spend reading and checking email, a few improvements in communication can make a huge difference.
You shouldn’t feel compulsively responsible for checking email at every moment. Let your co-workers and employees know that sometimes email may not the best way to discuss details and emergencies should be communicated over the phone or in person.
Prioritize Wellness
Employee energy is a huge factor in productivity and wellness programs can educate, as well as inspire. Application of wellness incentives can help employees form accountability partners for exercise, which increases energy, improves sleep and reduces stress.
Offering healthy foods and encouraging employees to learn about nutrition can improve overall health, which means fewer sick days. Discourage employees from skipping lunch to work. This is important for physical and social reasons.
Systemize Productivity
Productivity habits can be hard to maintain but software improvements and process changes can be implemented gradually until they are normalized as everyday business.
Wellness programs can be scheduled annually or quarterly. Consider making a yearly 5k run where employees can raise money for charity.
Make productivity a normal part of conversations and compound small changes for large improvements in efficiency.
Use Intrinsic Motivation
For training pet animals, simple rewards or conditioning can train them to perform certain behaviors (Not saying that your employees are pets). Unfortunately, this “carrot and stick” mentality is carried over into ineffective management styles.
Employees are interested in a positive company culture, autonomy and the ability to make choices, genuine relationships with co-workers, including clients and an intrinsic meaning to the work they complete.
Each individual has different dreams and ambitions. Connecting on a human level can drastically improve the intrinsic motivation that still continues even after the manager isn’t looking.
Respect Rest
Rest is one of the most regenerative abilities that any human has but it’s usually the first to be sacrificed for the torch of “productivity”.
Similar to muscle groups that need rest after strenuous exercise, intense periods of concentration and focus need to be unwound with frequent breaks.
Instead of nine hours of distracted work, consider longer breaks and more concentrated bursts of effort.
Also, drink coffee wisely! Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that can disrupt nightly sleep schedules, increase stress hormones and develop into a strong physical dependency.
Track KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
Finally, KPIs should be part of your business plan. Create annual and quarterly objectives. Break them into monthly, weekly and daily milestones.
Tracking progress is easier than ever with cloud storage and online collaboration tools. Analyze data to find focus areas for on-going, measurable improvement to tie in with the ideas we’ve listed above!
I love how concise these tips are. Eliminating bottlenecks sound like it would be really helpful. I’ve heard that it can take a couple trial and error to find out what works best for your business. I assume that process could probably be sped up by getting an outside opinion.