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Many businesses accept inefficiencies as a fact of life - whether they know about them or not. It doesn't have to be that way.
The more you can do to make sure you can continually identify the inefficiencies that have cropped up in your processes, the better off you will be when it comes to addressing them and improving your bottom line overall.
This is especially true for smaller businesses, which tend to operate on thinner margins. A recent Fuji Xerox study of Australian SMEs found that companies instituting even one initiative to address an inefficiency ended up spending 15 per cent less on that area of their business.
When you're looking for inefficiencies in your business, perhaps the best place to start is with any processes you have that need to be carried out manually. For instance, if you are processing paper invoices, the cost associated with doing so may be relatively invisible, but it's there.
Small costs of manual processes quickly add up.
An employee may have to spend time filling out the invoice, and another person might need to manually enter all the information from it into a database or spreadsheet. And if they make any errors, they need to first detect them before they can even go back and fix them. Now consider how many documents need to be processed; it takes a lot of time out of any worker's day that could otherwise be devoted to different work.
The Fuji Xerox survey found that three-quarters of business owners indicated the use of technology was what helped them overcome many inefficiencies. Options may be plentiful to help you iron out these kinks in your own operations, such as automating data entry, collection and organisation for certain business processes. That will often carry some up-front costs, but the long-term ROI may be significant.
If anyone knows how effectively work hours are being utilised, it will be the people who make your company run. An international productivity poll found that more than two in five workers think issues like ineffective operational processes, loads of paperwork and too many meetings were the biggest wastes of their time in a given job.
Your employees are your greatest resource.
One extra meeting or an additional few hours waiting for someone to email back before a process can kick off may not seem like much in the abstract. However, if every one of your employees is losing even a half hour per day to such issues, that's lost time they could be devoting to tasks they other might not handle in a timely manner.
Of course, it's not always easy to get an objective bird's eye view of your own operations, so it might be wise to bring in a Business Advisor. An expert who is well-versed in what makes the best companies so efficient will be able to recommend a number of steps that would help trim some of the fat from your employees' weekly schedules and help get your entire operation back on the right track.
As an executive, you should always strive to get a better handle on your company's processes. Doing so can reduce inefficiency as much as possible, and improve your bottom line as a result. By working with a company like Ulton, you may be able to remove a number of stumbling blocks that are holding your company back from reaching its true potential. Contact us today to learn how we can help you deal with your unique issues.
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