Boost Productivity with Process Improvement
By 629be8dfa21198f120ba6247 · · 5 mins read
The old adage is that “time is money”. I have to commend the person that came up with that gem because he or she wasn’t wrong. For instance, take a look at your staff. You’ve hired them to do a job, and the jobs they do will either bring your business income directly, or indirectly. You pay your staff a salary and in return, they give you an x amount of their time, so when we talk about time equaling money, it should be your job to get the most out of your employees. Unfortunately, processes employed by businesses are hindering productivity, as we’ll see in just a moment.
The Processes that Broke the Camels Back
Depending on the size of your business, you might have a few or thousands of processes, and I think you’ll agree with me that one process normally sparks off another process, which – if not properly managed or automated – can lead to what we here at Momentum like to call “the process domino effect”. Imagine if you could streamline all your business processes so that your company got a lot more bang for its buck from its staff, partners and clients. For instance, let’s say you employ twenty people at your firm. All twenty are working super hard to make your company grow, but they’re at maximum capacity; they simply can’t do any more, no matter how much you squeeze them (and squeezing your staff isn’t healthy for your business or your staff). If you wanted more output, you’d need to hire more staff, right? Wrong! “Hold on a second, didn’t you just tell me to not squeeze my employees?” Yes, yes I did, but (and there’s always a “but”) if you want to gain a higher output from your staff, you need to look at your processes.
Are your processes efficient? Are they cost-effective? What do your staff think of the processes they have to work on? These are questions you need to be able to answer, and especially the last one. If your business processes are burdening your staff, you’ll have an unhappy team on your hands, which isn’t great for productivity. In fact, it’s detrimental.
It’s time to move into the here and now
When our Process Improvement Team starts work on reviewing a company’s processes, we find that a lot of the processes the company is doing can be scrapped if they turn to software. We’re advocates of software automation, but not all of it; only the applications that can massively help you and your staff streamline a lot of the processes you’re all working on. For instance, we’ve empowered quite a few businesses with the way they take on payments from clients. Instead of using spreadsheets, a notepad and pen, we’ve found payment automation systems that have increased the productivity of the payment process by ninety-nine percent! Instead of taking five to ten minutes to process an online payment, we’ve streamlined this so that the company can bring in payments in literally seconds!
And it’s not just payments either. Our Process Improvement Team can tackle any processes that are hindering your business, especially the processes where you think they’re fine and don’t need to be fixed or looked at.
Before I go, I do want you to ask yourself these two questions:
- Are your processes efficient?
- Are they cost-effective?
And finally, I want you to ask your team this vitally important multi-layered question – What do you all think of the processes you have to work on; do you think we can improve any of the processes you’re working on, if so, how?
Remember, you can always drop us a line or send us an email if you’ve got any questions!