8 Ways to Improve Your Company’s Efficiency

It’s safe to say that every company out there wants to run their offices as efficiently as possible. That is, the idea is to offer the most and best products and services at the lowest cost. One mistake commonly made by administrators is to confuse quality with quantity.

Whether you’ve been faced with the task of improving a company’s overall efficiency, or if you just want to see where you can improve, the following tips will surely help. Here are several ways to streamline any company’s efficiency while improving quality.

If your company has implemented an “open door policy,” you’re already pointed in the right direction. This is a great start, but think about taking it a step further. Too often, “open door policies” end up being hollow, rarely-used entries in employee handbooks. These are typically skimmed at best on the first day on the job. Create a culture of true open communication, and productivity will improve as a result of a more positive office morale.

Encourage communication, collaboration, and feedback between departments, as well as between management and staff. This will liven up the stream of ideas, resulting in a more productive team overall.

Smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices are an exceptionally effective step toward enhancing productivity. Provide sales staff with smartphones to help them keep in touch with the office via phone and emails while out on sales calls. Tablets give them the ability to create and modify presentations on the go, and there are countless apps available on both these devices that are designed to improve productivity by helping to combine and prioritize tasks.

When you implement a smart mobile device management system, you will put your company on the fast track toward more effective procedures. This will (in turn) bring a better-quality experience for clients and employees alike, resulting in a stronger bottom line.

Your employees have opinions. Encourage the entire company to embrace feedback, both positive and negative by creating an outlet for it. It’s a good idea to designate a general hub in the building for staff to communicate and make suggestions about the company. Many choose to do this through a specific website centered around human resource issues, serving as a one-stop-shop for work-related issues and updates.

For startup companies and small businesses, a more personal — and affordable — approach to this is to hold weekly or monthly meetings to share ideas. You could also use a bulletin board in a central part of the office as a place to share ideas.

Take a look around your main office space. Are your employees typing on 10-year-old monitors connected to antiquated computers? It will undoubtedly seem like a major cost at first glance, but updating employee computers and software periodically is an absolute must. Considering the most basic factor of productivity is speed, equipping office computers with the most efficiently run software and hardware should be the first thing you improve.

You may be able to get by with a simple hard drive upgrade or RAM boost, but those computers will need regular maintenance, and some in-depth attention every few years. If it has been more than six, it’s time to upgrade the system entirely.

Have you analyzed employee workspaces for ergonomic standards? It will certainly be in your best interests to brush up on ergonomic standards, and to educate staff on the basics. Bring in a professional and hold a seminar to fill them in on standards. If that’s not in the budget, educate yourself on the key points, and make sure the lifeblood of your company are taken care of in this aspect.

Supply staff with office equipment that comply with these standards, such as chairs, foot rests, and keyboards. Don’t look at this as an expense; rather, it’s an investment that will likely yield profitable returns through enhanced employee productivity and lowered worker’s compensation claims.

Social media is proving to be one of the most viable marketing tools available these days. It’s most certainly a hot topic, and one that isn’t to be ignored. Utilizing these platforms to promote your business is extremely important, but really shouldn’t be a major time concern. A few hours spread out each week ought to be enough to adequately keep up social media accounts for the average company.

Do yourself a favor and urge your social media coordinator to utilize streamlining apps like HootSuite, Sprout Social and MarketMeSuite. These programs combine social network accounts onto one convenient dashboard, making it easier to control and post to each in a timely manner.

Take a poll of your current employees to gauge their overall efficiency. Have direct supervisors spend an hour or so with each department to determine how each team handles individual tasks. Then meet with these supervisors to compare notes, and discuss whether there is a faster, more efficient way of doing things.

This activity will be greatly enhanced by the increased communication practices mentioned earlier. When everyone collaborates like this, more work gets done. As an added bonus, there is a bigger sense of ownership when employees are able to take part in modifying procedures.

Once all of these tweaks and changes are made, it’s time to set some realistic goals. Set over-arching, broad goals for the entire company, and then work with department heads to decide which goals to set for each department, and finally, for each employee.

Setting realistic, tangible goals this way will provide much-needed motivation. To bring this whole process full circle, once these goals are met, plan a company-wide activity such as a potluck, where everyone can relax and enjoy each other’s company, while celebrating their success.

The task of improving a company’s efficiency can certainly be a daunting one. Don’t be intimidated by the enormity of the situation. Rather, consider this a chance to make your company one that anyone would want to work for, and make it more efficient at the same time.

Are you efficient, effective, or efficiently effective? Effective is Not the Same as Efficient

Featured photo credit: andrewbasterfieldvia Flickr

I am a graduate from San Diego State University, with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Public Relations. I am currently working with a computer firm in Houston, Texas. In my free time he enjoys freelance writing about technology products, as well as Scuba Diving, White Water Rafting, and taking Road Trips.

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31 Simple Ways to Maximize Efficiency in Your Home Office

Your home office can be many things: a place to work without interruption; a way to get a bit of a break on your taxes, or perhaps your home office is the source of your livelihood. With so many uses and definitions of home offices, it’s impossible to know just how many are out there in the world, but there are some universal truths about working at home.

One major problem is the amount of time we tend to waste in a home office.

There are many reasons why time seems to slip by unnoticed in a home office, and it’s not usually because we’re so focused and working so hard. In fact, even with our annual pledge around this time of year to be more productive and get more done, work efficiency still lags behind its potential. Admit it—you could be doing so much more in your office to be productive on a given day.

It’s a New Year, and you’re likely already making some resolutions for 2013. Why not make the bulk of your promises to yourself something that will help you in the long run? After all, boosted productivity in that home office usually means two things: higher earnings, and more time away from the office. How much time are you wasting getting ready to work? Or “catching up” on other things before you really get busy? Wouldn’t you rather be making a profit or using that extra time to do something fun and rewarding outside of your career? It’s amazing how much is possible when you simply maximize efficiency in your home office.

1. Claim a Space: If you haven’t done so already, your first step to a productive home office is to actually get an office. You need to have a spot in your home that is yours alone and ready for work anytime that you are. This shouldn’t be your family computer room or a laptop that usually lives by the couch. Carve out space for a small desk—you can even convert a closet into a clever office if you have a bit of experience with hand tools.

2. Clean Out Distractions: Once you have your office established, get rid of anything that might be distracting or negative in the space. Keeping your treadmill by the desk, for example, might drive you crazy thinking about working out—and how you should do more of it—instead of working. The same can be said for televisions or other household items that may prove to be distracting.

3. Personalize Your Space: Since this is your desk or work area, it should be personalized so that you feel comfortable in the space. Your home office may need more than just a desk and chair: for instance, if you spend time reading manuscripts or long documents, consider an armchair in the corner with a good lamp. A large table may be necessary as well if you often spread papers out or hold client meetings at home. Once you have your space set up to your liking, you’ll be able to move more quickly though the space and put it all to use.

4. Establish Work Hours: To truly maximize your work hours, you should have set working hours. You might work a “typical” schedule of 8 to 5, or perhaps you’d rather shorten your hours since you’re being so efficient and work only 9 to 3 every day. Unless you have a parent company dictating your availability, you get to set whatever sort of hours you’d like.

5. Maintain Your Hours: It’s not enough to have your hours; you have to maintain them as well. Be sure to be in your chair, working, at 8 in the morning and call it a day around 5 if that is your set time. You may realize you can adjust your hours later to be more efficient for you, but don’t make it a habit of stretching out your hours—it just invites wasted time.

6. Separate Work and Home Computers: Not only is this required if your want to claim a home office deduction on your tax return, but you should keep work and play areas separate anyhow. Buy an inexpensive laptop for your family to use as the household computer, and keep your work computer off-limits. Not only does this protect confidentiality, but it also allows you to work and focus without interruptions.

7. Test Different Time Frames: If you’re working on maximizing efficiency, and you’re not bound to a particular work schedule, consider using different time frames to see when you feel most productive. You may find that the early morning is more productive; starting work at 4 or 5 am, for example, and finishing up by noon. Alternately, you may prefer a night schedule away from the distractions of the day.

8. Check Email Three Times: Email is one of the greatest time-sucks in business. To minimize this distraction, simply close your email program. Don’t even open it (unless your boss has said otherwise, of course.) Work with your email closed and check it only three times a day: about an hour after you’ve started work for the day, just after lunch, and before you close up shop for the day.

9. Install Blocking Software: There are programs that help you stay on track while you’re working. If you have a habit of wandering off to check out the news or you feel compelled to just peek in on a favorite forum during work time, downloading a program that will block those sites that waste the most time can be a huge advantage.

10. Use Online Timers: Another great feature online is the digital timer that’s available for your computer. Set a timer like CookTimer or FocusBooster, and then you can get working without  also trying to keep an eye on the clock. Allow yourself an hour on a particular project and break things up with your timer, or set the timer to alert you to other obligations like picking up the kids from school, so that you have minimal distractions.

11. Plan for the Long Term: Rather than getting organized for the day and working just on your list of things for a few hours, plan over the long-term so that you can see how big projects need to be broken up and when other obligations may interfere with your regular work hours. Knowing in advance means you have more time to plan around distractions.

12. Use Online Calendars: Make a special calendar in Outlook or use a specific Google Calendar to keep track of all your regular work in your home office. This may also be synced with your regular office computer and various personal devices to keep you up to date on meetings, phone calls, projects and any number of items. The more you record in your calendar, the more prepared you are every day to simply check things off a list.

13. Work Small, Big, Small: When you sit down to work every day, set yourself up in a particular pattern that is different from your typical routine. Start with a small project—other than checking email—and then after the small task is complete, move into your biggest task of the day. Once that one is finished for the day, cool down again with a few small tasks to wind the day down.

14. Leave Work Ready for Tomorrow: Make it a point to never leave the office without being prepared for the next time you sit down to work. This may be as blatant as opening up the document you’ll need first thing in the morning, or as subtle as making a quick to-do list in Outlook or Notepad and leaving that on the screen. A small paper notebook can serve the same purpose. Having work ready when you sit down means you get started faster and have fewer distractions.

15. Utilize To-Do Lists: As mentioned above, a daily to-do list can be a huge time-saver. While you’re working on Monday, jot down the various things you need to do on Tuesday as they come to mind. Often, your working mind will have these things ready and sorted out, whereas coming in cold on Tuesday would mean warming up and thinking of them in the moment. Using a to-do list from the previous day—or even the previous hour—means jumping into tasks and skipping the mental memory workout.

SEE ALSO: The 5 Fundamental Rules Of Working From Home

16. Unplug Your House Phone: If you still have one, unplug your house phone during the day. If you have children or others who may call with an emergency, turn the ringer down and leave caller ID visible. This is true of your cell phone as well; when a call comes in, glance at the caller ID to determine if it’s important. If it’s not crucial, let it go to voicemail—you can deal with it later.

17. Take Breaks: Generally, we are most productive for about an hour at a time. Break your work up into hour long blocks if you can, or at the very least use a timer to let you know when you’ve worked an hour. Once you get to that hour mark, hop up, fix yourself a drink, do some stretches and get the blood moving again. Take just a few minutes to move around, and then sit down and get back to work again. Long breaks tend to cause a loss of focus.

18. Limit Work Hours: If you’re used to working an eight-hour day, you may find that working at home, without the distractions of the office, is much less time-consuming. Try shortening your day first to seven hours, and then six. You may realize that you can get the same amount of work done in four hours once you buckle down and focus.

19. Reward Yourself: Rewards are highly motivating, even when we’re just rewarding ourselves. Set up a system where you get to have a longer break during your day for the sort of things you generally enjoy wasting time with. For example, you might take the fifteen minutes after lunch to surf the net and read the news, or take fifteen minutes after you’ve done four hours of work that morning. Knowing that you’re working up to a fun break will keep your energy up.

20. Keep a Household To-Do List:You’re probably already keeping a work to-do list, or you should be, but it’s also important to start another to-do list on your desk, even if it’s just on a sticky note or in a small notebook. The point of this to-do list is to take all the stuff that jumps in your head out of your mind so that you can focus. For example, if you find yourself thinking about making cupcakes later for your child’s class, simply jot down “make cupcakes” and you don’t have to think about it anymore—more brain power for work!

21. Make a Work Playlist: Music can do a lot to motivate you while you’re working. If you have songs that pep you up and get you motivated, make your own playlist. The trick here is to make a playlist that is upbeat and invigorating, but not distracting. If you don’t have your own music to use, try making different channels on Pandora to find the perfect blend of classic rock, smooth jazz or instrumental tunes.

22. Establish a Routine: Within every day, every week and every month you should have a routine. When you have an established routine, you instinctively know what comes next and you’ll be able to transition from task to task easily. For example, you may do bookkeeping tasks on the first Monday of every month, or you might make it a point to update your blog every Tuesday and Thursday morning before checking email.

23. Publicize Your Work Hours: If you work with others routinely, you can cut down on off-hour interruptions and missed opportunities by posting your work hours online. If you use Skype, or another instant messenger, for example, you can set up an outgoing message stating your work hours for others to see. You can also set up an auto-responder to your emails so that clients know you will respond without twenty-four hours or during your scheduled work time.

24. Hire a Virtual Assistant: When you find yourself bogged down in tasks that simply don’t require that much time or effort, consider hiring a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is the modern equivalent to the secretary of the “olden days”, but much better because he or she is online with you. Outsource some things to your VA as you build up trust in them, and you’ll cut down on busy work dramatically.

25. Cut Extraneous Projects: There are many things that small-business owners think of that wind up being time-wasters rather than money-makers. It may be that boosting your efficiency is as easy as cutting out non-profitable portions of your business: streamline your profitable business elements from home, and you can focus on those and eliminate the things causing wasted time and resources.

26. Work Unconventional Hours: If you find that conventional daytime hours are too full of family, doorbells, phone calls and the other mess that are all part of what we call life, consider working unconventional hours instead. This is even easier if you normally work less than forty hours per week—simply shift your hours to the early morning or the late evenings to avoid extra hassles.

27. Consider Childcare: If you’ve been trying to work with children at home, the best home office isn’t going to insulate you from most of your distractions. Consider some form of childcare for a quiet home office, or simply dodge around the distractions by working while your child is asleep or at school.

28. Organize Contacts: If you haven’t already, invest in a good smartphone as your business phone, and then use that phone to store every single number that comes through your business. With all of your numbers carefully stored with names, companies and notes in your contacts, you can make calls effortlessly at any time.

29. Organize Your Computer Files: Searching for documents is not a good use of time or effort. Block off an afternoon on your calendar and just clean off your desktop and sort through your files. Once you have everything clean and organized, back them all up, or consider storing files in a password-protected cloud application so that they are safe and available at any time.

30. Keep Paperwork Clean: No matter how much of your business you do online, there will still be physical paperwork to handle. Make a special drawer of files for business paperwork and stay organized. File papers immediately to store them or place action-items in a special tray to be included in your work day. Shuffling through papers can be a huge distractions, so handle paperwork only once or twice during your work day.

31. Include Weekly Clean-Up Efforts: Finally, once you have things down to a system of schedules and minimum distractions, keep up your organization efforts by leaving time in your schedule to organize your home office and files. Every Friday, for example, before you shut down the computer for the weekend, consider taking fifteen minutes to organize your newest files on the computer, to take out the trash and to run the vacuum cleaner so that everything is fresh and ready when you come back on Monday.

Often what works for one home office is useless in another. The best way to find what is most efficient and works best in your home office space is to simply try different patterns and routines until you find what makes you feel like you’re working at your very best. You should leave your home office at the end of your busy day feeling accomplished and ready to relax and enjoy your free time—there is no face time in a home office!

SEE ALSO: How to Work from Home and Stay Ultra-Productive

Featured photo credit: Home Office for Architect via Flickr

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