Regardless of the industry in which you have committed a substantial portion of your working life to, businesses everywhere (irrespective of size) are constantly striving to improve and increase the levels of efficiency and productivity.
Continue reading to discover how to increase productivity in all areas of your small business.
Table of Contents
Employee Motivation
Every experienced and professional business owner and manager knows and understands the importance of ensuring their workforce, however large or small, is as happy and consistently motivated as possible. Often when considering smaller businesses, it is likely that your workforce either consists of just yourself or, more likely, is a combination of yourself and a handful of trusted family members or friends who are helping you out.
However, when the day comes that you feel it is time to hire a fresh, external employee for your business needs, motivating and engaging your employee(s) is one of the most critical ways to ensure they are as productive as possible.
Small changes to your small business can make a significant difference to the mental health and wellbeing of your workforce and subsequently improve the speed in which they work and the quality of the work they produce. Employee rewards and incentives are a simple and relatively cost-effective way of making every individual feel valued, respected and, most importantly, motivated. Other ways to motivate your employees include the sharing of positive reviews and feedback, praising achievements, regular one-to-one sessions to discuss how they are feeling and any progression desires and, wherever possible, offering the option of more flexible scheduling.
Stock Optimization and Warehouse Management
However large or small your business, outsourcing the management and running of your plant warehouse operations can be a large contributing factor in the increase of your overall business productivity levels and applying the Lean philosophy is a tried and tested method of improvement.
Whether you are currently experiencing a lower than expected warehouse productivity level, a poorer standard and quality of products, a lapse in the delivery of your stock in a timely fashion or a mismanagement of quantities of different stock items, warehouse management can significantly improve all areas of your company’s production model using the Lean philosophy.
Depending on the company you choose to handle your warehouse productivity management, the practical application of the lean philosophy will understandably vary, however each consultancy business tends to follow a similar, five-step process when applying the lean tools and techniques to a business.
- Understanding the Current State of Your Business
- Identifying all Steps in Your Business that Fail to Add Value
- Determining How to Eliminate Those Steps
- Creating the Future State of Your Business
- Building a Sustainment Plan for Your Improved Business to Move Forward
Create A Positive Working Environment
A positive working environment is the simplest and most effective way of increasing the general productivity levels of your business and is by no means confined to employee motivation.
The importance of creating a positive working environment can never be underestimated and will result in a host of benefits to your business, your workforce and yourself. Clear, regular and entirely open communication is one of the stand-out characteristics and such communication should be instilled not only from manager to employee but also between colleagues and co-workers, especially in smaller, more intimate environments.
Providing regular and genuine opportunities for progression and growth is vital, as it instills in each individual the ambition and desire to progress, naturally increasing their motivation to be as productive and as useful to you and your business as possible. Ensure you, as the manager, always strive to leave your problems at the proverbial door and try to maintain a balanced, professional yet friendly and genuine managerial approach to the working day.
Other ways to encourage a positive working environment include showing appreciation where applicable, organizing team bonding exercises and nights out and showing compassion and empathy to an individual’s issues and problems, however trivial you may secretly view them.
Delegation
Delegation is by no means merely confined to dividing unwanted and unappealing tasks you have to unsuspecting employees. The importance of delegation within business is often disregarded, almost always to the detriment of the company.
Delegation is essentially the act of nominating a capable and willing colleague or employee to complete a task in a timely fashion and to the best of their ability, whilst still retaining the overall responsibility and the proverbial ‘buck’ must always stop with the person who has decided to delegate the task; you.
Intelligent and considered delegation will lead to a heightened level of efficiency, the ability for you to spend much-needed time on more complicated and delicate tasks, the professional development of individual employees, much-needed and valued empowerment of the individual and the building of trust and communication between you and your workforce.
