HBR.org conducted a survey that found that the best companies are 40% more productive than the rest. They have higher operating margins and faster growth. The reality is that if you’re not predictive, you’re losing money. And if you can meet deadlines or produce the work required to the expected standards or in the right quantity, then you’re going to be falling behind. Never mind being unable to compete with the best of the best.
But what does it mean to be more productive in business? Being more productive is about being able to increase your output without compromising on quality and without increasing effort. More work and less effort is essentially what you’re aiming for.
This post is going to explore factors that are impacting your business’s productivity and holding you back.
Poor Employee Training
One major factor that will massively hinder your business’s productivity is neglecting employee training. If your team is not equipped with the knowledge and skills to perform their job roles, they won’t be able to meet targets, standards, or anything else. Being unable to work properly means you’ll likely be experiencing a high uptick in wasted time and resources and missed deadlines due to your inability to work as required.
By implementing an effective and ongoing training program, you can equip each staff member with the necessary skills and knowledge to work efficiently, leading to a more productive and successful business.
Not Automating or Using Software
Are you still using a notebook or spreadsheets for the majority of your work and records? While there’s nothing wrong with a good spreadsheet, ascertaining tasks or areas of your business requires automation and software that can simplify your records and input so you have a clearer understanding of what is happening and free up your employees to do other valuable tasks.
Let’s take fleet management. It can be pretty time-consuming to keep on top of all aspects of fleet management manually, and if it is not managed correctly, it can be massively inefficient, not to mention unproductive. From time wasted on the roads, higher repair and fueling costs, and delayed shipments or missed schedules can cause a massive headache if not managed properly. Implementing effective fleet management software and practices can help you turn things around and make this aspect of your business one of the most productive and practical aspects.
Multi Tasking
Having your team or, indeed, yourself multitask in a business context will only result in less being done and more being half done or completed to unsatisfactory levels. While it might seem like a good idea to load employees with as many tasks as possible, it will result in them splitting their attention between projects, taking longer than required, and not delivering the best results.
Let’s say you have a one-week deadline for an existing client, but you onboard a new client who wants to see some initial work within the same one-week period. You add your new client to one employee’s workload so as not to disappoint them, but both need the full attention of said employee for the entire week each. What will happen is that one or both tasks are delayed, they’re not completed to the usual high standards, your employee is highly stressed, and you have failed both clients. Avoiding multitasking and overloading projects can bring relief, as it ensures focus and high standards of work.
Toxic Culture
A healthy work culture, where employees feel respected, admired, and trusted, is a key factor in boosting productivity. It’s about creating a team that collaborates with ease and is supported from the top down. Fostering such a culture can inspire you to create a positive environment that enhances productivity.
Employees working in a toxic environment are, on average, 40% less productive than those who work in a healthy workplace. So, if you’re looking to reach your full potential, then looking at
your employee culture is a great place to start.
Poor Management
It all starts at the top. Suppose you don’t have an efficient management structure or, worse, inefficient management who aren’t working to their full potential or able to manage employees or their workload. In that case, this will trickle down until the rot has set in and you have a massive issue.
You need an efficient management team to ensure maximum productivity. This means ensuring they can handle issues within their teams or departments, they’re not micromanaging, they know what they’re doing, and they aren’t contributing to the above toxic workplace culture.
Poor Organization and Communication
You cannot be productive if you aren’t able to efficiently organize your business and improve communication between departments, sales management, and customers or clients.
You need to improve your workflow so that things move through the company with ease and aren’t stuck in bottlenecks because they don’t work as well as they should. Address your workflow. What is causing issues? How can you improve it? What needs to be rectified? If people are unsure of who to talk to, who is in charge, or what the process looks like, then it will massively hinder your productivity.
The same goes for communication, too. You need open and clear communication channels, and the ability to communicate needs directly, both internally and externally, to ensure that everything is understood and there are no crossed wires. The more confused people are about what needs to be done or what happens next, the longer things will take to get completed.
Oftentimes, the most complex aspect of running your business is not the one causing the issues. It’s the foundation. If you don’t have good foundations, or you’re not paying attention to the basics, like employee training and communication, then things will only get more convoluted with time, and your issues will be compounded. Take a step back. Assess how you currently work. Look for issues, roadblocks, and common problems that keep happening, and look at what you can do to improve things and make them geared towards being more productive in business.
