Even as the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way businesses operate to a great extent, the world over, improving business efficiency remains a top priority. According to Forbes, improving business efficiency not only boosts profits but also reduces employee stress. A few tactics that can help to boost employee productivity while saving time:

Delegate to the Maximum Possible

It is understandable that as an entrepreneur, you think that you are the best person to handle everything that needs to be done. Instead of trying to do everything and burning yourself out, the best policy is to hire competent individuals for all the critical functions and delegate both responsibility and the necessary authority to enable them to function efficiently. Not only do you get more time to focus on the things you can do to expand your business but also you can relax in the knowledge that vital functions are being handled capably and perhaps better than what you would have been able to do yourself.

Match Functions to Skills, Suggests Eric Dalius

One of the most effective ways of boosting employee efficiency is to give tasks that have the right fit with the employee’s competence and skills. If you are hiring for a fresh position, listing the key result areas and looking for candidates who fit the bill is the way to get things done better. Demanding that your employees be versatile and handle everything thrown at them well is not realistic. You could end up with results that are less than satisfactory. Performing a quick analysis every time you give a new task to someone will usually reveal if the person you are giving the responsibility has the competence to do it well.

Retain Your Focus on Attaining Specific Goals

Employees can only be efficient if they know exactly what they need to achieve. You should ensure when you are assigning tasks to employees that they are as specific as possible, and you and your employees are clear on what it entails, including the time frame. It can also help if you share with the employee how what they are doing has an impact on the organization. A good way of ensuring this is to have SMART goals – i.e., the objective should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely, observes Eric Dalius.

Invest In Training and Development 

You may instinctively tend to think that cutting down on training or eliminating it is a great way of saving on costs and improving profitability. However, the truth is that it can be very inefficient when workers are forced to learn on the job. Instead of forcing employees to learn without guidance, it is far better to invest time and effort to give them proper training that will make them more productive.

Implement Flexible Work Location and Hours

More than ever, after a certain stage in life, employees are concerned about their work-life balance. Giving the opportunity of working remotely, or if that is not possible, the freedom to come to the office at their preferred times can give the business the benefit of maximum productivity and efficiency. Not only will the employees be happier with this convenience, but also they will be able to focus more on their work. Remote working has become more of compulsion in recent times due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic raging throughout the world. While many employers were skeptical about it being effective, the results have been surprising, to say the least, with a large number of organizations reporting an uptick in employee productivity. In the new reality, remote working may well become the norm with significant advantages to both employers and employees.

Make the Work Environment Happier and Less Stressful

It is no secret that happy employees are not only more productive but also more efficient and have a better quality of output. They are more inclined to be focused on their work and not distracted by things like checking out social media or personal emails. While asking employees for their suggestions on improving their workplace comfort is a good idea, special points of focus can be things like comfortable chairs, large enough desk space, less crowding, good lighting, the reduction of noise level, and clutter. Other issues could be too great a distance to access shared printers, copiers, and shredders or even the quality of the coffee. Regulating the temperature better and introducing greenery into the work environment can help a lot to reduce stress. You can even think in terms of installing pods where an employee can de-stress himself by lying down and listening to music.

Conclusion 

When you are trying to boost business efficiency, it can be easy to get bogged down with details and start to micro-manage everything. It can help to think of the big picture and scrutinize all processes and practices before junking any of them. Communicating clearly and adopting automation for repetitive tasks can make your business more efficient.