Could Your Office Operations Be Hurting Your Productivity?
We have all heard the term "spring cleaning," decluttering your space and freshening things up around the home. Have you ever considered giving the same justice to your work life? Research by a Stanford professor has mentioned this is a great time to “clean up” your work and mind adding that when we feel good at work, we are more productive.
We have found that the best ways to spring clean your work life is by cleaning up digitally- operational organization can help both production and employee development. It is important to take the time at least once a year, if not once a quarter, to check in with your team and your processes to make sure the operational practices you have in place are still working and not weighing you down. Whether it's a hold up on projects to low team morale, don't ignore the problem. Reviewing your processes is something that can benefit your business, and your employees/colleagues will appreciate it.
We have a few ways to "spring clean" your way to productivity. These tips can be used to revamp your current processes and improve efficiency:
- Knock out the big projects
It's never a bad time to review your tasks and prioritize. So many times, we get caught in the rut of everyday life where work tasks begin piling up and overlapping each other. Take time to step back and identify your priorities/"rock" tasks. Rock tasks are the big tasks that are going to take a while to move to completion. Knowing which are going to take more time, you can then come up with a game plan on where to put your efforts. There are many resources out there that can help you and your team organize your projects. One of our favorites is Asana. - Review your operations.
Do you have files sitting on your desktop that have been there for months? Or shared folders within your company that have started to get a little unorganized? During your spring cleaning, try to reorganize your folders: making sure file names are all structured the same, old files are deleted, categorizing folders by department. This simple task will make looking for documents a lot easier and smoother. While you are reviewing your file system, don't forget to review something else that is important: subscriptions. Are there services you are spending money on, but aren't utilizing the product? Perhaps there is a similar service out there that is more cost-effective or would be better for your employees. - Check-in with your team.
Check-in with your colleagues and team. Is everyone on the same page? Are they stuck on a project or feeling overwhelmed? Working together is one of the most significant factors in a company's productivity. Perhaps take this time to plan a team-building exercise -rejuvenating your team and promoting a positive work environment. Studies have shown that when your employees feel valued and have the feeling that they have the support of the company – production increases. Happy and satisfied employee’s productivity goes up by 31% and 37% have higher sales. - One source of truth.
You have tons of corporate data and information you are keeping up with – but how are you organizing it? How is your team sharing it? Is it secure? An important step in spring cleaning is to make sure you are adhering to new practices that allow your team to work effectively and reduce manual errors. Using a software like EntityKeeper will enable you to track and manage all of your entity and corporate data all in one secure platform. EntityKeeper gives your team the resources to build out complex org charts, track filing deadlines, and share entity information across departments.
We hope these tips give you a good head start with your "spring cleaning."
When looking to be more efficient, we can help! Our entity management and org chart builder platform can change the way your team works - allowing you to reduce manual tasks with automation.
If you enjoyed this blog, check out some of our other blogs:
- Top 5 Affordable Tools to Grow Your Business in 2020
- Gain Efficiency by Automating Your Ownership Structure
References:
- https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Employee-Engagement-Commitment.pdf
- https://www.inc.com/samuel-edwards/examining-the-relationship-between-workplace-satisfaction-and-productivity.html
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/05/stanford-happiness-expert-how-to-spring-clean-your-work-life.html
- https://www.it.ucla.edu/security/clear-out-your-cyber-clutter