AAC Blog

Effective time management can increase productivity and maximise profitability. Neglecting to evaluate your brand's performance, regularly analysing team efficiencies and unearthing inefficiencies can cost a business its reputation, potentially compromising revenue. Every cog of your business's operational machine demands focussed attention. 

At different points of the productivity cycle, employees and the processes they work with may struggle or falter. Without attention, fundamental cracks can begin to form in the working culture, irreparably weakening the brand. Before the point of no return is reached there are early indicators that can alert you if your workforce's productivity is being compromised. Taking note of these subtle signs can help you to address reduced productivity and motivation in the workplace. These indicators are often glaringly obvious but too easily ignored.

Staff morale can be a fundamental measure of success or failure within a brand. The team behind your product or service must be committed to excellence to deliver outstanding results. If morale is low, production costs will rise exponentially as time management is compromised and the general worker's attitudes become negative. Staff who are frustrated put your business at risk through their insubordination, with the team refusing to invest in and take ownership of the brand. As a result of this internal disconnect, unnecessary paperwork will proliferate, alongside neglected deadlines and increased customer complaints. These staged crises are potentially a precursor to disaster. If one or more of these things are happening to your brand with some regularity, then its time to review how your brand is working from the inside out. A process review is the first step.

Conducting a process review

A process review aims to achieve improvements in the production cycle. Improving productivity, promoting efficient and effective practises and minimising time wasted on unnecessary work, process reviews should highlight positive results in your company's workflow. Each stage of the workflow should feel integral to the final product; Ensure that each member of your team understands the critical importance of each stage of the operation to the whole. If there are weaknesses in specific steps, this could be addressed as a managerial issue. Have the processes been explained in enough detail for employees to appreciate them in full? If not, time-consuming steps driving no significant results throughout the production cycle may be convoluting productivity. Cut these out from your workflow to eradicate wasteful practise; Lazy production processes cost brands time and resources and staff can feel they are stagnating as a consequence. Your product or service will appear dated or irrelevant.

Good feedback is the key to improvement

Encouraging feedback from customers facilitates engagement and brand identification. Welcoming feedback from employees improves productivity. Motivating your employees to evaluate their own performance and valuing their thoughts on the company's strengths and weaknesses validates their opinions and improves relationships between employees and managers. The cost to your company of not requesting feedback could be catastrophic. There are so many ways to obtain feedback, anonymously or in person. 

Scrutinise and streamline your workflow operations

The cost of disorganised databases and late paperwork can, in time, negatively impact a company. Clunky spreadsheets and dated software will adversely affect the functionality of your brand. Both colleagues and clients will judge your product or service quality based on how modern and efficient your workflow systems operate. Free up time and stress by automating your professional platforms. Enabling businesses to track and analyse customer interactions, HubSpot's free customer relationship management software administers and oversees customer interactions. It typically uses data analysis to study large amounts of information, streamlining your database. CRM systems ensures that every step of the interaction with consumers goes smoothly and efficiently to help maximise overall profits. This is an excellent and straightforward strategy for maximising productivity.

Suppose your operation regularly manages time-consuming quotes, contracts, a busy social media schedule, and invoice; In this case, marketing automation tools could help reduce the human resources required to action important, algorithm programmed tasks, making them hassle-free. Marketing automation enables you to spend more time focusing on creative solutions whilst these routine tasks take place effortlessly and in the background.

It's important to ensure that whichever software systems you decide to use work in collaboration with one another. CRM software solutions and enterprise cloud computing should be compatible with your android, analogue or Apple operating systems. Before you invest in your chosen integrated systems, ensure their scale, functionality and technology suits your brand and working culture. Most software offers a trial period. Take advantage of this. The lived experience counts for so much. Avoid complex navigation issues by encouraging members of your team to honestly feed back their thoughts on each trialled software system.

Use a cloud-based system

First launched two decades ago, cloud-based systems are the industry standard in advanced, cost and resource-efficient technology. Designed to manage big data storage safely, Cloud-based clients experience up to 53% faster revenue growth than their competitors. A number one choice amongst global companies, the extremely tight security measures cloud systems use to protect their customers allows for safe sharing of information, assured quality control and loss prevention.

Cloud-based systems help to make your company more sustainable. Unprotected and inaccessible physical documents causing unnecessary waste are replaced. Live access with shareable features such as design, live design features, and download options mean that cloud users enjoy up to 53% faster revenue growth than their competitors, dramatically increasing their overall profit margins.

Cloud systems such as The Cloud and Google Drive are free, easy to set up and user friendly.

Let each department do what they do best

Many companies make the mistake of encouraging team members to take responsibility for multiple job roles. Although this might feel economical, in truth, this compromises your employees focus, speciality skills and motivation. Expecting too much from your employees can leave them feeling overwhelmed and under-appreciated. Let each department team do their job in the way they know best. Outsourcing time-consuming tasks to project managers will allow your team to do what they do best, running your brand successfully and efficiently. An example of this is to hire an automated customer service phone system to redirect internal calls to the relevant team member. This allows the team to work uninterrupted on creative projects. Employees then feel valued for their time spent doing what they love best, removing the menial tasks that convolute the working day's productivity.