You want your team to be as productive as possible, and that means reducing waste.
What do we waste a lot of? Time. Most organizations lose time to everything from inefficient
meetings to outdated processes. But if you know how to wisely allocate your team鈥檚
time, you鈥檒l be better prepared to meet deadlines, increase productivity, and attract
top employees. Let鈥檚 take a closer look at how time management drives business process improvement.
First, Talk to Employees
If you want to improve efficiency in your company, start by talking to your employees. 鈥淚t's always an employee-driven process, because who knows the process better than the employees?鈥 said Ian Briggs, an instructor and curriculum developer for the USF Center for Corporate Training and Professional Development, including the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Program.
Some employees will jump at the chance to reform time-sucking processes. Others may balk at change. (鈥淏ut we鈥檝e always done it this way!鈥) Try to convince all team members that improved processes will make their lives easier.
鈥淚f you want the business to continually improve, you must have buy-in at all levels of the organization,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淵ou can only do it through the people believing that it's to their benefit.鈥
If an employee continues to be reluctant, invest them in the change: Tell them how
much you value their experience and skills, and reward them for their help with 鈥渁nything
from a Starbucks card to a promotion.鈥
Look at the Usual Suspect: Meetings
Every organization will have unique challenges, which is why your team鈥檚 input is so valuable. But let鈥檚 zero in on a huge time vortex for most companies: Meetings. If time is money, even one or two inefficient meetings can be costly. 鈥淔rom a financial perspective, let's just say you have a couple of directors, a vice president, a few managers in this meeting, you've probably wasted the best part of $10-15,000,鈥 Briggs said.
Follow these tips for greater efficiency:
- Remember, short meetings are OK. "Everyone seems to stick to this idea that a meeting is going to be an hour,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淎 meeting can be 15 minutes and be totally far more effective than a meeting that goes for an hour or two hours.鈥 If you finish a meeting early, don鈥檛 try to fill the remaining time: Let your employees tackle important projects or go home.
- Don鈥檛 double-book employees. As unbelievable as it may seem, some people are asked to be in two meetings at once. Obviously, this drains focus and productivity.
- Give employees the time to prepare for meetings. 鈥淟et's just say, for example, you and I will have a meeting, and then prior to that meeting, you have absolutely no idea why I've called you into this meeting,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淏ut because I've provided you with no background, no reading, no understanding what the outcomes are to be, any of those things, you go into that meeting totally unprepared. And then I say to you, 鈥楽o what do you think about this?鈥 and for some reason you're supposed to be able to come up with all these brilliant ideas on the spur of the moment.鈥 This is how many organizations approach meetings. Instead, help employees prepare by giving them the context and intended outcomes. You鈥檒l end up with more accurate information and better ideas.
- Set follow-up goals for the next session and assign tasks. Otherwise, 鈥渢he next meeting is about the last meeting,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淎nd then of
course nothing gets done.鈥
Just Rip Off the Bandage
When companies discover a problem, they often put a temporary fix in place rather than finding a long-term solution, Briggs said. Employee turnover exacerbates the issue. 鈥淚n the course of 10 years, you might have three, or four, or five people even, who are doing that same job, and each of them are putting Band-Aids on to remedy some sort of problem,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淣o one remembers right back to the beginning though, why they did it in the first place.鈥
What happens when you pile on multiple bandages? 鈥淭he whole thing just totally falls off because it's not adhesive anymore,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淭hat's when we get into some critical systemic issues in the business.鈥
Here鈥檚 an example: An organization had slapped so many adhesive bandages onto its hiring form that it became 17 pages long. When potential employees tried to complete it, the behemoth form would crash. The result? The organization 鈥渃ouldn't get good people,鈥 Briggs said, in part because applicants felt the company didn鈥檛 value their time.
How do you avoid this trap?
- Look at your processes and keep them up to date. Organizations are constantly evolving as technology changes. 鈥淲e're living in a different world than we were, let's say, five years ago,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淚f we're still using processes that are five years old and haven't been reviewed, we could be doing ourselves a significant disservice.鈥
- Train employees to recognize Band-Aids and remove them. 鈥淒evelop a culture of continuous improvement,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淵ou really do want a situation where your people are thinking about 鈥榟ow can we make things better for ourselves?鈥 and 鈥榟ow can we make things better for the people who we serve?鈥欌
- Map your current procedures. This can help you find where things slow down.
Offer Flexibility to Employees
Time management isn鈥檛 just about efficiency. It鈥檚 also about flexibility.
Employees want to know you value their time, including their lives outside of the workplace. This is particularly true for younger employees. 鈥淲hat organizations need to do is make sure that they're in tune now with more current generations,鈥 Briggs said. The nine-to-five schedule is no longer in vogue. Instead, it鈥檚 about .
鈥淧eople don't want to put in 60, 70 hours a week, you know, just totally focused on work,鈥 Briggs said. 鈥淧art of that day has to be allowed to be for a work-life balance.鈥
When you show employees you care, they are more engaged, leading to 鈥渓ess turnover,
greater attention, greater productivity,鈥 Briggs said. That鈥檚 good for business.
Keep Improving
Process improvement is never-ending. That鈥檚 why creating a culture of process improvement is key to success. If you鈥檇 like to learn more about how to
increase efficiency at your workplace, consider USF鈥檚 Process Improvement programs.
Remember, we鈥檙e here to answer any of your questions. Contact us through our website, or call us at 813-974-0950. We鈥檙e here to help.