Getting any sort of project done on time can be stressful, especially when you need to rely on different members of a team working on different tasks. The good news is that there are plenty of easy ways that you can improve office efficiency including introducing things like short breaks, meetings and workflow systems. These sorts of things might actually surprise you with how much they can actually make a difference to the overall output of your office. Here, we are going to discuss how you can improve your office efficiency so make sure to keep reading if you want to help your team.
Take Short Breaks
We’re not saying that you should cut your lunch down to a short break but rather you should take a few more shorter breaks throughout the day. Encourage your team to take five or ten minute breaks every few hours to head to the toilet or get a coffee in order to increase efficiency. You will find that these breaks will take them away from their desk for a few minutes but when they return they will have a clear head and will be able to get back to work and get the job done quicker. Long hours can have a negative effect so taking intermittent breaks can really help.
Reduce Your Meetings
Having meetings is a great way of bringing your team together in order to figure out what needs to be done. The problem is that a lot of meetings happen too often and they run on for way too long. This can then mean that work is not completed on time due to staff members being at meetings rather than working. If you need to have regular meetings, make sure to keep them short and to the point. If there are things that you can say over email – do that. Don’t interrupt workflow in order to have a meeting that didn’t need to happen.
Prioritise Tasks Together
Another way that you can improve office efficiency is by investing in a workflow system like a Kanban system that will let you organise your tasks and keep on top of work. So, what are the benefits of a Kanban system? Well with a system like this, you can assign different tasks to team members and make sure that they are getting done on time. You can also find out where your problems lie, and the team can work together to improve the overall efficiency. Make sure to find out more about what a Kanban system can do for your office.
Ignore Email Notifications
Depending on the type of business that you run, it might actually benefit you from turning off email notifications and other messages that come through during the day. Of course, you will need to respond to the email at some point, but you might find that constant emails might actually be distracting your team from getting their work done. This is easily fixed, as long as you make sure that a certain portion of the day is spent responding to emails and fixing any problems that have arisen. When you allocate a time for this, you’ll find that your office efficiency improves sooner than you’d think.
Encourage Conversation
Although conversation can actually be a distraction in the office, you will find that a little conversation every now and again can actually improve office efficiency. Often when team members are not getting their tasks done on time it is because they are struggling with something. The great thing about conversation is that team members can ask each other for help and might actually solve a problem in a lot less time than they would have by themselves. Encourage your team members to ask for help to ensure that they are staying on top of their work.
Final Thoughts
If you run a business or you lead a team in an office, you’ll want your staff to work as efficiently as possible. Getting work done on time and to a good standard means that you’ll be able to make more profit and in turn have a more successful business. Make sure to follow all of the advice that we have given you in this article if you want to improve your office efficiency. If you need to, consider investing in a workflow system like Kanban in order to prioritise tasks and make sure that your team are working as well as they can.
Don’t ignore the little things that are going on in your business as making these changes can have much more of an effect on your business than you might think. Shorten meetings, introduce breaks and other simple things and soon you’ll have a more efficient workforce and a better output!
