Streamlining business processes is a major task you will need to undertake at some point. The pressure you will face at various points will be enough to make you question your entire business ethos, but it is a necessary evil. Working through your business needs in a holistic manner is the way the 21st century organization makes its mark. It isn’t about drawing lines in the sand or mass firings, it is about looking at the company as an entity and understanding how best to trim the fat on each aspect. It can be done in many different ways, so here’s some food for thought.
Consider The Amount Of Waste You Create
Is it enough to fill a quarry every single year? The amount of paper and countless other items, or even the amount of waste that you don’t even see, like the amount of electricity you waste from leaving monitors and computers on when the staff are not even in the building. Thinking about how much waste you create is not just for the benefit of the environment, but for the amount of money you potentially waste. By implementing suitable resources, that don’t sap the energy out of the electricity bill, or waste trees, you will see a drop in outgoings. For example, a company such as Managed Print Services works with businesses to establish their amount of paper output and put in methods to reduce it. This is something that is business common sense. Even the amount of processes involved in your paper trail can be examined and cut down to size. There may be too many unnecessary steps and, upon closer inspection, it may be due to complacency that these processes have not changed.
The Amount Of Trust You Have In Your Employees
Understanding the process of streamlining from the perspective of a boss means having to liaise with each department and get a complete view of the individual processes from each point of view. By putting trust back into your employees and letting them tell you exactly what they can do better (as they know their role better than you ever will), you are saving time and effort and also implementing the holistic approach that is common now. It is an investment in your staff, and putting the trust back into your employees as it shows how much you value them.
Cutting Down On Technical Costs
The benefits of upgrading to the Cloud are numerous, and it is a perfect way to streamline while cutting down on power costs, but there are approaches to ensuring total communication while working away from the office, such as the VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol) systems. These systems are a way to liaise with staff over numerous locations while also reducing carbon footprint. Having staff over many other locations is business sense in the world of startups. And by having staff work remotely on occasion but also utilizing this type of tech, it is a streamlining approach that works very well in maintaining a work/life balance.
Image sources:
Image 1 / Image 2
