How to improve visibility and increase efficiency in your business

3 ways business owners can improve visibility and increase efficiency.

It’s hard keeping track of everything happening in your business. Your brain can only hold so many things at once, and so can your email inbox.

Leaders can’t rely on assumptions, they need real-time information and feedback of how their people and processes are working (or not working). As the old adage goes “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

For many business owners, they don’t have a system of keeping track of all the moving parts of their business. This only adds to their stress and limits the growth of the business. But when leaders have systems that give them visibility, they can:

• quickly identify any bottlenecks,
• assign tasks, and
• better direct resources where needed.

…All the things needed to run an efficient, no-headache business.

When we talk about having visibility, we’re talking about having the right tools to quickly digest information and ensure that processes are being carried out in line with the business objectives.

Here are 3 ways business owners can improve visibility and increase efficiency using technology and automation.

1. Make processes clear and actionable

Clear and defined processes ensure that everyone in your team knows exactly how work can and should get done. It eliminates confusion and saves time doing re-work.

Designing processes can be challenging when you’re focused on the day-to-day operations. At Converge, we help businesses design effective processes that are visible to both employees and management. This removes confusion, and increase productivity because everyone has a clear plan of how work gets done.

 

2. Assign tasks and define deadlines

Without organising how work gets done in a business, its productivity is greatly limited. We know that ‘many hands make light work’, but assigning work and getting feedback can be difficult when you’re relying on email or spreadsheets.

At Converge, we help businesses set up digital management and productivity tools (such as Pipefy, Microsoft Power Apps and Monday.com) that make it easy to assign tasks and measure progress across multiple teams and departments – all in one place.

When team members can see what their priorities are the priorities of others, they are more focused and efficient – which saves them time and allows them to be more collaborative and creative with others.

 

3. Capture and review performance data

To provide employees with ongoing, constructive feedback on how they’re doing and how they can improve, leaders need ongoing visibility of their performance.

Performance management is a continuous effort, and so businesses need to collect data now and into the future to measure progress. Leaders need data to ask the important questions and make changes, such as:

• Are there positive or negative patterns/trends in this process?
• How long does this task stay in each phase?
• How long is our sales cycle and are customers getting bogged down at one step?

Timely reporting is just as important as data. Businesses need ‘digital dashboards’ to access key information quickly. This is something we help businesses set up at Converge.

With real-time reporting, information can be customised or layered for different roles and purposes. For example: Senior managers/directors have a ‘birds eye’ of the business, while direct managers are seeing all of the different tasks and processes within each project or team. Likewise with sales, a business owners can quickly know how many leads are coming in and sales are being generated, without seeing all the micro details.

Increase your operational visibility to drive efficiency with Converge

At Converge, we help businesses set up workflow management systems that bring everything into one place, including projects, jobs, tasks and processes. But we don’t just stop there, we also help businesses automate processes through technology so that they can be more effective and profitable.

Do you need help with your business processes? Ask yourself:

• Are you spending all your time chasing your team up for status requests?
• Does it feel like you don’t know what’s going on in your business?
• So much on your mind, you’re worried about what you’ve forgotten about?
• Are you running your business from your email inbox?
  ↑ All these problems are unnecessary.

When you partner with Converge, you’ll have greater visibility and less frustrations in your business. Talk to us today and get a free assessment of your business. Call us on 07 3709 1356.