Improving operational efficiency

The efficiency of each employee is directly related to the success and profitability of the company. The better the staff works, the more confident the company feels in the modern, constantly changing market. Efficiency means the ability to perform tasks with minimal expenditure of resources (money, time).

Why employee performance declines

Low staff efficiency can be caused by:

• Excessive demands on employees from the management. Due to the complexity of the tasks set, people have to work “hard”, experiencing constant fatigue. This leads to a decrease in productivity.
• Striving to replace a full-fledged team of specialists with one universal employee. Allocation of one employee leads to a decrease in initiative on the part of the team, reduces interest in the common cause, which negatively affects labor results.
• Lack of contact between management and executives. Both parties should be able to agree on the organization of the work process, develop a common opinion on the implementation of the tasks set for the company.
• Unwillingness of the manager to participate in the work process. His estrangement from his subordinates leads to loss of mutual understanding, reduction of the manager’s influence on the company’s activity.
• Constant staff turnover. Caused by insufficient wages, poor working conditions.

In order for the company’s employees to work efficiently, it is necessary to organize suitable conditions for them. Improving personnel efficiency is not a set of individual measures, but a well-thought-out, competent company policy.

Concept and evaluation of efficiency

Regular monitoring of your staff will help you understand how efficiently your employees are working. Perhaps someone is mismanaging their working time. They may be overloaded or performing other people’s duties.

Each employee’s contribution to the common cause is evaluated separately. How does it happen: through the fulfillment of direct management assignments or interaction with customers? Does he/she perform the assigned tasks independently or does he/she involve other employees? Does he or she meet deadlines or postpone work “to the last minute”? All indicators are monitored and analyzed.

Efficiency should not be confused with effectiveness. It is only one of the parameters included in this concept. It is also considered together with effectiveness:

• Staff Productivity. This is the ability to perform quality work in the shortest possible time. A productive secretary will make the necessary reports not in a week, but in one day.
• Economical use of resources. The ability to achieve goals with minimal consumption of material resources. Example: an office manager undertook the task of organizing a corporate event for employees and performed this work with a minimum budget without involving other assistants. He solved the task and saved the company money.
• Employees are organized. They plan tasks in advance, prioritize and always meet deadlines. You can talk about the organization of a content manager when he or she prepares posts for publication in advance and posts them at the right time.
• Rational Approach. The employee knows how to achieve the set tasks using the best methods and tools. An example of rational resource allocation in an online clothing store: a contextual advertising specialist distributed the advertising budget not for one product, but for all positions in the catalog.
• Functionality. Consistency with the overall goals and objectives of the company. Each employee performs his/her job within the framework of the company’s overall strategy. A store sales consultant does not negotiate with suppliers. His direct responsibility is customer service.

Employee performance is measured in several categories. These include assessment of quality, volume of work performed, cost effectiveness and functional assessment of staff.

Why you should strive to improve efficiency

According to statistical studies, labor productivity, profitability and sales volume in companies with an effective team are 17-20% higher compared to competitors.

Effective employees take responsibility. This contributes to a better result. It is a source of motivation for colleagues. Other team members follow their example and grow professionally. Healthy competition between employees helps to achieve better results.

Effective employees are capable of performing complex tasks. With proper delegation of authority, this allows the management team to be relieved to solve strategic and global tasks in the management of the company.

Efficient staff do more work in a shorter time. He gets better results and teaches this to his colleagues. He is interested in his work. Strives to improve their results. Uses new work organization techniques to achieve goals quickly. Helps his company move forward.

Ways of assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of personnel

Employee evaluations help to determine:

• competence of management personnel;
• amount of work performed by the employee;
• matching the salary level to the effort expended;
• optimal methods of motivation;
• company’s need for an employee;
• need for its further development and training.

The following evaluation methods are used for this purpose:

• Testing. Determines the employee’s professional skills, personal characteristics, and communication skills.
• Attestation. Allows you to assess the employee’s suitability for the position. Clarifies whether he/she has the appropriate knowledge, education, qualifications.
• Targeted management. It is used to evaluate the efficiency of departments. It helps to develop an optimal payment scheme for the company’s employees. It consists in setting clear tasks for the department, discussing deadlines and methods of their fulfillment.
• Performance Management. Evaluates the effectiveness of each employee. The task assigned to the team is divided into small subtasks that are assigned to each team member.

Methods to improve efficiency

Having analyzed the problems in the work of personnel, the manager together with the HR manager chooses ways to improve the efficiency of employees. These include:

1. Optimization of the company’s business processes with the help of automated tools. The use of SMS-notification of goods delivery to the company’s delivery point will save the employee’s time for notifying customers about delivery. The manager will be able to spend his free time on more important tasks.
2. Modernization of management tools. Applying programmatic time management features to remote employees will improve their discipline. It will help to identify factors that reduce productivity.
3. Job descriptions for all members of the work team. Knowing their responsibilities, employees will understand what they are responsible for and what results the company expects from them.
4. Comfortable working conditions. This is not only a stable, high salary and a coffee machine in the office. It is: time for breaks, rest, organization of employees’ leisure time, formation and development of corporate culture within the company, friendly atmosphere in the team.
5. Motivation. This can be money in the form of bonuses or bonuses for quality work. Or career advancement for distinguished specialists. Special privileges in the form of travel reimbursement, a favorable cell phone tariff. Or other ways of gratitude, including awarding honorary titles: “Employee of the Month” or “Best Manager”.
6. Constant communication between management and the team. Joint discussion of tasks, methods of their fulfillment helps to work more efficiently.

Regular monitoring of employee performance helps to identify more effective ways.

Practical recommendations to improve efficiency

The world’s leading companies use the following ways to improve staff performance:

• Team building. Collective events aimed at team building, uniting the team in an informal setting.
• Professional development. Continuous training of employees at courses, participation in seminars and conferences related to the company’s activities contributes to their professional and personal growth. A well-trained team will work much more efficiently than a team with basic skills.
• Healthy competition. By competing with each other in achieving results, employees will strive to improve themselves and look for optimal ways to solve the task at hand.
• Getting rid of demotivators. You should not keep in the company people who are dissatisfied with the working environment, critics, scandalizers and other employees who demoralize the environment within the team.

Strict team discipline can help improve efficiency. It is scientifically proven that employees devote most of their time at work to their personal affairs. And only 30-40% of their time during the day is spent on their direct duties. In order to demand a specific result from subordinates, it is necessary to develop a strict daily schedule, with mandatory fulfillment for all employees. Regulate the time of work and rest. The main thing is not to go overboard. There must be a corresponding motivation for the fulfillment of rigid rules.

How to increase the efficiency of remote employees

While there are usually no serious problems with controlling workers in offices or at the enterprise, the development of remote work has raised new questions for company management. How can the efficiency of a remote employee’s work be increased? How to help him use his working time rationally? How to maintain a working attitude, knowing that there is no one around to control the work?

In order for an employee to feel comfortable working remotely, it is necessary to prepare him or her for work in the new format. Organize a workplace with access to the corporate system. Ensure communication between individual employees, remote teams and senior management. Think about ways of communication between employees and establish their stable work.

To organize effective work in remote mode, automated programs are provided to help work out and plan joint tasks and control the course of work processes. Thanks to the introduction of electronic assistants, employees will clearly understand their tasks and requirements. The management will not have to spend unnecessary time controlling performers and pushing them to meet deadlines.

Challenges of improving efficiency

The most common problems encountered in implementing efficiency measures include:

• Resistance from staff;
• Non-biased assessment;
• Incompetence of department heads evaluating the performance of their subordinates.

All changes must be well thought out and justified. Otherwise, they will produce the opposite result.

Other problems that hinder the efficiency of workers:

• Bloated management staff. You can’t expect productivity from an employee who has five managers standing over him. And each of them demands a performance report for himself. In this case, the employee will spend most of his time on bureaucratic procedures rather than on his main duties.
• Supervisory Services. Personnel performance checks are an important part of a company’s life. But, they should not interfere with the main work. Therefore, the number of employees in the company’s control services should be minimal.
• Improperly organized workflow. Without understanding the task assigned to him, the employee will not be able to perform it effectively. The manager should explain competently what he wants from his subordinate. Make the performer aware of rewards for work done.

Applying the LeaderTask program to improve employee performance

Improving the efficiency of a company’s employees is impossible without a rational organization of the work process. Timely and systematic execution of assigned tasks can only be achieved with regular monitoring by management. For this purpose, it is convenient to use the LeaderTask application – a modern, functional task scheduler that helps to keep all important information in a single system.

Using the LeaderTask program, it is easier to monitor the activities of each employee and evaluate their performance. The application provides many useful functions, including:

• the option to set tasks by breaking them down into subtasks;
• appointment of the person responsible for the task;
• assigning task statuses;
• graphs, charts and statistical information on the project.

The program works on all digital platforms, including offline mode, which allows you to use the scheduler remotely.

Conclusion

In order to get a return from subordinates, to help them work efficiently and effectively, the manager must become an example for them. Employees should be rewarded for the quality of their work. It is also worth not forgetting about other ways to encourage staff, including highlighting positive results, rewarding outstanding employees and providing them with various benefits.

Rational control of employees is the key to efficiency and efficiency of the company. Each employee must know what to do within the scope of the task assigned to him. And what punishment he will receive if he does not fulfill his duties properly.

Training should be an integral part of the work process. Trained, competent staff will achieve greater efficiency in their work.