Business process improvement: Tips and techniques to boost efficiency

Is your business running as efficiently as possible, or are there more things you could be doing to adjust your business process to account for continuous improvement?

Business process improvement doesn’t just help your business output to become more efficient, but it could also help to improve your employee productivity and overall business revenue too.

In this article, we will outline how to improve business efficiency with some key business efficiency tips to help you to plan your business process improvement.

What is business process improvement?

Business efficiency is the amount of revenue a business makes in relation to the resources and spend it requires to produce a sellable product or service. Achieving maximum business efficiency means keeping costs low and productivity high, therefore improving business margins and profits.

However, when looking at business process improvement, a business owner must look at how to improve business efficiency in all areas of the company, meaning there are multiple ways to measure efficiency as it will look different across the business.

The most efficient businesses usually make the most of their resources, and inefficient businesses usually lack the organisation required to measure and enhance efficiency, which in turn could slow operations and impact business profitability.

Where can I improve my business’ efficiency?

Businesses can measure their efficiency and manage their business process improvement by evaluating their finances, operations, energy, material use, labour forces and their internal processes. Small changes could make significant changes, for example, automating processes or restructuring work processes can positively impact the way your business works.

Business process improvement and becoming more efficient will look different to each business, as the improvements you choose to make must also align with your business goals and needs. One thing that remains true for all businesses, however, is that tracking and analysis is crucial to maximise your long-term business efficiency.

Operational efficiency

Business operations generally make up the biggest share of business expenses. They are key processes that a business needs to enable it to keep functioning and are essential to business process improvement. Many businesses will look at business operations first when looking at becoming more efficient.

Operational efficiency focuses on the core operations of a business in both individual departments and cross-departments. Operational efficiency requires you to look at both internal and external factors to highlight anything that may cause a negative impact on key business goals.

Productivity efficiency

When looking at business process improvement you can examine processes to ensure that they are both efficient and productive and this will help you to look at helping your workforce to gain the skills needed to improve their day-to-day productivity.

Automating certain processes such as payroll or invoicing with software can help to relieve employees of a repetitive task and create more accurate results, allowing the employee to focus on higher-value work and therefore increasing business efficiency.

Financial efficiency

A company can measure its financial efficiency by calculating the percentage of revenue that is specifically used for business expenses. If business expenses are higher than its revenue then the business is financially inefficient.

The more financially efficient a business is, the more a business can invest in expansion and growth.

ROI efficiency

ROI efficiency is a secondary element of financial efficiency, and it is always important to review, as your business may be generating spend for little in return.

An investment might be classed as a current cost that aims to help the company save money or make a larger profit. 

Business owners should consistently review these investments and calculate how valuable they are to your business overall. 

If the return on investment is low then you may consider cutting that expense completely, investing less spend in that investment or looking at alternative ways to make gain in the area the investment was serving.

Energy efficiency

All businesses should aim to be sustainable and eco-friendly in their practices and operations. By analysing the energy requirements for your business, you can see how energy efficient your practice is and where you might be able to cut back or streamline processes to save energy.

You could look at how energy is used within specific departments or within specific production processes and look at energy used versus overall cost and profits.

How to improve business efficiency

Ensuring your business reaches maximum efficiency requires ongoing monitoring and analysis, as well as incremental periodic adjustments to your internal processes. It is important to note when to streamline a business operation or cut back for betterment and future growth, and what may be detrimental to your business in the long-term. Here are some business efficiency ideas to help you to plan your business process improvement strategy:

Cut back on expenses

Cutting back on expenditure may at first seem contradictory, especially when the goal is to gain the most from your business, however input doesn’t always equal output and sometimes making essential cuts can spur your business towards growth and future success. 

When making cuts it is important to do so in a timely and sensitive manner that takes into account the work of all employees across the business as a small cut could have a significant impact. 

Without a clear plan, a cut could lead to a lack of organisation and further inefficiencies in your business processes. But, a well-calculated reduction in business expenses could help to modernise a process and increase business efficiency overall.

Maximise productivity time

To ensure your workforce is as productive as possible, staff need to feel comfortable, secure and supported within their roles and see the value behind their work. Adopting a company culture that reflects these values will usually mean productivity is higher and that change is more easily implemented as staff can see how positive change can impact their roles and responsibilities.

Look at how much resource and time certain tasks or processes take, and look at highlighting areas where a streamlined approach may be useful. Are there tasks that could be completed differently? Is there a step within a process that could be removed to make a task quicker or easier to perform? 

Remember, any change you make to your internal processes or production line is likely to have a huge effect on your workforce. Therefore, a continuous line of positive communication with your staff before, during, and after the change has been implemented can help them feel supported.

Automate your processes

Following a closer look at your business productivity, you may find that there are some internal processes that could be fully automated, speeding up numerous other processes and increasing accuracy. Manual data entry is a huge part of business processes that could be easily automated using the right software.

Automating processes such as inventory allocation, accounting, payroll and forecasting will aid in speeding up production and productivity increasing overall revenue and profits.

Automation can also help a business to keep their employees more engaged in their work as they focus on less frustrating and higher-value tasks. 

Streamline communication

When discussing business process improvement it is always important to look at the time spent on communicating and whether your teams are communicating efficiently, this is especially key if your business operates across multiple time zones. 

Although internal meetings can hold many benefits for your workforce, such as increasing rapport between colleagues and teams and creating a positive working environment, there is a plus to reviewing the way your employees communicate and collaborate as this could be eating away at essential time that could be best spent on high-value tasks.

The goal here is to remove the barriers that are preventing clear and positive communication from happening and preventing tasks from being completed. 

Meetings should always act as useful spaces for people to share ideas and updates and collaborate with one another, however, if a meeting seems to have no positive outcome or does not benefit the work process then it might be time to streamline communications and push for email or instant messages as a better form of communication.

If your business does operate across multiple time zones, seek to find the golden window of time when all team members are available for a face-to-face catch-upeep meeting agendas clear and concise, so all parties know what they need to bring to the meeting, the reason behind the meeting and the end goal of the call.

Consider outsourcing 

Sometimes, the best business efficiency tip is to outsource. Outsourcing can be a cost-effective and practical alternative to retraining current staff or hiring new full-time employees.

Outsourcing to a team who have a specialist skill set can ensure a task is completed efficiently and to a high standard. This also allows businesses to have more capacity and can help to increase productivity.

Build a productive and positive culture

A good company culture should encourage team members to achieve their full potential. Unhappy employees might be less likely to be productive or to feel valued. Employees who feel comfortable with their roles and responsibilities and who can understand the value their role brings to the business are probably more likely to be more productive and open to change. Investing in your employees is investing in your business.

What can I automate and streamline?

There are so many areas of a business where automation would aid business process improvement, if you are looking for business efficiency tips to help you bring automation into your business we’ve outlined some starting points below:

Work & project management 

Automatically scheduling meetings and assigning tasks is just one of the ways automated project management should be a key part of a business process improvement plan. Using software to notify stakeholders of key deadlines and upcoming work can be a great time saver and can enhance clear communication across the business.

With the right software, automating your project management can help to reduce the risk of errors and make communication more timely, giving your employees time to focus on key strategic tasks that will greatly benefit the business.

Communications & calls

A communication automation system allows all employees to work together in an integrated fashion through a single centralised interface to create, manage, and send different forms of repetitive communications to their desired targets. If used in bulk, this could save your employees and business the trouble of doing everything manually and in turn save such a large amount of time.

Payroll & accounting 

Using accounting software like QuickBooks is a brilliant business efficiency tip, as it can help to automate your payroll and accounting, so you can save time chasing timesheets, sending out payslips or processing leave requests and expense claims. 

With the right payroll software, rotas can be created and assigned to employees who can enter their own timesheets and request days off, ready for approval, and you would no longer have to spend time calculating overtime, bonus payments, PAYE, NI and pension contributions. 

Utilising a holistic accounting tool like QuickBooks can save your business a lot of time that could be put into business development or strategic tasks. Learn more about how QuickBooks can improve your business’ efficiency in accounting here - Plans & pricing

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