Stuck in old habits? 5 ways to get efficient

It’s easy to become established in your old ways and comfortable with your level of growth as a small business. But it’s vital to identify any inefficiencies or areas of potential to spur on growth.

Sue-Ellen Watts, founder and CEO of HR consultancy business wattsnext, says that it’s a business owner’s responsibility to be constantly looking for ways to improve their business.

“It’s the job of a CEO or managing director to look at how you can do things better and more efficiently,” Watts says.

Never say you’re too busy to look at improving efficiency, because it’s part of your role as an owner, she says.

Watts shares five key ways to challenge stale workplace habits and improve efficiency.

1. Workplace flexibility

“Technology has allowed us to be much more flexible and actually deliver better outcomes, but I think that we’re not utilising that enough,” says Watts.

“Look at the technology available and think about how you can reduce costs. We can all be connected all the time, so why do we all need to work in an office with set hours?”

Instead, focus on working where your energy best suits you, whether or not that’s different to the standard and expected working hours. Technology has made this possible, she says.

2. Cut down documentation, focus on outcomes

One of the most time-consuming areas of managing staff is the amount of unnecessary documentation involved.

“There is an enormous amount of inefficiency, so we need to focus on cutting out all that noise and focus on what are trying to achieve,” says Watts. “We need to be outcome focused.”

“Policies are really about reducing risk within your business,” says Watts. Yet company policies, often running into several pages, typically contain only a few important points. This not only wastes time compiling the policy, but means the purpose is not being achieved, she says.

3. Ditch the traditional performance review

Watts believes traditional performance reviews can also cause more damage than good.

“Any business that is doing annual performance reviews, or performance reviews based on a whole lot of documents, need to get rid of that straight away,” she says.

Instead, managers should regularly keep in touch with their employees to ensure they’re on the right track and their role is properly structured.

“Roles become what they are because people take on new responsibilities when they need to – but it’s not very effective.”

4. Recruit right, not just fast

When filling a gap in your staff, the temptation is to get someone on board as quickly as possible. But it’s worth taking the extra time to ensure you hire the right person, Watts says.

“It’s a speed thing and I understand why, you need to fill a role and you want to do it quickly,” she says. “But it can have such a dramatic impact if you get it wrong.”

Instead, outlining the role’s responsibilities in detail, conduct extra interviews and ask more in-depth questions to find the appropriate person.

“People go straight out to market to try and find someone,” she says. “But they’re not recruiting the right people for the role – this creates enormous inefficiency for you later.”

5. Encourage a disruptive mindset

It’s not just business owners who should think disruptively. Owners should encourage an innovation mindset within their teams to improve upon the way processes have always been done.

Listening and responding to employee feedback not only helps you identify areas for improvement, but can expose you to different ways of thinking, Watts says.

“Getting people thinking about what others are doing in your businesses space and how they can do things better – this can be valuable to any business.”

At CommBank we believe innovation starts by asking questions. Discover new ways to keep your business moving.

Written by: Jacob Robinson