Managing a small business can be an exciting venture, but overlooking even the smallest detail can cause several challenges, which can be costly. Unfortunately, almost every business has those unnoticeable inefficiencies in its processes, undermining safety, quality, and overall business productivity. To avoid this, below are four ways you can find those hidden inefficiencies in your small business and address them.
1. Encourage open communication
Creating an open culture with good communication is key to shining a light on where things might be a bit shaky. This way, you can easily identify which area of your business has the most internal issues and how you can resolve them. It’s like preventative medicine for your work processes, stopping problems from trickling down to your customers. For instance, make it easy to discuss quality and safety, and your frontline workers will be eager to share their thoughts on your concerns and provide excellent ideas for improvement.
2. Evaluate current processes
It’s always best to give your current processes a good once-over. It sounds a bit complicated, especially for your hands-on managers, but it’s worth it. Just take a moment to watch things in action and ask your team questions. Not only does it help spot any inefficiencies, but it also boosts morale because your team feels more connected to the whole process. Plus, it gives them a chance to discuss any issues they’ve noticed but have not reported yet. Adopting various measures like process mining has also been shown to be effective for uncovering any hidden inefficiencies in your current processes. After identifying these inefficiencies, you can then implement the right strategies to correct them.
3. Set goals for improvement
Turning efficiency improvement into a regular project is the way to go if you have the right team of employees who know the drill. Once you have pinpointed where you can improve, you can then set some KPIs, checkpoints, and deadlines to make sure your tweaks are doing the trick. Think of it like a well-orchestrated plan. Also, to keep things crystal clear, explore some project management ideas, including how information gets shared, who’s in charge of what, and who needs to know about your efficiency improvement project.
4. Make your meetings more productive
Every meeting you conduct within your business, even those brainstorming sessions, must be guided by a plan. You can also make these sessions more effective by sticking to the people who are actually working on the particular project instead of inviting the whole team to the meeting. The goal is to trim off the extras. And, no matter how quick or seemingly small the meeting is, ensure your objectives and action points are clear. Whether it’s a brief meeting or a long session, make each one count to ensure it’s as productive as possible.
Hidden inefficiencies in your business can affect productivity in several ways, which can draw your business back. However, with the above tips, you can identify these inefficiencies and develop a focused approach to solving them.
