Improving productivity in your business

Before you can improve productivity, you need a way to measure it.

The metrics you use to track productivity will depend on your business and industry. But a good place to start is by measuring:

• revenue per employee or hour worked. This tells you how much your business brings in for the time and resources you have
• average time to complete a key task. For example, processing an order, producing an item or completing a project
• customer satisfaction. You need to make sure increased productivity doesn’t come at the expense of your customers’ experience
• rework or error rate – how many mistakes did your business make that had to be fixed? For example, incorrect orders or faulty products.

Tracking these measures over time can tell you if your business is becoming more productive while still maintaining quality.

Your processes may have grown and been added to over time. Review them to see if you can make them more efficient.

Ask yourself:

• What steps can we remove? For example, unnecessary meetings or approvals.
• Where are the delays or bottlenecks? For example, staff waiting for supplies or equipment.
• Where do errors happen? For example, when staff need to enter information in more than one system.
• Is it clear who is responsible for each step?

Even small time savings can add up to a noticeable productivity boost over time.

Doing tasks the same way every time speeds them up and minimises mistakes.

Document your processes and procedures and make sure your staff know where to find them.

You could consider:

• checklists for opening and closing procedures
• step-by-step guides for onboarding new staff or handling customer complaints
• templates for quotes, invoices and emails
• a style guide and clear workflow for marketing content
• rules for receiving deliveries and recording damaged stock
• a consistent process for handling customer complaints
• fixed timeframes for sending invoices and reminders.

Offering too many products or services can increase complexity and reduce productivity in your business.

Review your business plan, market research and sales data and consider if you can simplify what your business offers.

Identify the products or services that generate the most profit for the time and resources you put into them.

For example, a cafe or restaurant could shrink its menu to improve speed, reduce waste and increase profit.

Clear communication between staff reduces rework, delays and mistakes. If your employees are constantly stopping work to ask someone else for information, you might need to improve communication in your business.

For example, you could:

• Hold a weekly team meeting so everyone knows what everyone else is working on. Keep it short and have a clear agenda – long, unfocused meetings aren’t good for productivity.
• Keep important information and files in a single central location everyone can access.
• Use videoconferencing software, chat platforms and cloud storage so people can collaborate wherever they are. This is especially important if you have remote staff.
• Encourage staff to raise any issues or concerns before they become urgent or serious.

Many businesses spend hours a week on tasks that software can do a lot faster.

For example:

• Accounting and invoicing systems can keep track of your finances, including taxes.
• Rostering software helps you manage employee shifts, timesheets and pay slips.
• Inventory management systems can keep track of your stock, including knowing when it’s time to reorder.
• A customer relationship management (CRM) tool records all your interactions with customers.
• AI tools can automate some routine tasks and help you draft emails and marketing content.

By letting customers complete simple tasks themselves, you and your staff can focus on higher-value work.

For example:

• Ensure your website has answers to customers’ most common questions about your products or services.
• Explore using a chatbot on your website to answer simple questions.
• Provide online tools, calculators and comparisons to help customers decide what to buy.
• Create tutorials and troubleshooting guides for detailed customer support.
• Let customers schedule their appointments or bookings online. This cuts the time you spend answering calls and managing calendars.
• Have an online store so customers can buy from anywhere at any time.
• Make sure your invoicing tool has an online payment portal for customers.
• If you have a hospitality business, use QR code menus to streamline ordering.

Your staff are some of your most valuable resources for increasing productivity. Employees who are properly trained and supported in their roles usually:

• work faster
• need less supervision
• make fewer mistakes
• call in sick less
• stay working in your business longer.

Some ways to set your workers up for better productivity:

• Make sure your staff understand your business goals.
• Give employees and teams clear objectives and regular feedback.
• Provide training and professional development.
• Train staff to cover multiple roles when needed. For example, moving between the shop floor, cash register and processing online orders during busy periods.
• Give your staff the authority to solve routine problems without delegating to you.
• Recognise and reward good performance.
• Support employees’ mental health and manage workloads to prevent burnout. Mentally healthy workplaces have less absenteeism, which helps with productivity.

Look for any administrative tasks you can delegate or outsource to other businesses.

Paying someone else to do repetitive, time-consuming tasks can free up more time for productive work.

For example:

• bookkeeping and payroll
• IT support
• graphic design
• social media marketing
• looking after your business website
• cleaning and maintaining your business premises.