• Review the work logs. Work is often assigned based on how long it is expected to take. Are fifteen minute reports taking an hour to complete? Is a one hour drawing update taking all day to finish due to interruptions? If there is a large discrepancy between expected time and actual time to complete,
does that person require training to learn how to complete the work more effectively? Or should the business process be reviewed to streamline it? Or can the manager target the interruptions and distractions that are slowing that individual down?
• Can you streamline your processes and improve their efficiency? Business processes have a purpose. That purpose should be to make money, improve quality, deliver products and services or meet legal requirements. How a business meets their stated purpose is flexible and changeable. How your business does business is not set in stone. Can your work authorizations be approved by three signatures instead of five, reducing the work load of the other two managers? Can you trust your secretary to buy office supplies up to a low ceiling, reducing the time and effort wasted on purchase order approvals? The process of streamlining processes in the workplace is called lean manufacturing or lean six sigma.
• Periodically review any process commonly followed in your workplace. Streamlining it or reducing how often it must be done saves time in the work place and thus money.
• Perform a new time structuring for employees at least annually. Are new meetings cropping up into the schedule? Do employees have to travel to customer sites to complete their work? Knowing what they are doing as well as how long it takes to perform these tasks permits managers to better allocate work among employees. This improves workplace efficiency while eliminating unreasonable demands that someone driving three hours a day for work also logs eight hours of work while someone else works eight hours at their desk.
