Five Shortcuts For Maximizing Efficiency At Work As a business owner, you want to develop systems that help you get the job done quickly and properly while reducing expenditures.

As a business owner, you want to develop systems that help you get the job done quickly and properly while reducing expenditures. Your employees can use shortcuts to increase workplace efficiency. A shortcut doesn't have to be a computer program or internet tool; it can be something as simple as improving processes and incorporating cloud systems.

1. Create a uniform workflow system

When employees are left to complete tasks using their own methods, it does not always return the best results. It is better to construct a system or process that is used by all employees across your company. This increases accuracy of completed tasks. It makes your workplace more efficient when all of your staff use the same practices to complete the same tasks through multiple departments.

Your department managers and operations managers should convene together to create processes that make the workplace more efficient. This includes building programs that can be used by all departments specifically designed around the needs of the business.

2. Hold short standing meetings

Being informed of a meeting is enough for some employees to turn their brains off and stop listening. Meetings should be very brief and to the point. The goal of the meeting should be to discuss something new or a major change or company development. If you do need to have a meeting, make it a standing meeting instead. You can increase productivity and efficiency at work, as your staff will be more focused when gathered in a standing group rather than a conventional table setting.

Alternatively, consider if the meeting can be held virtually, or if you can just send a company-wide email instead. These options take less time away from employees, allowing them more time to focus on their primary tasks.

3. Provide efficient communication tools

Providing your staff with a more efficient communication system allows your team to share information, collaborate and multitask without losing focus. First, implement a business management system like Microsoft Dynamics AX, which lets an employee speak to another in a different department while looking up facts and figures, account details, and other pertinent information. This decreases the amount of time it takes to complete a task and often leads to a streamlined communication helping an employee to complete a task or assignment rightly the first time.

Also, use a VoIP service like Ooma to facilitate smoother and faster internal communication among staff, or hold short, impromptu meetings. It is easier to schedule an internet-based meeting where staff can continue working on other tasks while participating in the meeting. Lastly, use a universal cloud system, which provides one location for all of the company's files, programs, and networking to prevent distractions and increase focus.

4. Create efficiency goals

Sales, performance, and customer service satisfaction goals are common in the workplace, but what about efficiency goals? Offer an incentive for employees displaying the best efficiency in their departments each month, set goals for perfect task completion and effective implementation of suggested employer practices. Sometimes it takes helping your employees with efficiency to increase productivity.

Put the department managers in charge of tracking efficiency among each department employee. The idea is to have all employees working on the same system so that anyone can step in and complete a task without making it seem like two different people worked on it.

5. Set project deadlines

Make sure that you are creating realistic deadlines so that efficiency is not lacking in the workplace. You can maximize efficiency at work by outlining what the goals of a project are along with key requirements for each project. When employees know what is expected and when, they work harder to provide what the employer wants.

Check in with staff daily to see where they are on their projects. If someone is struggling to meet a deadline, get in touch with a superior to assist that employee with getting the job done within the set deadline.

Related: All In A Day's Work: Increase Productivity In And Out Of The Office