At the beginning of a new year, a smart action for businesses to take is to review their way of doing things involving the repeated actions taken to complete a task and to acknowledge potential areas for improvement. The previous year 2020 created new challenges and upended many businesses’ priorities by dealing with Covid-19. These challenges have created different viewpoints on how to best streamline processes to benefit your business, particularly when the post-pandemic era will continue to transform the business landscape in 2021.

Through streamlining, businesses can make their processes simpler by removing unnecessary or complicated steps which in return will improve efficiency, leading to enhanced performance. To efficiently carry out streamlining, companies must analyse current processes, identify the need for the streamlining process by recognising deficiencies, devise helpful new solutions, and finally implement the new process.

Here are 4 Tips to help streamline your business in 2021:

1. Having Regular Reviews of Current Processes

The first step in improving your business processes is to analyse your current processes and identify which activities are redundant or unnecessary. Having regular reviews will allow your business to stay aware and keep on top of how the end goal is to be reached. Another important reason for reviewing processes is to ensure that expenditure is being used in the most efficient way and therefore companies should regularly audit their business processes, particularly looking at where they can make savings and ensure each resource will return investment.

2. Engaging in Technology (Digital Innovation)

One way to improve your business’ operational efficiency is through digital innovation and the use of new technologies. Many companies have already introduced the digitisation of operations during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the continued use of automating your routine processes ensures greater transparency, timesaving, better communication, faster problem-solving and boosted efficiency. For example, the Obbi platform can help your business increase efficiency through compliance documentation by keeping all data stored securely. The use of automation such as Obbi, also allows for improved compliance with industry standards, as all documentation is stored together with easy access to, meaning that constant reviewing is easier to identify vulnerabilities, as well as a reduced risk of losing important documents. Companies need to stay ahead of their competitors, guaranteeing they offer better value through customer satisfaction. Therefore, by automating processes this ensures your business stays relevant and efficient, avoiding the inaccuracy of tedious manual processes.

3. Connect your Departments

A way to streamline your business processes is to connect the departments within your organisation. This will allow for a more efficient flow of information and will improve internal communication within departments and among employees. Through the Obbi platform, information is easily accessible which allows companies to effectively connect their HR, Health and Safety, and Operations departments, establishing streamlined team coordination. When communication is improved amongst staff, companies will see an increase in their employee morale as it enables employees to understand the needs and motivations of those around them which then increases employee satisfaction, leading to a productive workplace.

4. Gather Feedback

Once you have implemented your new processes, it is important to continually gather feedback. It is effective for organisations to clearly document their procedures as this produces greater visibility into the progress made. By documenting, employees can then reflect on the workflow activities that were conducted and offer their opinions and feedback on improvements. By creating an environment where employees feel empowered will support them in sharing their opinions on the process. This can be done by acting on employee recommendations as this shows employees that their input is valued, keeping them engaged and eager to offer further input.