5 Tips to Optimise Time and Boost Your Team's Productivity

Today, with technological advances and market expansion, this sector has become even more competitive. The search for ways to increase productivity and optimise time has therefore become an increasingly fundamental need for companies.

However, time and people management is not simply about administering tasks — it is about controlling the duration of the entire working day, making better use of those hours and increasing productivity.

What is consuming your time?

Before finding ways to increase your team's productivity, it is essential that managers are aware of all the day-to-day aspects and operational activities that may be compromising their time.

In a company, these distractions that impair workers' performance and prevent the optimisation of activities can originate from both the environment and the individuals themselves.

Self-generated waste is therefore the type that can most easily be avoided, yet it still demands attention and active determination to prevent it from recurring and disrupting work.

It is therefore necessary to remain vigilant regarding:

• Lack of organisation in the workplace;
• Procrastination;
• Overloading of a single employee;
• Difficulty prioritising tasks;
• Constant use of mobile phones, social media, or email.

On the other hand, time wasters caused by the business environment are somewhat harder to eliminate, as they are directly related to the operational and bureaucratic processes of the organisation.

However, if these activities are hindering the team's progress and productivity, managers must pay close attention and find ways to resolve the issue. Environmental time wasters include:

• Excessive unnecessary meetings;
• Off-topic conversations;
• Rework;
• Preparation of unnecessary reports;
• Unexpected visits, among others.

5 practical ways to increase your team's productivity

After understanding and identifying all the points and activities that may be compromising the optimisation of organisational time, it is necessary to invest in the actions that can truly improve your team's productivity and the company's performance.

In most cases, these actions are related to business management and the improvement of administrative practices, which aim to refine the work and results achieved by the sales and marketing departments.

It is therefore essential that organisations include in their strategies actions such as:

Automate processes

The use of software and digital platforms, such as customer communication management systems, has become essential for internal sales processes and for the growth of companies. 

This is because these software solutions allow employees to stop performing certain manual tasks and instead invest time in more complex and necessary activities.

The automation of routine processes, in addition to allowing all documents to be centralised in a single location — facilitating access to practices — also reduces human errors, organises responsibilities, and structures the data in each spreadsheet.

Set achievable targets

The incorporation of metrics into internal processes is crucial for helping to build an ideal customer profile, while at the same time helping managers determine the needs of those consumers and of the market.

Productivity targets can thus be built to be more efficient and realistic, supported by metrics provided by these digital platforms and by the data collected during interactions with the audience.

Modernise the working environment

As seen earlier, technology has enabled various changes in a company's activities. However, the investment in modernising these environments does not necessarily have to be costly for the business.

Cloud storage, for example, allows small businesses to save time and money on document filing, gives them greater control over reports, and enables easy access to those files.

Computerising and modernising the working environment enables broader and more precise analyses of the points to be improved in operations and the opportunities that can be explored, increasing productivity across all departments.

Invest in staff training

Investing in training can also allow managers and department leaders to identify more clearly which employees are struggling or need better preparation.

This training — which can be carried out through courses, talks, formal education, and more — is essential for the development of an organisation and for achieving the targets that have been set.

Improve internal communication

A company with poor internal communication or with ineffective communicability is more susceptible to errors, rework, loss of potential customers, and redundant tasks that only serve to consume employees' time. It is therefore essential to invest in systems that help improve this exchange of information — such as corporate messaging platforms, Yammer, or Workplace — in order to build a stronger business initiative.