6 ways to improve your company's workflow

The workflow of your business is essentially the journey of a task or larger project from initiation through to completion, and along the way, different parts of that project will likely cross across many different departments in your company. A project will be made up of different tasks, and when many people are working on different parts of that project, there is likely to be some parts that will take longer than others.

If each part of the project isn't streamlined properly, severe delays can occur, leaving subsequent teams waiting for previous teams to finish their work before they can start their own. This is understandably a problem as it slows the progress of a project reducing the efficiency and the success of your business. It's important to improve your company's workflow wherever possible, and we've listed a few ways to do so to help you out.

Clear communication throughout your team

Across your whole business, having clear communication channels is essential if you want things to run smoothly. All of your employees should be well versed in communicating properly and effectively with their teammates. It is very important for your staff to let each other know which tasks they are undertaking and to encourage everyone to ask questions whenever they are unsure of their work. This can help to avoid certain errors and prevent people from working on tasks at the same time, or worse, everyone thinking that someone else is doing a task when in reality nobody has touched it.

Keep things organised properly

Working in a busy office environment or even working remotely can get very hectic. With everyone working on different tasks and projects, it's therefore crucial that you ensure that organization takes precedence within your company. Keeping your work as organized as possible will help your team stay on track with their tasks and targets. There are many ways in which you can promote better organization within your business and many tools you can make use of too. You should promote better individual organization from your employees for a start, encouraging people to sort through and plan their tasks at the start of each day. Your department managers can oversee this, of course. You'll also want to consider implementing organizational or business management software, allowing you to keep tabs on each aspect of your business.

Make use of technology and automation

There are so many different types of technology that you can use for your company, improving your team's efficiency and generally improving your projects' workflow. This tech ranges from automation software to help remove the need for your employees to manually complete tedious and unnecessary tasks to useful browser-based tools that can handle specific jobs for your team, such as a PDF merger or file converter. Failing to make use of technology or train your team to utilize these tools can significantly diminish their efficiency and, in turn, harm the overall success of your company. Keep up to date with the types of tools you can make use of in your business to continuously find new methods to improve your workflow where possible. 

Be clear on your expectations

It's important that your team knows what you expect of them in terms of workload and hitting targets. Setting goals and clear expectations are crucial if you expect your employees to work to the best of their ability. Failing to set targets for your team will ultimately result in them having no need to push themselves, and they will likely begin to lose motivation. Once this happens, you will see some negative effects on your company, such as a drop in efficiency. If your employees don't understand what you expect of them, this can negatively impact the company's workflow, as that lack of motivation and drive can spread to other departments.

Conduct regular training

Another way in which your workflow can be slowed down is simply down to a lack of skill within your team. This is why it's incredibly important to continuously provide further training for your employees so that they can learn new skills to help them complete their work. This training can be related to specific skillsets, teaching employees new ways to do things, and training employees to use certain tools more effectively. Both types of training will lead to a much more efficient workflow, and training can also boost motivation as it offers your team an opportunity for career progression.

Take care of your employees

Your team are the driving force behind your company. Regardless of how many great deals you've done or smart decisions you've made as a business owner, your business likely won't survive without your employees. At the very least, you won't be able to find as much success as you would with your team behind you. This is why it’s essential that you take care of your employees as much as possible. With the help of your HR team, open conversations with your employees to find out what they're unhappy with and find ways in which you can improve their motivation, as this will, in turn, help to improve the quality of their work.