If you study the businesses that have collapsed over the past several years, you’ll notice that most had old, clunky processes that they refused to modernize. Likewise, if you study the companies that are succeeding, you’ll see that they’re quick to pivot in order to become more nimble.
The takeaway is clear: To be successful in this age of business, you must be willing to modernize your company’s workflow.
A workflow can be described as any series of orchestrated and repeatable patterns of activity that combine to produce the desired result. In other words, it’s the process of getting work done.
As Lucidchart explains it, “A business workflow is a repeatable process that consists of a series of tasks that generally need to be completed in a specific sequence. Think of it as work flowing from one stage to the next until it is finished.”
Whether you call them workflows or not, your business has plenty of them. From onboarding employees and lead generation strategies to the procurement of raw materials and the manufacturing process for your products, there’s a workflow attached to every aspect of your business.
And, truth be told, you could improve them and enhance your productivity and profitability in the process.
Each workflow has its own nuances, opportunities, and restrictions. So while you’ll have to determine what makes the most sense for your business at this stage of growth, here are several ways you may be able to modernize right off the bat.
You need software to improve your company’s workflow and promote greater productivity and efficiency. Having said that, you can’t go out and invest in just any tool or application. (That could have the inverse effect.) You need the right software.
In particular, focus on integrating the right business management software into the mix. This type of software gives your business structure and helps to bring multiple workflows together. For example, it can help you recruit and hire employees, train employees, optimize daily work processes, and record and analyze data.
While it might not sound like a workflow issue, the truth is that cybersecurity plays an integral role in keeping your business moving in a positive direction. Without accounting for this issue, a single strike could wipe you out and put a chokehold on all of your various workflows. Being mindful of cybersecurity and creating a plan is a “level one” priority.
“This may be as simple as ensuring you have a sound security protocol in place to protect against cyber attacks,” FlowPatterns.com explains. “You may also benefit from cyber insurance as well, depending on how at risk your company is to online crimes such as data theft.”
If you don’t feel like you have the internal knowledge to address the complexity of cybersecurity, your business could benefit from hiring a consultant to help you implement the appropriate strategy.
Employee wellness and workflow efficiency go hand in hand. To get the most out of your workflows, you need your employees to be healthy, happy, and focused. (And this doesn’t happen by accident.)
An investment in employee wellness is a direct investment in your company’s workflow. For example, pay attention to the office furniture you have in your company’s workspaces. The days of having a cubicle and a desk chair are gone – you need to be able to adapt from working on your computer to conducting virtual meetings. Standing desks from a company like BTOD.com make this a breeze.
Finally, if your company hasn’t already gone paperless, it’s time to do so. While you might not be able to go 100 percent paperless at this point, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting 95 percent there. Between electronic signature technology, project management applications, and cloud drives, there’s simply no need to have a bunch of paper coming through your office. Once you go virtual, every process will be much faster and more reliable.
Most businesses are just trying to survive and initiate incremental growth year after year. But if you’re serious about building a successful company, you have to set your sights on much higher goals. This includes modernizing workflows to promote greater efficiency. And though it’ll require some level of investment on the front end, this attention to detail could very well double or triple your growth in the coming years.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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