Digitisation is a valuable change for all industries, supporting better communication, management, and efficiency. This is in no small part because moving to an all-in-one digital solution reduces friction between systems such as paper management and complex communication chains, allowing your team to focus on what matters most.
Timestealers, however, can be tough to spot, especially when systems are entrenched. This makes every change complex and it can be difficult to tell what tweaks will have the greatest effect. We’re here to help you begin that journey and find ways to cut down on the drag holding you and your team back.
Time loss in the office
To understand where your work productivity suffers, you will first need to understand what timestealers look like. These issues can take many forms from unoptimised systems to outdated processes which can lead to overall inefficiency that can frustrate your customers and teams.
Management process & systems
One of the biggest areas where businesses lose time is through unoptimised management processes. Modern offices thrive on intuitive systems, designed to bring together communication and project management. These tools can ensure that meetings always have agendas (to help with planning and execution), automate note-taking, and generally add a level of transparency that allows everyone involved to be prepared.
A study by Forbes in 2021 reinforced this thinking with senior managers polled stating that;
The University of North Carolina surveyed 182 senior managers in various industries: 65% said meetings keep them from completing their work. 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient. 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.
This study highlights the golden rule of ‘could this just be an email’ and how managing your team’s time better can help with inefficiencies. This can often be a result of miscommunication; where teams are given tasks on the fly without enough background, or chasing up your team members when your time could be better spent on another task.
Whatever the cause, outdated management systems are a bugbear for efficiency and businesses of all sizes should look at ways of streamlining their processes and bringing together resources for better control and communication. By doing so, you can empower team members and give them all the information they need to thrive.
Digitisation is one example of how you can better manage resources and should be considered. Please note, this does necessitate a review of your systems which is the next area of concern.
Dated equipment and infrastructure
Along with outdated management processes come out-of-date computers and other devices. Many businesses work round the clock so committing time and resources to updating systems, and potentially creating issues, leads to many businesses opting to hold off on sweeping changes.
This shortsighted approach makes changes in the future more costly (as your digital and infrastructure debt build-up) and can lead to competitors overtaking them as they adapt to systems such as paperless management, remote access, all-in-one platforms, and automation and AI.
All of these advancements are actively being used by businesses today across all sectors to improve their offering and appeal to customers whose expectations have only grown with the advent of new technologies.
With this in mind, any digitisation project should be weighed by its long-term benefits. For example, consider the long-term benefit of moving all your paper files into a digitised format. This process, which can be outsourced to professionals such as Dajon, allows you to invest time now so that adding to your bank of information in the future is seamless.
Traditional communication systems
This fear of change is also the cause of inefficient communication systems. Most businesses employ emails as well as an internal messaging system alongside management tools which can lead to a lot of confusion as employees tend to use their personal preference. This leads to increased toggle tax (more on that below), duplication or missing messages, and ultimately less efficient communication. This is even worse in industries which rely heavily on paper documents.
This has been made all the more clear in recent years with reports on ‘toggle tax’. This refers to the time lost to switching between applications and while seemingly insignificant can build up. Forbes reported that the average user in a study involving 137 users across three Fortune 500 companies toggled nearly 1,200 times daily between different programs, costing them nearly four hours a week just reorienting themselves.
This is a huge amount of time lost and is even worse if you rely on manual filing systems. This is an example of where digitisation can directly help by bringing all your systems into one central portal or tool; reducing toggle time and allowing your team to access the information they need without bouncing around loading screens.
Outside factors
Finally, alongside outdated office practices and dated systems are outside factors. Now these are the soft things, the stuff that you have to know by feel. Often, asking your team is a great place to start. The people who work in a certain environment every day are best placed to tell you where the pain points are.
Consider questions like:
Is the lighting good enough in the office? Do the team feel like they can bring ideas to management? What would help them be more productive? This can extend as far as changing hours to be more accommodating to different circadian rhythms or giving your team flexible working hours.
Some of the simplest ways you can make sure teams feel refreshed and less prone to wasting time on busy work is to make sure they are well-rested and have ideal conditions.
Supporting with funds for home office setups, ensuring downtime and annual leave are used, and providing tools such as mental health support are all examples of ways you can combat outside factors and ensure teams don’t lose efficiency while at work.
Improve your productivity at work with Dajon today
As you can see, this topic is broad! Spanning everything from metal filing cabinets to AI, and management platforms to office lighting. However, we can help, at least with the digital parts.
As a specialist in digitisation and management of paperless systems, we offer a range of services designed to help you combat toggle tax and legacy lag with bespoke solutions. Whether you need a complete platform to manage your business remotely, a secure and fast document management system, or a hand converting boxes of documents into usable data, we are here to help.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you with your office efficiencies contact us today. Our team is on hand to discuss your pain points and suggest ways to improve your office for your team and customers.