The Tribune

By Ian Ferguson

Is your work place a SMART WORK environment? Are your employees working strategically and efficiently? Are your processes ideal for highest yield, output and maximum returns? Most companies struggle to answer these questions. They have no qualitative means by which to determine the state of their own business affairs. Sometimes, the activity of work and employees tends to mislead us into thinking that we are being productive. We see things happening, we see employees working long hours, we see monies being invested in capacity building avenues, but we do not see the returns on the exhaustion of time, talent and the absorption of company finances.

At some point, we must ask ourselves: Is there a better way to exist? We must pursue those corporate actions that give us the idea, and evidence, that we have made progress, rather than spending time fighting fires or lost in pointless activities.

To all companies ready for a thorough de-tox, we this week offer five suggestions for enhancing and embracing an atmosphere of efficiency:

• Invest in a Customer Relationship Management System (CRM). Whether it is done manually or you purchase software to assist you, this tool is invaluable in increasing your ability to deliberately customise and personalise the service you give to existing customers. Remember, it is easier and cheaper to keep existing customers than it is to acquire new ones.

• Manage your money matters more effectively.

• Get signed up for online banking and make fewer stops to the banks.

• Charge interest to customers who have a tendency of paying late.

• Give incentives to encourage customers to pay on time.

• Establish credit systems from your suppliers to make your company’s monies more flexible, but remember to manage well these credit accounts.

• Limit the amount of time you spend sending and reading e-mails. Create a new culture within the office, and with those you do business with, to make the personal call or face-to-face meeting rather than sending an e-mail. This not only saves time in the long run; it helps to improve the interpersonal relationships on the team.

• Automate as many activities as you can without interfering with your ability to provide personalised services. Computers, telephones and many other software systems have been created to relieve the modern office of many headaches. It is pure wisdom to take full advantage of automated systems, freeing up your team to focus on more critical matters.

Naturally this includes making your e-mail presence far more efficient. Make your website work for you. Allow it to provide all the answers to questions that customers might have, and provide opportunities to close the sale on goods and services you provide electronically.

• Outsource as much as you can. Particularly if you are a small and medium-sized business, you are better served outsourcing certain critical services, including training, human resources, bookkeeping, security, organisational development etc. Most companies believe these services to be out of their reach financially, and resort to neglecting them altogether. This has proven detrimental to the sustainability of small and medium-sized businesses, and is not advised.

Stay tuned next week for Part II in this series, and the next five ways to work smart and increase productivity.

NB: Ian R. Ferguson was educated locally, regionally and internationally, having earned a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Miami. During the course of his nearly 20 years in education, talent management and human resources, he has served both the public and private sector in senior management roles. He currently serves as manager of the Chamber Institute, and as a local consultant in the field, having assisted hundreds of local and regional businesses in improving business and service excellence through their human capital.