2. Delegate Duties and Improve Time Management Skills

Typically, most people like things done in a particular manner, and some would prefer doing every task themselves rather than asking for assistance or delegating to others.
Doing everything by yourself is an enormous hindrance to productivity. Train your team members to deliver quality work with minimal supervision.

You can design efficient systems and processes that produce standard products and services- start by documenting SOPs for the company, which everyone can access. The benefit of designing efficient systems is that your business does not rely on the individual default work modes, hence getting things done without prior planning.

Smart work involves minding the work process as much as the duty.

For example, when operating a bakery, you can predetermine the mixing of ingredients so that your employees can carry out the process even when you are absent. Developing efficient systems ensures production continues even in the absence of key personnel.

Brilliant business people are keen to prioritize, delegate, and improve their time management.

Speaking of time management, improving time management translates to working smart.

Hard work is about spending long hours getting a task done while intelligent work means completing a similar amount of work in less time. Business people with good time management skills finish their projects before the deadline.

Repetitive processes involved in hard work can lead to time wastage and eventually fail to meet timelines. Hard work follows a tedious process rather than brainstorming for the quickest and most efficient way of achieving the goal.

Utilizing efficient procedures and tools to get things done quickly makes innovative work the most suitable option for completing tasks on schedule.

Consider implementing all the relevant tools to your work; this is not cheating but working creatively.

We have a lot of productivity tools in the market today that can cut the manual and repetitive processes by half; why reinvent the wheel? The Phalera CRM is a good example that combines and automates most of the daily-to-day operations of a business.

The Steel Factory Case

During my internship I was lucky to have a chance to work in a large steel factory that produces a wide range of products and employs over a thousand employees. Fortunately, during my internship period at the factory, I witnessed a management change.

The previous administration believed in hard work and bureaucratic processes. For instance, employees would physically sign in on paper attendance sheets filed by the department manager. The human resource officers would then go around the factory to collect the files and tally the hours. The human resource officers would then use that information to calculate salaries.

This process involved plenty of hard work and consumed much time, ultimately was inefficient and marred with numerous mistakes.

• First, the employees would come to work late and leave early because the manual register was easy to manipulate.
• Secondly, the human resource department had a tedious job of counting the hours worked by each employee. The counting would take days leading to delayed salary payments and endless conflict between the management and workers. Mathematical errors were frequent, resulting in over or under-compensation of some employees.
• Lastly, the manual system did not capture absentee workers. Some unethical department managers would make underhand deals with employees to allow them to evade duties.

The new management noted the issue of human and time mismanagement in the factory.

The approach? They suggested a digital system where employees would clock in at the gate as they enter and clock out as they leave the factory. It was a brilliant idea, but it would take the information technology department more than a year to design and develop such a system.

The new management was smart enough to outsource the software and technical equipment to monitor employee attendance rather than building a new in-house system.

• The digital system was efficient and saved time, which the human resource department would spend reconciling the payroll. The human resource could now download the attendance details from the digital system and use that information to compute salaries correctly.
• Second, the new system enhanced time management at the factory as employees arrived at workstations on time and left when the shift was over.
• Third, the system eliminated ghost workers and increased production.
  Lastly, the digital system reduced the tedious work done by human resource officers.

They applied intelligent working techniques to bring the factory to optimum production by minimizing labor wastage.

The new management also introduced a new work protocol that defined the duties designated for each employee. Dealing with over a thousand employees can be hectic because only a bunch of employees get things done while the rest joyride.

Instead they assigned specific duties to each employee and delegated supervisory responsibilities to the department manager. Previously, workers would be assigned new tasks every day. With the new initiative, employees had permanent responsibilities.

Now, employees would report to their workstations knowing what they should accomplish by the end of the day, unlike in previous management, where there was rotation every morning. Delegating specific duties to each employee boosts productivity because doing an activity for a long time makes it easy.

In addition, the senior management delegated supervisory and other minor managerial duties to department managers. Earlier, all employees reported directly to the senior management who also supervised production. The senior managers were slowly overwhelmed by countless cases and had little time to monitor production.

Delegating some duties to department managers gave them time to focus on other crucial management issues. Employees would send their progress reports to their department managers, who consolidate them and send a detailed summary to the senior managers. The senior management used detailed progress reports from department managers to identify unproductive sectors and seek long-lasting solutions.

The change from a management team that worked hard to a team that worked smart saw the factory increase its production, increase profitability, and reduce losses.