The results of the Brazilian economy in 2016 and the expectation for 2017 still point to reduced consumption and economic contraction. This crisis is the result of several factors, but mainly reflects the political and economic instability that has taken hold in the country.
We all know that Brazil has significant problems, but we can also see opportunities for improvement in our political and economic structure, which could influence major positive changes for Brazil in the future. Furthermore, historically in Brazil, crises have always preceded periods of strong economic growth, leading us to believe that after this crisis, the country will resume growth and return to being one of the most promising markets in the world.
It is important to understand that, while this scenario reduces consumption, it increases competitiveness among companies, requiring them to become more efficient and productive. Thus, we have new opportunities to develop differentiating factors in relation to competitors, which will give the company an advantage in the market, in the short or medium term, with the resumption of growth.
Crisis and turbulent situations are precisely the times when companies should seek intelligent solutions and improvements in their management. This will bring significant advantages over the competition and allow for greater growth once the crisis is over.
In this context, the key word for companies is productivity ! Improving productivity necessarily involves management , where it's not enough to simply cut costs or investments, but rather to seek to extract more results from wherever possible. From this perspective, we can focus our attention on: processes and people . These are the pillars of good management and the factors that can contribute to increasing your company's productivity.
Streamlining processes to increase productivity.
Improvements in a company's processes can generate numerous benefits, such as cost reduction, time optimization, higher quality tasks, and increased customer satisfaction.
Within processes, we can incorporate technology as a fundamental factor. Exploring the vast array of services and tools available on the internet is the best way to optimize business processes; let's look at some procedures to be addressed:
Map out current processes and build workflows.
All companies have processes, even if they are not documented. So, first, identify all the processes in your company; a good option is to organize them by different sectors and stages. Then, document the input and output information for each process, listing its final objective.
After that, it's possible to create workflows, organizing activities by responsible parties and the sequence that all processes should follow between employees and departments. In this organization, it's important to evaluate what is not important for the result and what is most relevant. Processes that do not contribute to the results can even be discarded.
Utilize IT services to monitor and evaluate processes.
There are different methodologies and systems that can contribute to organizing your company's processes and tasks. By defining processes and their flows, it's possible to organize tasks by teams, define the sequence of activities among employees, and obtain relevant information about the development of activities and results. For this, management systems such as ERPs or task management systems like Runrun.it or Trello .
Explore the potential of technology and the internet.
Exploring IT services online can greatly increase employee productivity and overall company performance. Many options are available; here's a short list of topics and tools:
- Financial management: ContaAzul , Nibo , Granatum and several others
- File storage and management with box Drive or Dropbox
- Customer communication: Zendesk , Zopim , Skype , or social media.
- Sales management with Pipedrive , Agendor , Salesforce , and others.
Flexibility and less bureaucracy.
Try delegating more responsibility to employees and increasing their autonomy in decision-making; this will tend to reduce approval steps within the company. Along with this, eliminate processes that don't contribute to the company's results and only serve to bureaucratize the workflow.
People
Today, a company's most important asset is its human capital; therefore, investing in people is fundamental and strategic. Let's look at some actions that companies can develop, focusing on their employees:
Set goals and motivate employees.
It is necessary for both the company and its employees to know the objectives to be achieved and where everyone wants to go. To this end, the manager must define performance and productivity goals for the company, define evaluation indicators, and determine how the goals will be distributed, whether by department, team, or even individually. It is fundamental that directors are involved in the process, that they know and monitor the results, because in this way, employees will feel confident and will seek to work together to achieve the results.
Along with setting goals, it's important to define bonuses for employees to motivate them to pursue the proposed results. These bonuses can be in the form of money, prizes, trips, courses, etc. A recent method for organizing objectives is OKR , widely used in technology companies and by Google. With OKR , general company objectives, objectives by sector, and the key results that will be measured to assess whether the objectives have been achieved are defined.
Training and education
Investing in the people who are part of the company is among the best investments a company can make. Therefore, managers should evaluate, together with their employees, what can be improved within the company's processes and how it can be improved. Often, these improvements involve the use of some new methodology or tool. This is the ideal time to invest in team training, offering courses focused on these methodologies, with the goal of developing highly qualified professionals with advanced knowledge of the latest and best practices in their fields, so that this knowledge can be incorporated and implemented in the company's activities.
Well-trained employees will innovate and create processes that will improve company results, while also being motivated to perform their duties in the best possible way.
Increase your focus and eliminate wasted time.
Wasting time at work is one of the main factors that compromise team productivity. To solve this problem, it is essential that each employee has a clear understanding of their responsibilities, goals, and expected results. In addition, the manager should monitor the progress of activities and the delivery of tasks, verifying that they are within the stipulated deadlines and of the required quality. If deliverables are not up to standard, the reasons should be evaluated, seeking direct contact with the team, as they may be unproductive due to a lack of focus, since they may not understand the importance of their deliverables to the company's results.
Technology resources can also significantly contribute to wasted time at work. Employees may use work time on their cell phones for WhatsApp conversations with friends, or company computers to access personal email, social networks , instant messaging, entertainment websites, games, shopping, etc. To mitigate this problem, the company should create a policy for the use of technology resources and the internet , establishing rules and limits regarding what can be used and accessed, defining schedules and penalties for non-compliance.
Improve communication and share knowledge.
Sharing knowledge and experiences between departments and teams can significantly contribute to increased productivity in your company. Often, employees perform tasks effectively but fail to document the processes and actions taken. Documenting this knowledge will help others learn and improve their actions. To this end, the company can utilize intranet systems, discussion forums, or an internal content blog.
Facilitating and encouraging communication between departments and employees is also important; it can speed up the exchange of information and even reduce costs associated with paperwork and bureaucracy. Instant messaging programs like Skype . Another tool that has stood out as an option for corporate communication is Slack , as it allows the creation of channels focused on specific topics or departments within the company.
Increasing productivity through management, optimizing processes, and developing employees' skills should be a key part of managers' strategies during this period of economic instability and reduced consumption.
Share in the comments what your company has been doing to maintain a strong market position and overcome the crisis!
