Author: Felipe Borba

10 tips to increase your productivity

Increasing productivity is the goal of any company that seeks success. After all, in short, productivity is the relationship between the use of inputs and the quantity produced.

Thus, increasing productivity is related to producing more with fewer resources. The key issue, though, is to maintain quality and customer satisfaction.

Increasing productivity is essential for positive results in a more and more competitive environment.

Although everyone knows, especially managers, the importance of productivity and better results within the organization, it is not uncommon to come across a completely opposite scenario.

Unproductivity, unfortunately, is a reality in many companies.

Therefore, it is essential to boost it in practice. So, learn how to increase productivity within your company:

1. Set clear and measurable goals

One of the main factors to increase productivity is to establish clear goals and objectives. After all, it is necessary to understand what is expected and the time it takes for its delivery.

Obviously, these goals need to be feasible and aligned between the company and its workforce. Otherwise, a positive result will not be obtained.

From the moment employees are clear about their role in the company and their priorities, there is greater engagement. And, consequently, higher productivity.

To know if your productivity is increasing, you need measurement metrics. In this sense, list a responsible person, to monitor results and analyze whether they are within planned expectations.

2. Develop strategic planning

If the goals need to be aligned with the company’s objectives, it is necessary to know what strategies will be adopted for a certain period of time.

In this way, the elaboration of strategic planning is also a way to increase productivity. But how?

To carry out strategic planning, a detailed study of the entire environment in which the company is involved is necessary. That is the market, the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities, and threats.

Thus, this planning will indicate the organization’s guidelines – which have a full correlation with goals, productivity, and professionals’ performance preparations.

In addition, planning also contributes to the allocation of a monetary percentage for investments that will increase productivity even more.

3. Invest in technology

Undoubtedly, one of the main allies of companies is technology. This resource can organize and improve management, processes, communication, and general performance.

Currently, several platforms and systems guarantee errors, failures, and cost reduction. Including those that are specific to each activity branch.

It is indisputable how digital transformation is capable of generating great gains for businesses. There is greater ease and speed to perform activities and functions, ensuring greater agility, convenience, and operational efficiency.

In addition, many software tools assemble information in reports that facilitate decision-making.

Furthermore, technology has brought mobility, helping managers and professionals to work.

4. Organize the workflow

It may happen that unproductivity arises because there is no consistent workflow. In other words, a professional can be overloaded, or an activity can be acting as a bottleneck that delays the entire task sequence.

In this sense, increasing productivity is related to the best way to carry out activities. And, for that, it is necessary to draw up an action plan, delimiting those responsible, involved, and deadlines.

Having organization and control over the flow of activities allows you to analyze and identify bottlenecks, failures, or rework.

In addition, control allows listing which activities do not need to be carried out at all, and can be performed by technology instead.

5. Automatize your processes

Increasing productivity is directly related to performing activities that are fundamental and strategic in the best possible way.

Therefore, bureaucratic activities that are not part of the company’s core business can be carried out with the help of technology.

In this way, it will be necessary to map the tasks performed daily. This will allow identifying activities that are not connected to strategic objectives and can be automated. Process automatization will allow the activities flow to run faster, better, and with a lower rate of errors.

Thus, all professional efforts will be focused on those activities that can generate competitive differentials.

That is, what is repetitive and bureaucratic can be performed more effectively with software such as BPMS.

6. Include continuous improvement

At this point, you can already see that the activities and the way they are carried out are the keys to increasing productivity.

In this way, the continuous improvement methodology allows analyzing the processes so that they have the best performance and execution.

For this, it is necessary to observe the way it is currently being carried out and its inefficiencies. And then find better, more productive ways to improve them.

This is a cycle that never ends. From the moment the improvements are implemented, it will be necessary to analyze the results obtained and identify new flaws.

Even the automatization of processes contributes to this culture, as it provides performance reports, being, in many cases, the solution to improve procedures.

7. Have good input management

If increasing productivity means doing more with less, managing all the company’s inputs well is essential, especially when considering the resources needed for production.

Ineffective stock management, for example, is capable of stopping the production process due to a lack of inputs. Another issue is the misuse of available resources.

These two points, by themselves, contribute to slowing productivity down.

Adopting technology to ensure available resources are well managed is one of the main alternatives to guarantee that the company will continue to produce more, with less, and with quality.

8. Train your professionals

Potentializing results is linked to making good use of available resources. Therefore, it is necessary that employees develop skills to perform their jobs masterfully.

Offering courses and training increases productivity within the company, even if indirectly.

In addition to being a fundamental part of transforming knowledge into better results, training is a way to demonstrate the importance that each employee has for the company.

In this way, these professionals end up working more motivated and centered, resulting in high performance.

9. Clear and transparent communication

Little of what we say will have any effect if there is not assertive communication, which is the passport to success in all areas of a company.

When people know what is expected of them and are free to express their opinions and provide input, there are extremely positive impacts on relationships.

This sense of belonging and acceptance contributes to increasing productivity, as it strengthens the bonds between professionals.

Therefore, invest in tools that can unify and encourage transparent dialogue with bulletin boards, intranet, and management platforms.

An effective way to contribute to clearer communication is to record and monitor the flow of activities.

Many BPMS tools allow those involved in a process to know who is responsible for each activity. Thus, when a task happens to be stalled or delayed, it is easy to identify who to talk to and resolve the situation.

This objectivity provides not only speeding up execution but a correct and positive approach with the professional involved.

10. Create and cultivate a collaborative culture

Who has never heard the saying that “together we go further”? And, this is a reality in the corporate environment.

When there is a network of mutual collaboration, everyone involved is committed to everyone’s success. After all, it is the sum of the small results that makes it possible to reach the stipulated objective.

In this sense, increasing productivity also involves creating an environment conducive to developing a collaborative culture.

In addition, this culture can be associated with training, where the professionals themselves pass on their knowledge to other colleagues.

Increasing productivity in practice

By following these 10 tips there will be increased productivity. However, like any strategy, this one also requires planning.

Because of that, we suggest that you start slowly and do what you consider to be a priority first.

Then, as you see improvement, include the other tools to increase productivity.

And if you have any questions, or need more information on the subject, just write them here in the comments!

ESG is a very important tool for organizations. After all, we are talking about management focused on responsibility towards society as a whole.

Arguably, no business is an independent body. So much so that they need to manage resources and actions to minimize the impact caused by their activities in the society and community in which they are inserted.

Another issue is that today’s consumers care about the origin of the products or services they acquire.

It is not uncommon to see news about boycotts of companies that use inputs of dubious origin, for example.

In fact, there is currently a lot more attention being paid to companies’ positioning regarding environmental, social, and governance sustainability.

In this sense, ESG is an acronym increasingly present in the corporate environment.

And, it also became synonymous with competitiveness, focusing on expanding the sustainable and ethical impacts of organizations’ strategies.

What is ESG?

ESG is an acronym that stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance.

It’s a practice that aims to integrate social, environmental, and governance efforts, in other words, business sustainability.

As companies are not isolated organisms, they need to walk and look for sustainable, responsible, and social welfare-oriented alternatives for their products or provided services.

ESG emerged in 2004, and is defined as practices that positively impact the environment, society, and the corporate world.

In this sense, ESG for companies has 3 pillars, each with specific practices:

Environmental: As you might imagine, this pillar is directly related to practices that respect the environment. ESG sustainability involves responsibility for reducing or mitigating environmental impact. In this way, it includes adopting programs focused on correct waste disposal, recycling, and elimination, as well as circular economy, among others.

Social: This pillar refers to practices aimed at developing the community economically. Thus, it involves minorities’ representation, equal rights, inclusion policies, training programs, and job security, among others.

Governance: Corporate Governance is the third ESG  pillar and it seeks to ensure that companies act ethically, and transparently, with compliance and equity. In this way, it aims to improve the entire corporate environment, ensuring the interests of investors and stakeholders are met but in accordance with rules and laws enforced by regulatory bodies.

Why should my company invest in ESG?

Arguably one of the main reasons for joining ESG is the responsibility for your company’s practices.

Currently, consumers, suppliers, and investors are more aware of social issues. They preffer to consume or partner with businesses that care about their community’s well-being.

However, it’s not just about how the company is seen. Adopting an operation with ESG criteria boosts responsible investors’ adhesion.

Being responsible, sustainable, and social positioning can increase profitability. After all, consumers accept paying a higher amount if this added value is present.

In addition, this practice is capable of improving customers’ and consumers’ experiences.

And, as there are actions to improve and value professionals, turnover is reduced, making it easier to adopt solutions to increase performance and performance.

In this sense, ESG helps an organization increase its productivity, agility, and relevance.

In addition, commitment to the company and the business increases, considering that the organizational climate is appropriate and respectful.

By adopting solutions that improve the way of working, there are greater chances of observing and taking advantage of business opportunities.

ESG is currently essential for a company to grow and remain in the market in the long term.

ESG and process automatization

As mentioned, ESG has practices to reduce waste and improve professionals’ quality of life.

In this sense, process automatization is directly related to the ESG pillars. After all, it automatizes bureaucratic and unproductive activities.

If employees waste a lot of time answering emails or doing repetitive activities like taking notes, it is possible that their satisfaction and motivation are low.

Process automatization facilitates execution, eliminating irrelevant tasks, and increasing productivity and agility.

On an enterprise scale, automatization streamlines end-to-end processes. It actually blends sustainability goals directly into the flow of business activities.

In addition, it allows professionals to focus on more strategic activities, creating competitive advantages and, consequently, achieving greater customer satisfaction.

And since the flow of activities needs to be mapped to implement processes automatization, better ways of execution become easier to find.

In the same way, business process automatization is directly related to a paperless culture.

In other words, when document digitalization is included and the use of digital is encouraged, the use of paper and its environmental impact is reduced.

Process automatization allows for greater information tracking, improved management, and more assertive decisions through the use of accurate reports.

It also makes it possible to track process performance, identify bottlenecks, and monitor everything based on real data and meaningful metrics.

Processes automatization allows the company to adhere to a Risk Management program, and fulfill requirements imposed by the ESG, such as:

• transparent management;
• recognition of all members of the organization;
• environmental policies;
• implementation of reverse logistics;
• responsible use of natural resources;
• identification and commitment to the company’s objectives;
• relationship management;
• transparent communication;
• clear, real-time accountability;
• presentation of financial reports;
• between others.

Automatization, ESG, and the Future

The future is undoubtedly green. In fact, managers of the future will have to make decisions based on reducing environmental impacts. Based on data, values​​, and responsible ethics.

In this sense, companies need to be prepared to have an increasingly sustainable management.

As time goes by, this issue will become even more evident and important.

Solutions that automatize processes allow companies to achieve their sustainability goals, improving, mainly, those areas that have more bottlenecks or that present greater errors and waste.

The use of software to help execute routines within companies will be essential for those who want to retain clients and professionals.

At the same time, it allows tracing and achieving competitive differentials.

The use of technology allows companies that adopt the ESG practice to be ahead of their competitors. Receiving greater emphasis in relation to agility and operational efficiency.

Obviously, the use of technology needs to be facilitated. Therefore, low-code tools, which can be easily customized by users, are the most suitable.

In addition, there needs to be integration between the other systems used internally. This allows data to be collected and analyzed globally.

Implementing ESG companies can still be considered an option. However, companies that already adopt this practice are ahead in the market.

Environmental issues, proper use of resources, and social well-being are themes that will be increasingly in focus.

Therefore, talk to our representatives and find out how the Fusion Platform can improve your management and help your business to walk the path of sustainability and social responsibility.

Did you have any doubts about it? Write in the comments, and we’ll help you!

Neomind is your business partner toward a greener, sustainable, and automated future.

That platforms that use low-code technology reduce the backlog of an IT department is nothing new. In fact, this kind of development has been available for some time now.

However, the business world has been changing even faster. Companies that were just crawling toward digital transformation have had to race to catch up with their competitors.

This pandemic-driven phenomenon has demonstrated how low-code tools are a viable way to modernize a business with little impact.

However, low-code reduces IT’s backlog precisely because it’s simple to modify. This includes the use and customization by people with little technological knowledge.

In short, the demands is solved by using professionals from other areas, preventing from piling up.

What is a low-code platform?

Low-code means that users, and not only the developers, have the freedom to create their own applications. This includes those without any coding experience and knowledge.

Low-code reduces IT’s backlog because it unburdens the department. A tool like this allows you to create screens, graphics, and business rules without requiring an expert. Most low-code platforms use a simple and intuitive drag-and-drop system.

How does low-code reduce IT’s backlog

Within your company, is the technology department the only one with the knowledge to improve workflows?

If this is your reality, the probability that your sector is overloaded with requests is very high. This is where a low-code platform reduces the IT backlog.

Platforms that use low-code/no-code technologies give total access control to the user. In this sense, they bring the possibility of creation and a high degree of customization to users in an intuitive way, with less cost and time.

Thus, employees from different departments can analyze and solve their problems without depending directly on the IT team.

Ease of customization

Low-code platforms are extremely adaptable to each company’s reality and needs. Even firms that are direct competitors have different ways of working, which means that their demands are specific.

With a low-code platform, it’s possible to automate workflows without requesting specialized help. This creates convenience and makes maintenance easier to perform.

The benefits of not having to wait for a developer or technical expert do not only reach agility. But, mainly, the costs, which become much lower. After all, the user himself will be the one to customize the tool.

The customization becomes assertive because the user knows his difficulties and knows how to use the technology to solve them.

Decentralization and democratization

As companies are transforming digitally, IT is struggling to meet ever-increasing demands.

In this sense, it’s essential to reduce the barriers of software development. Low- code reduces the IT backlog, passing the operational role to users with no programming knowledge or experience. This results in IT being a strategic player, focusing more on competitive differentials and the organization’s core business.

Obviously, for a platform to be used in an integral way, the company needs to adopt governance practices. Reflecting, mainly, when it concerns to formalities and communication.

It’s a fact that, at first, users may be a little afraid of the democratization of the creation and customization that low-code platforms provide. However, when the business prepares in the right way, communicating to employees, and emphasizing that support will continue to be offered by the IT area, both the reception and the process are improved.

The decentralization of low-code applications makes companies much more agile and competitive. But all the benefits will only be achieved if the platform used is reliable.

Consider that low code reduces the IT backlog when everything happens as expected. So, adopt a secure tool and educate users on the responsibility of handling data and information.

Low-code and the future of IT departments

The more companies walk towards a technological path, the greater the use and demand for low-code/no-code tools.

This is not only because of the higher demand, but also because the technological advances and transformations enable them to keep up with the endless changes brought on by the market.

Thus, technology professionals need to be ready to understand that low-code will be advantageous, adopting the platforms as a partner in business development.

Undoubtedly, it’s necessary that organizations adopt the automation of processes with the organization of activities, designing processes with a focus on the use of BPMS software. The sooner they do this, the less resistance there will be within the IT department, and in the company as a whole.

Conclusion

It’s undeniable how much low-code reduces an IT’s backlog. Its benefits include enhancing and improving company processes.

This always comes down to using reliable and secure tools. Especially when it comes to data archiving and processing, such as using a BPM connected to the cloud.

This’s a great differentiator, especially in this new era of technology, in which hybrid working models have been expanding. Adopt a completely low-code tool such as Fusion Platform. Fusion, besides being user-friendly, is feature-rich, secure, and mobile.

In other words, all employees can access information pertinent to the processes they are participating in. All this regardless of where they are or how they access the system.

To experience and prove how low code platforms reduce the IT department’s backlog, try Fusion Platform for free for 15 days, or talk to one of our consultants.