In part two I shared with you what I called my “tipping point.” This was the point in my life where I saw myself as the expert, and really came to realize this. It took the help of others to achieve this, but it was amazing. After this I really had a chance to reflect on the last five years of my career, and what it was that I had to offer. This is when I truly realized what it was that I had been doing all this time.
No matter where it was I was working, or what I was doing, I was always seeking out change. I am the type of person that gets bored doing the same thing over and over again. So in every business I have been involved with, I have sought out change. So many people spend so much time and effort avoiding change, but there I was seeking it out. Even though I was constantly changing, I look back and realized I missed many more opportunities for change
So now the meat and french fries. Yes, french fries. I hate mashed potatoes, and I thought since we’re talking about change, why not change it up! There are so many ways to change things within an organization, and if you’re not looking for them, you may just miss it. The administrative functions of the business hold some of the greatest opportunities. When I talk about administrative functions, I am talking about the paperwork behind the madness. A majority of office managers, secretaries, and the like get very set in their ways for how they do things. They have been doing it the same way for 10, 15, and even 20 years, and nothing is going to change them now. They spend their days dealing with dual entry, and working in massively large excel workbooks.
Don’t get me wrong, I love excel, but there are so many more ways of doing things that can make life more efficient. We are in a world of technology now. A world where the web is king, and just about anything you can think up can be done by a good website company, including administrative duties. The new age of technology allows for the creation of web applications. Any good web company can take a very manual process or a process requiring a lot of dual entry and make a web program that can streamline operations. The nice thing is these programs are hosted on the web, making them accessible from anywhere in the world. These types of programs are placed in a secure portion of your website so that only employees with passwords can access it.
Anymore you can put anything in a secure section of a website. You can host drug policies, MSDS sheets, benefits information, and so much more. You can even have it so your employees review the drug policy online, and accept it. The possibilities are endless. I have even seen a company use an app for all of their employees to initiate jobs, invoice, and complete accounting transactions. With so many outlets of technology today, if you can think it, they can build it.
Some companies have not gotten this far yet, and some companies have not even utilized excel. I can’t tell you how many of the first few companies I was in that were not utilizing Excel for calculations, and reporting. Still doing things by hand, or using a white board that hardly gets updated.
The key is automating as much as possible, and spend a little money to take some of your administrative functions to the web. In the end it will pay for itself in the staff hours spent
It’s not just about automating though. That is such a big part, but looking for things that are being done for no financial gain or for the safety of employees.
There are so many things that administrative employees are asked to do, that mean nothing to the financial well-being of the company, or to keeping employees safe. Somewhat like the TPS reports on Office Space. On office space Peter was harassed about TPS reports, and having them done every day. The reports really meant nothing, and were just a waste of otherwise productive time. Does your company have TPS reports? Get rid of time wasting tasks!
They are not there to keep your employees busy. I can think of so many things that could be done in place of time wasting tasks. One thing being customer service check-ins. Take those pointless tasks of your administrations back, and have them make phone calls to current clients to check-in. Having your admin team call a customer to ask how things are going can go such a long way. Not only does it show that you care about your customers, but it gives a chance to open the conversation for up-selling other services. So instead of having your staff waste time on unnecessary tasks, have them make some calls and dial for dollars!
These have just been a couple examples of things that could be done to change things up within an organization. These two things could decrease time spent on general office tasks, and increase the time spent focusing on customer service.
Stay tuned for the next part of this series discussing change….
No matter where it was I was working, or what I was doing, I was always seeking out change. I am the type of person that gets bored doing the same thing over and over again. So in every business I have been involved with, I have sought out change. So many people spend so much time and effort avoiding change, but there I was seeking it out. Even though I was constantly changing, I look back and realized I missed many more opportunities for change
So now the meat and french fries. Yes, french fries. I hate mashed potatoes, and I thought since we’re talking about change, why not change it up! There are so many ways to change things within an organization, and if you’re not looking for them, you may just miss it. The administrative functions of the business hold some of the greatest opportunities. When I talk about administrative functions, I am talking about the paperwork behind the madness. A majority of office managers, secretaries, and the like get very set in their ways for how they do things. They have been doing it the same way for 10, 15, and even 20 years, and nothing is going to change them now. They spend their days dealing with dual entry, and working in massively large excel workbooks.
Don’t get me wrong, I love excel, but there are so many more ways of doing things that can make life more efficient. We are in a world of technology now. A world where the web is king, and just about anything you can think up can be done by a good website company, including administrative duties. The new age of technology allows for the creation of web applications. Any good web company can take a very manual process or a process requiring a lot of dual entry and make a web program that can streamline operations. The nice thing is these programs are hosted on the web, making them accessible from anywhere in the world. These types of programs are placed in a secure portion of your website so that only employees with passwords can access it.
Anymore you can put anything in a secure section of a website. You can host drug policies, MSDS sheets, benefits information, and so much more. You can even have it so your employees review the drug policy online, and accept it. The possibilities are endless. I have even seen a company use an app for all of their employees to initiate jobs, invoice, and complete accounting transactions. With so many outlets of technology today, if you can think it, they can build it.
Some companies have not gotten this far yet, and some companies have not even utilized excel. I can’t tell you how many of the first few companies I was in that were not utilizing Excel for calculations, and reporting. Still doing things by hand, or using a white board that hardly gets updated.
The key is automating as much as possible, and spend a little money to take some of your administrative functions to the web. In the end it will pay for itself in the staff hours spent
It’s not just about automating though. That is such a big part, but looking for things that are being done for no financial gain or for the safety of employees.
There are so many things that administrative employees are asked to do, that mean nothing to the financial well-being of the company, or to keeping employees safe. Somewhat like the TPS reports on Office Space. On office space Peter was harassed about TPS reports, and having them done every day. The reports really meant nothing, and were just a waste of otherwise productive time. Does your company have TPS reports? Get rid of time wasting tasks!
They are not there to keep your employees busy. I can think of so many things that could be done in place of time wasting tasks. One thing being customer service check-ins. Take those pointless tasks of your administrations back, and have them make phone calls to current clients to check-in. Having your admin team call a customer to ask how things are going can go such a long way. Not only does it show that you care about your customers, but it gives a chance to open the conversation for up-selling other services. So instead of having your staff waste time on unnecessary tasks, have them make some calls and dial for dollars!
These have just been a couple examples of things that could be done to change things up within an organization. These two things could decrease time spent on general office tasks, and increase the time spent focusing on customer service.
Stay tuned for the next part of this series discussing change….
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