You pay your staff a lot of money and you need return on investment for the time they spend at work but overloading them with tasks will backfire and see them resign or become burnt out.
There is a productivity ‘sweet spot’ that will see your team feeling positive about what they achieve in a day without being overwhelmed, but it’s not always easy to find it.
To help you out, these are some popular and outside-the-box workplace productivity shortcuts to reduce your team’s daily workloads and stress levels:
Use AI
The obvious use of AI is ChatGPT, which has been around for about a year now. This platform is free in its basic form and can be used to come up with ideas and get you off a blank page when it comes to creating content. Note that the words it generates always needs to be edited; people don’t like to see an obviously AI-written article, email or social media post).
If your staff are losing time crafting emails or content, get them to see if they can find ways to use this tool to shorten the process.
Here are a couple of tools that leverage AI to help you achieve more time with fewer resources:
- Midjourney is ChatGPT for images. It incorporates AI functionality so you can make original images with a few prompts.
- Chatbots are a worthwhile investment to speak with your customers when nobody from your team is available. They can’t answer every question but they can qualify leads, which is a great timesaver.
- BHuman.ai allows you to create a video of yourself then upload a script with different words. The platform will automatically make fresh content so you can personalise your communications with clients.
Fire some clients
This comes back to the 80/20 rule… that 20 per cent of your clients take up 80 per cent of your time.
Some people enjoy complaining and making things difficult. This makes your staff second-guess themselves as well as losing time responding to issues that other clients don’t have a problem with.
If you have clients who make your heart sink when you spot an email or realise it’s them calling, think about letting them go. This can make space for two or more clients who are less trouble and take time-wasting jobs off your staff’s plates.
Create and save video instructions
Once your team starts to grow, without fail there will always be someone who is unwell, on holidays or off work to deal with a personal crisis. These things are inevitable but the result is other people have to try to figure out how to take over.
Ask your team to use software like Loom, or even their phone, to record videos of their essential daily tasks. Upload everything to your drive or Dropbox folder and your fill-ins will be able to hit the ground running.
Use a freight consultant
If your business sends a lot of goods, you’re probably losing hours dealing with carriers, following up on missing deliveries and trying to find the right service/price.
A freight consultant will take this off your hands, giving you access to a more streamlined freight experience on an ongoing basis. We can also walk you through the technology and automations that will reduce manual data entry and minimise human error.
This is an investment that delivers ROI in terms of money as well as time because a freight consultant can also let you know if you are spending too much with your existing carriers.
Raise your prices
This is a less direct way to free up staff time but it can be effective.
Put it this way: if you doubled your prices and lost 50% of your clients, your team would have half the work and you earn the same amount of revenue.
Doubling your prices may not be an option, but if you have not adjusted what you charge over the last couple of years it may mean your staff are working harder than ever to meet their targets. This leads to mistakes and can cost you even more money.
Speak to your team about their workloads; they may have ideas to help maximise productivity; and think about what can be outsourced so your team can put their skills to the best use.
Want help to reduce the time your staff spend managing freight in 2024? Reach out to EFS today!
