Recently, we’ve been supporting a few businesses who are experiencing huge demand for their services, but who are being held back by their systems and processes. There’s no doubt that the business world is bouncing back from the pandemic, and it’s great to hear that many organisations are entering “feast” time after what was, for some, a real “famine”. But if your business operations aren’t set up to handle large volumes of work, it can be so frustrating.

We’d never advise a short-term fix over a sensible, long-term solution – but in situations like this, there are some simple steps that can be taken for those ‘quick wins’ – whilst the bigger issues are identified and properly addressed. Here are just a few that we would suggest – please talk to us for more information, or for a deeper review of your business capability!

  1. Know your skills gaps: remote and hybrid working has resulted in many employees setting their own learning and development. Whilst this is great in so many ways, it can also lead to over-qualification in some areas, and large gaps in others. We’d always recommend a quick skills audit to understand strengths and weaknesses.
  2. Get hot on reporting: knowing where you are on a project or programme (even if it’s a scary place) is vital. MI dashboards don’t need to be numbers-heavy. If reporting falls within your remit, think about simpler, visually impactful ways to help stakeholders see the big picture. The same goes for client/customer updates – you’ll be thanked for your honesty and proactivity, even if you have to call out the fault-lines.
  3. Know your workflow inside-out: and if you can, risk-rate the various gateways. That way, you’ll be able to focus more attention or even deploy temporary additional resources on the tricky areas.
  4. Don’t forget to communicate: but don’t overdo it! In times of stress, it’s important to remind your workforce of your mission and your strategy (in a way they will understand!) De-clutter unnecessary communications ‘noise’ (even put a brake on them in the short-term, if necessary) – and impress upon Line Managers the vital role they play in ensuring that teams feel engaged and aligned.

What’s been your experience with ‘quick wins’ versus longer-term goals? Do you have any tips or techniques of your own? We’d love to hear from you!

Email us at optimise@smarttasking.com