Welcome to issue #28 of Pondering Leadership: A Deliberate and Thoughtful, Yet Informal Look at Leading and Managing. Welcome to my new subscribers! Thank you for reading. Last week, I wrote about job burnout. If you recognize that you are burned out at work, I hope you can use some of my suggestions to start to feel better about things. This week, I’m writing about cost cutting. Budgets are funny things. Every industry is different and every organization within each industry can have different priorities. Here, I am presenting a few ways to use technology to save time, which saves money, which might work for many situations.
Many of our workplaces are not using technology to the fullest. We see technology in big picture ways like keeping track of inventory or accounting functions. But there are other day to day processes that we can automate to save time and improve efficiency.
Do you have a storefront open to the public where people come in and register for events or discounts? If you are having people fill forms out or if you’re filling out forms for people, stop it! Put that form on your website or app that customers can access. Also save it on a shared drive that all staff can access from every computer in the building. This streamlines the process, so all of the information is in one place. It creates an efficiency because anyone can check the form online without having to search the premises for the binder or the folder of sign-up slips. It helps the customer to be able to input their information correctly. Plus, it saves paper. #savetheplanet
Do you have to create and maintain a staff work schedule or a service desk schedule? Are you doing it manually? From personal experience, I know how much time that takes. There are many scheduling software products available for you to consider. There is a bit of set up time, but once your system is set up, scheduling will take less time going forward.
Do you call customers to tell them their orders are ready or their products have arrived? There are tech tools that will let you automate that process. You probably get voicemail when you call most people, so you are not eliminating a chance to personally interact with your customers. You are saving staff time so they have more time to spend with customers in person.
Your Turn…
How have you used technology to streamline processes to create efficiencies to save time and money? You can comment in Discussion.
Thank you for reading issue #28 of Pondering Leadership. I hope to see you next Thursday afternoon for issue #29 when I will offer more ways to save money. Thank you for supporting my writing.
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