Have you taken advantage of automation yet? Automation is part of modern workspaces today and will be the benchmark for profitable businesses in the near future. Not only does automation drive sustainable business, it minimizes risk and is often called a process that is ‘win-win’ and ‘doesn’t have a downside’. Organizations everywhere have been more empowered to save time and money with automation.
Automation is, in short, simply the process of digitalizing and streamlining the services and processes an office uses to maximize efficiency. It doesn’t stop at an office going paperless; rather, it continues through all the processes at a company and encompasses new, effective technologies that digitalize information and store it. So how do you take advantage of automation? Here are just a few ideas.
Integrate Automation into Your Sales Department
With handheld technology that allows for barcode scanning came the ability to take inventory in just a few hours, even when there were thousands upon thousands of items to be inventoried. Today, this means that listing things on your business website for sale is easier than ever. If you sell a tangible product, you can scan an item and have the quantity listed without having to do anything manually. Other than the scanning, everything can be done by an automated process, including the listing itself. Of course, as items are purchased, the quantity goes down and you can ensure you are alerted of the depletion.
Think About Automating Your Staff Tasks and Schedules
When someone called off in the past, it could be a disaster. Finding all of the data and necessary information to give to the person who is filling in for the call-off can be a time-consuming process that will only cost you money. However, with a combination of cloud services and data management services, it can be easy to pass necessary information from one employee to another without having to go through much hassle at all. This also means that schedules can be a little more flexible, and that a shift is just as productive as it needs to be.
Automating Payroll
Automating payroll can save hundreds of man-hours. Many companies have already done this, even if they only have a handful of employees. It involves clocking in and out on a digital system, whether that means online or a physical system that is integrated with ID cards or ID numbers. This means checks do not need to be cut manually, and can, in fact, be sent to a system that calculates everything. The onset of direct deposit requires even less effort and less manual involvement; it also means that people get their checks earlier and have no need to wait for the bank to process and approve their paychecks.
There are many ways to automate an office, and the more things you strive to automate, the more time and the more money you and your business will have.
