Increasing the level of productivity in your business is no easy task. In fact, it can require you to change the way your company manages its targets, internal communication, teamwork, and many other aspects. 

However, this is not to say it is complex. Using simple, implementable strategies, you can improve productivity within your business and even improve your own efficiency when you’re in the office.

Here are seven ways to increase the productivity of your business today:

Organize your content and data in one single place

If you only can only follow one productivity strategy, this should be it. You need to keep your company data on one centralized smart platform. This will allow staff members to access the content relevant to them wherever they are, on any device. By using software like Microsoft Sharepoint, you can keep track of everything from human resources to the sales team. Your staff can keep everything from their company healthcare benefits to their daily workload on one platform, too, dramatically reducing the amount of administration and time spent searching for relevant documents.

Get your employees to work to their strengths with remote working

While it is important to maintain a level of discipline in the workplace in order – especially when you’re trying to increase your business productivity levels – the days of the traditional workplace are quickly fading. Thanks to the rise of remote calling apps and the recently enforced remote working across the world, people are becoming used to working from home or from wherever suits them best. 

While this is not ideal for all businesses, there are countless use cases. For instance, if you run a sales company, this allows your salespeople to take their work with them when they travel to meet clients, which will allow them to get their work done faster. 

On another note, many people find themselves more productive working from home alone and have seen their productivity shoot up in an environment free of distracting colleagues, water cooler talk, and a preassigned desk.

It is therefore crucial that, as a business owner, you embrace this trend and use it to your advantage, creating a more productive company as a result.

Introduce a culture of dynamism 

The rise in remote working has highlighted another shortcoming with many existing business environments – the lack of dynamism. When you sit at the same desk day in, day out, you can quickly lose focus, with productivity levels the inevitable victim. 

While many business owners are more comfortable when they know exactly where their team is at any one time, it can actually make the business suffer as a result. Instead, find innovative ways to inject spontaneity into your daily business routine. 

You could, for example, organize regular team building events, forcing staff members to work with colleagues from different departments and getting a change of scenery.

Alternatively, allowing your staff to change their seating position on a routine basis is a great way to mix everyone’s days up and regain focus.

Set clear, achievable targets and stick to them

You can’t achieve increased levels of productivity within your business without setting regular targets and working towards them until they are completed. Yes, this is obvious, but it is all too easy to become distracted and forget the big picture when you’re tackling a problem in depth.

Go one step further by personally explaining company targets to your employees. Explain the rationale behind your ambitious targets, and how you personally are working to achieve them. This will both boost morale and increase the amount of effort and focus your staff put into their work. After all, unless you know why you’re working on a task, you stand no chance of being productive. 

Cut down on meeting lengths, phone calls and unsolicited interruptions

This is a strategy you can use yourself on a daily basis to reduce levels of distraction and skyrocket your efficiency. This is because, as a business owner, you are inundated with calls, emails, texts, and social media messages. This is not to mention the regular interruptions by assistants, staff members, and pre-booked meetings that last far longer than necessary.

This problem can be solved with a simple but tricky to implement strategy. 

Inform everyone who needs your attention on a regular basis during work hours – your colleagues, business associates, board members, and external suppliers, for example – that you are not immediately contactable. Point them towards your assistant. If it is a business threatening emergency, she can interrupt you, but this is very rare.

Instead, schedule calls at designated times with preassigned lengths in order to work your routine around it. This will maximize your daily work output and lift overall business productivity as a result.