Friday, 27 March 2020

Why Is Transportation Mapping the Solution for Your Business?

Maps were and still remain the primary tool of transport regulation. The changes they have undergone open new opportunities to business and government. With the full range of options, transportation mapping is employed in different spheres to optimize the workflow, maximize revenues, and diminish expenses.

So, what are the benefits your business can reap from using transportation mapping?

Supply Chains Maintenance

The cooperation of analytical and engineering departments enables you to find the best location for your warehouses. With GIS in transportation, the logistic becomes simpler because of storages and routes visualization. Comparing loads and data, you can choose the most profitable locations for your supply chain.

Highways Monitoring

Local authorities can apply transportation mapping to manage the workload of highways. It enables them to monitor different road sections and implement attained data in transport regulation. In the long run, this analysis helps to maintain the highways more effectively and develop proper infrastructure in corresponding areas. When visualizing maps outputs, transport bureaus can optimize traffic flows by impeding accidents and blocks.

So, with this in mind, companies can plan optimal routes and reduce fuel use and vehicle operating cost. Intelligent maps also allow managing delivery information and calculating the time for traveling from one stop to another. Therefore, it diminishes adverse impacts on business, minimizes economic harm, and enhances customer satisfaction.

Public Transport Optimization

As GIS mapping works decently outside the cities, its effectiveness can be exploited in urban areas, as well. Primarily, it helps optimize the operation of public transport on a daily and occasional basis when navigating visitors to the location of concerts, boards, and other events. It is especially beneficial for metropolitan cities with different kinds of public transport.

Local entities face challenges when arranging directions. They have to cover vast territories of the city, connect its parts, and optimize time for stops. Per se, interactive maps provide a solution to this issue since they show arriving units and ridership in real-time due to the use of auto-updated pieces.

As for the taxi, drivers can find custom routes to save commuting times and expenses on every ride. With the help of spatial mapping on mobiles or tablets, they can observe the territory with excessive road load, traffic congestion, accidents, blocks, or road maintenance and construction on the way.

Wrapping Up

Transportation mapping emerges as a useful tool for business and local authorities. The organization of supply chains, development of urban transportation system, construction, and maintenance of highways attain data for processes optimization. When visualizing areas and objects, the one gets a complex understanding of the issue for monitoring traffic in the cities, preventing the collapse on the roads, and storing raw materials and goods.

GPS in car -DepositPhotos

The post Why Is Transportation Mapping the Solution for Your Business? appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.



source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/business-resources/transportation-mapping

Thursday, 26 March 2020

6 Tips for Remaining Present and Engaged All Day Long

Workplace distraction is one of the biggest issues facing productivity today. Up to 70% of workers admit to feeling distracted during the day, a feeling likely to cost businesses serious money as time goes on. 

As the coronavirus outbreak causes offices to pack up and workers to head home, new distraction problems may arise. Each office and home brings with it a unique set of potential distractors, but sticking to a few simple techniques can help you keep your focus and maximize your well-being during the workday.

Whether you’re in the office or working from home, maintaining engagement is crucial. Here are a few ways you can do so:

  1. Don’t multitask

“Multitasking” is actually a misnomer — those who try to perform several different actions often fail at successfully doing any of them. Stanford University researcher Clifford Nass found that workers who regularly multitask are severely impaired when it comes to distinguishing important information from irrelevant information. As tempting as it can be to take on several tasks at once, keeping things separate almost always produces the best results.

Those working at home might be particularly tempted to multitask, as doing housework or taking care of family members during work hours becomes an option. Instead of trying to do everything at once, make a detailed schedule of your workday, and set out chunks of time for performing each task. Taking things on one by one allows you to devote your full attention to what’s at hand, ensuring you’re doing your best work on your current task.

  1. Use audio note-taking

Keeping track of important calls and meetings is crucial, but using notes to do so can seriously inhibit your ability to focus. Trying to write and listen at the same time can be draining, and things are bound to get lost in the shuffle. One of the best ways around this is through audio note-taking. 

Jonathan Keyser, founder of commercial real estate brokerage Keyser, uses audio note-taking to stay committed to one of his core principles of being 100% present. Recording meetings allows Keyser employees to be fully present in the moment and still be able to review the details of the meeting later. Unlike traditional note-taking, audio recordings allow you keep track of relevant points without having to split your focus in the moment. 

  1. Start your morning right

Far too many people neglect the importance of the first hours of the day when it comes to focus and productivity. Dan Airley, bestselling author and behavioral economist, found that people are up to 30% more productive in the 2.5-hour window after they wake up. Spending too much time in the morning on your phone, checking emails, or otherwise wasting time will hurt your ability to stay engaged later in the day.

There’s no secret formula to the right morning, but it’s important to be intentional with your early hours, regardless. While some workers will want to start their day as soon as possible, others might find it more valuable to do some exercise and eat a full breakfast before starting work-related tasks. Whatever you choose, make sure every moment of your morning is part of your larger day-long plan for staying engaged. 

  1. Take mindfulness breaks

Taking breaks is crucial for maintaining focus, but breaks have to be done right to have the desired effect. First, you have to schedule breaks at appropriate times and intervals. While systems like the Pomodoro technique have long been popular for maintaining engagement, new research has begun to push back. An analysis from DeskTime found that the most productive workers take a 17-minute break for every 52 minutes of work. This might not work for everyone, so make sure to try different intervals to find which has the biggest impact on your ability to be present.

What you do during breaks is also important. Practicing mindfulness during your time away from the desk — whether that’s through meditation, exercise, or listening to music — can help you stay alert and engaged later. Make sure not to let work bleed into your breaks; keeping the two separate is crucial for making breaks effective.

  1. Separate home and office

Your work life and your home life need to be separated, too. Newly minted remote workers might find this particularly difficult, as ersatz home offices may make it impossible to keep the domestic from mixing with the professional. Ariane Wepfer of the University of Zurich found that workers who integrated work into their personal lives reported feelings of exhaustion, having lost the ability to fully recover from their time on the job.

The best ways to keep the two separate — especially when working from home — is through strict scheduling and delegation. The same way you might set aside time to prevent multitasking, make clear time blocks for working and clear time blocks for your personal life. If any issues related to one or the other come up during an opposing time block, delegate them to someone else. If you let the two mix, you prevent yourself from being fully present at either. 

  1. Optimize your workspace

Office design has an outsized influence on how your levels of engagement fluctuate throughout the day. If you’re the kind of worker who regularly communicates and collaborates with others, isolated cubicles can seriously hinder your mindset. Workers who need space should also take notice — from 2010 to 2012, the average square footage per worker in an office shrunk from 225 to 176.  

Seriously consider what you need your workspace to look like. Factors like space, noise, and ease of communication are all crucial, but you might have other personal considerations to factor in. If you’re working from home, choose a room that suits your demeanor and needs if you’re hoping to maintain the levels of engagement you’d have in the office. 

Being present at work means increases in both satisfaction and productivity. While it can be easy to coast through most days, taking the time to focus in on your engagement levels can pay dividends — both figuratively and literally.

The post 6 Tips for Remaining Present and Engaged All Day Long appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.



source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/remote-working/stay-engaged-working-at-home

Typical Mistakes Every Amateur Entrepreneur Should Avoid

It has never been this easy to put up your own business. This is the reason why various industries are saturated with new startups and solopreneurs. Are you one of them? Congratulations! Unfortunately, though, the likelihood of a new business surviving its first five years still hasn’t improved.

On the bright side, there are typical mistakes that you can avoid as a beginner entrepreneur in order to improve the survival rate of your business. In this article, we are going to share with you what these crucial mistakes are in the form of a checklist, along with some helpful questions that you can ask yourself to gauge how well you’re doing. Let’s get started!

Mistake #1: Misinterpreting the Risks

First of all, it’s important to understand that starting any business always requires a certain amount of risk. It just depends on careful calculation to determine which risks are worth taking. The question is, are you doing it wrong?

There are two ways in how amateur entrepreneurs can miscalculate the risks involved in a venture: they are either risking too much or too little. This will also dictate how much money they are putting out.

Am I Spending Too Much?

We’ve all heard of the saying that you need to spend money until you make money. However, that isn’t always necessarily true. There are some instances when you need to invest on good equipment and in hiring the right people in order for a business to turn into a well-oiled machine, but not to the extent that you’re already “faking it till you make it”.

Am I Spending Too Little?

On the flip side, there are entrepreneurs who err in the side of caution, holding on to a bare minimum expense until they reach a certain amount of cash-flow. The problem is, what if an excellent opportunity comes along and it’s exactly what your business needs to propel it to your cash-flow goal? Or what if you want to diversify your investments to prevent the inevitable?

If you simply don’t want to tap into your capital, then you can consider looking into various business loans online. They can help you get the amount you need immediately, while at the same time, spreading that expense over the course of your monthly repayment scheme.

Mistake #2: Misreading Your Target Demographic

Here’s another miscalculation that new entrepreneurs usually miss: misreading the target demographic, or worse, completely missing the right target audience from the start!

Is There Really a High Demand for My Product or Service in My Target Demographic?

Some entrepreneurs believe that they know their target market from the inside out. Honestly, most of us don’t. For instance, one can make the mistake of believing that there’s a high demand for a certain product, and therefore price it too high leading to loss of sales.

Have I Targeted the Right Audience?

On the other hand, you’re probably on point in creating a high demand product or service. The problem might lie in the fact that you’re marketing it to the wrong group of people. For instance, let’s say that you want to create handmade journals. Your initial target market is students, when in fact, these journals are more in-demand with travelers and artists.

Mistake #3: Lack of Foundation

Finally, we’ve observed that a lot of new entrepreneurs simply lack the foundation needed to put up a business. There are different elements that make up a business, after all.

Do I Have a Solid Business Plan?

The first of them is a business plan. Never start any business without a plan. It should contain your financial goals, the actionable items you need to do to attain those goals, the details about your products and services, marketing strategy, and more.

Do I Have Enough Capital and Resources?

Do you have everything you need for the launch? Do you really need to buy all your equipment brand new? If you lack the funds, then you should know that there are loan for startup business options and other methods (like crowdfunding and finding angel investors) that you can explore to get the funds you need.

Do I Have the Necessary Skills?

Finally, it’s not enough to just be good at what you enjoy doing. It would immensely help if you understand the other aspects of your business as well, such as digital marketing and product photography. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to learn new skills online.

There are other mistakes that an amateur entrepreneur can fall into, but the ones that we have mentioned above are those that you should never check in your checklist. We’re confident that taking the time to create a solid foundation for your business to stand on, hitting the bullseye in choosing the right target market, and carefully calculating all your risks right, will help you reach your ROI faster and attain business success for the long-term. Good luck!

failing young businessman -DepositPhotos

The post Typical Mistakes Every Amateur Entrepreneur Should Avoid appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.



source https://tweakyourbiz.com/growth/entrepreneurship/entrepreneur-mistakes

Data Management Software: 4 Proven Benefits for Your Business

Businesses accumulate a lot of information, that’s just an unavoidable fact of day to day operations. And even though when you start a business, it’s possible to get by using Excel sheets and .doc files, eventually, the amount of information becomes overwhelming, making it obvious that a better solution is needed.

Many experts actually believe that managing data is just as crucial as obtaining data in the first place. And they make a strong case.

After all, no matter how much tangible data you can accumulate, it won’t provide you with any useful insights if you aren’t able to manage it effectively.

Luckily, that’s where data management software can be so useful.

A Data Management System (or DBMS, as it’s also known) provides a range of benefits that not only make day-to-day operations easier but can help make significant improvements in company performance as well.

But how exactly can data management software help?

Let’s explore some of the biggest advantages it can offer your business below.

Accessibility to Data

Having all of the necessary information is at the very heart of making the right business decisions. Still, if you don’t have a structured system for storing, sorting, and accessing data, your team members and employees are going to be limited in terms of information that they can look up.

For instance, if you have a sales team, you want them to have all the tools and data that they need to close as many sales as possible. A lot of times, the difference between making a sale and losing a lead is timing and understanding of what approach to take. Therefore salespeople need to have access to data about each prospect that they are dealing with.

Using tools like PowerBI for analysis is great, but you need a way to insert various types of data, sort it, and access it, which is where data management software is essential.

You can control the amount of data that is shared, allow end-users to instantly share folders and documents via a secure network, and set up a permissions system that ensures that the data is accessed by authorized personnel only.

Whether you’re working in a single office, or have multiple locations, including remote members of the team, having a single database ensures that the work can run smoothly no matter where different people might end up and that the time required for accessing and managing data is reduced to a minimum.

Powerapps consulting services providers often cite access to data as a key factor in helping their clients develop apps and other innovative solutions, which is why database systems that can help you attain that are so important.

Since data plays such a vital role in developing apps, integrating with data management systems such as SharePoint becomes a central part of the process. The good news is that, with the help of consulting experts, these solutions can be adapted to each company’s needs, seamlessly integrating into the workflow and serving as a helpful tool that helps find the best approach in every situation.

Improved Accuracy

Data is only as useful as it is accurate. Unfortunately, when dealing with multiple databases that are accessed by many people every day, inaccuracies are hard to avoid and can lead to disastrous outcomes for the company.

Luckily, with the help of data management software, you can ensure that your databases remain consistent and that unauthorized changes cannot be made.

A common problem with data integrity is when users accidentally insert the wrong data in a given field. For instance, when filling out a form, someone might try to enter a date into a field that is reserved for contact information.

Without a data management system, this type of error could go unnoticed and cause an error in the entire database. However, most solutions available today have safety measures to ensure that these types of mistakes are avoided, prompting the user of their error before it can be finalized.

Data integrity is not only important in the data entry phase but needs to be maintained throughout the entire life cycle, including data transfers, updates, backups, and merges.

If you choose a proven and reliable data management solution, you can rest assured that your data will be consistent and that these types of mistakes will be avoided. Any inconsistencies will be immediately noticed by the system, and you can even add your own safety measures to prevent common mistakes from occurring.

Higher Productivity

A big part of success in business revolves around providing your team with everything they need to succeed. That’s why companies spend millions on consulting services trying to gain an edge that can help their employees achieve more and make the most out of their time.

Luckily, not all measures for increasing productivity have to cost a fortune – by simply improving your data management practices using the technology that’s available today, you can provide a significant boost to your team’s productivity by making their day-to-day lives easier and more convenient.

The purpose of data management software is to keep things organized, which is something that your team will surely appreciate.

Instead of having to dig through endless folders to find the document or piece of data that they’re looking for, it will be accessible with a quick search and a click of a button.

If one team needs to share something with another, it will be as simple as sharing a folder through a secure network, instead of having to follow complicated protocols to ensure that the data remains protected.

Whether your team members need to generate reports, review past data to find the best decision in a tough situation, or track the trail of expenses by looking at the spending in any given period, all of that becomes easy if you have a system that keeps all of your data neat and organized.

An added benefit of using a data management system is that since accessing and sharing data is so easy, people will be much more willing to use it, which can lead to them continually finding new ways to improve operations, as well as generating new ideas that can help propel your entire business forward.

Better Customer Experience

Finally, when you manage to improve the management of data in your company, that will benefit your customers as well.

When executing lead nurturing campaigns, you will undoubtedly compile massive amounts of data about different segments of your audience, their key characteristics, as well as their preferences and common outcomes with various approaches.

Since you have a convenient way of managing data, you can then use all of this information for analysis, coming up with insights about how to improve your approach in the future, and how you could provide a better overall service to your customers.

Over time, something as seemingly simple as a convenient way to manage and access data can completely transform your business practices and provide you with a massive edge over the competition; every decision that you make can be backed up with tangible data from your own experiences.

Data-driven businesses are becoming the norm across industries and can help drive sales for your business, so making the switch to a data management system is not only practical; it’s an absolute must.

data metrics, successful employees -DepositPhotos

The post Data Management Software: 4 Proven Benefits for Your Business appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.



source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/technology-trends/data-management-software-benefits

How to Find the Best Homeowners Insurance

Your home is the most substantial investment you will make in your lifetime, and that means that you need to protect it. When it comes to finding the best homeowners insurance, you want to be a little bit picky.

There is no shortage of insurance companies who say they can offer you the best policy at the lowest rate. But they can’t all be right. Thus, when it comes to zeroing down the right insurance for your home and property, follow the tips listed below.

Get the Right Coverage

Every state has requirements for their homeowners insurance, and if you take out a loan to buy your home, then your financial lender will probably have some rules and regulations as well. If you are underinsured, this could have a huge impact on how much money you have to pay out of pocket to repair any damage that might occur to your home.

On the other hand, too much coverage isn’t helpful either. Then, you’ll be paying more than necessary each month for your premium. Thus, when it comes to finding the right coverage, it’s advised that you buy enough insurance to cover the labor and materials to completely rebuild your home. Since this amount can vary depending on where you live, talking to an insurance agent is the best way to find this figure.

Make Sure Your Assets Are Covered

In addition to getting the best homeowners insurance to cover your home in case of repair or replacement, you also need to protect the other assets on your property. Based on the insurance company you work with, the ability to cover your assets may be included in a basic plan, or they might be extras. If they are addons, this could have an impact on how much you pay for insurance each month.

Some of the assets you should consider covering include the following:

  • Sewer backup – if a municipal line failure causes the sewer to back up into your home, having this insurance coverage will help you pay for the cleanup and damage costs
  • Extended replacement cost – depending on the coverage you get, this could pay between 10 to 50 percent above the limit of your basic building costs; this could be beneficial if rebuilding your home ends up costing more than you anticipated
  • Contents replacement cost – a basic insurance plan may only reimburse the depreciated or cash value of your belongings if they are stolen or damaged from your home; having this add on will ensure you get the full reimbursement value of any contents of your home that you have documented as belonging to you
  • Inflation protection – the price of building materials increases from year to year, and if you have added this extra to your insurance policy, you won’t pay these extra expenses out of your pocket

Look for Ways to Lower Your Monthly Payments

When it comes to finding the best homeowners insurance, not only does it cover everything you need it to cover, but the payments are also affordable. Some of the ways to lower your monthly payments include doing the following:

  • Bundle your coverage – Getting homeowners and auto insurance from the same company can help you save every month.
  • Increase your deductible – The higher your deductible, the lower your monthly payment; consider raising your deductible from $500 to $1,000 to save money on your monthly payments.
  • Make some home improvements – Adding a home security system, upgrading old plumbing, or replacing the outdated electrical system in your home are all ways that you can save on your monthly insurance bill.

After investing your hard-earned money in a home, make sure you are protected. Finding the best homeowners insurance may take some time and effort, but it’s worth it.

homeowner paperwork -DepositPhotos

The post How to Find the Best Homeowners Insurance appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.



source https://tweakyourbiz.com/growth/personal-growth/homeowners-insurance

3 Tips to Make the Best Marketing Report

A marketing report is a document that shows the performance and progress of your marketing campaigns to your clients (or bosses). The main purpose of this report is to determine if your marketing strategies are going in the right direction or if you need to make adjustments. If you have one chance to impress them, this would be the time.

Often, marketing reports are full of jargon and lone numbers that leave clients scratching their heads. In this article, I’ll list out 3 tips you can use in your marketing report to impress your clients and make sure they understand what it is you’re trying to do.

Use Report Templates

Pulling individual weekly data is tedious, and all those hours are best spent on real work. Leadership and clients want to see all the important data in one place, so the key is to create effective reports quickly.

By using a template, you can speed up the process of making the daily, weekly, and even a monthly marketing report. These templates tend to offer a user-friendly interface that allows clients to see what they really need to see and skip the unnecessary fluff.

With a marketing template, you won’t be so overwhelmed with the key performance indicators (KPIs) you want to follow for each marketing campaign.

A good template will provide you a frame to build on, and you can start to customize your reports according to what makes sense as you can easily find KPIs that you use often, notice what’s missing, and what you would like to analyze together.

Start with Goals

Typically, your clients would be receiving a report at the end of the month. It’s normal that they lose track of the goals they have for each marketing campaign.

Somewhere at the beginning of the report, you should remind the clients (and yourself) about the goals you’re working towards. Be clear about each goal. Some goals you can include are monthly or annual revenue goals, monthly traffic to your client’s website, and the monthly number of leads you should be bringing in.

Goal writing gives you something to compare to with your current progress, and you’ll see how the small monthly steps you’re making now will add up to reach the end goal. This will also give your clientele a realistic expectation of their return on investment.

Explain the Numbers

Simply leaving numbers on the report can be a disaster as it is open to interpretation.

“Why did the number of site visits drop this month? Are you slacking off?”

If you were trying a different approach to marketing, your clients deserve to know. Was there a site issue that you had no control of? Again, let the clients know.

Even if there was a sudden spike in site visits, perhaps due to a shoutout from a celebrity, your clients can know what to expect the following month and even pivot their own business strategies if needed. This will also increase your client’s confidence in what you can do for them.

marketing analysis concept -DepositPhotos

The post 3 Tips to Make the Best Marketing Report appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.



source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/marketing/creating-marketing-reports

5 Data Points to Help You Track Your Team’s Productivity

Productivity — the art of efficiently doing more — creates a more fulfilling work environment for everyone. Of course, what separates industry leaders like Apple and Google from their peers is a deep focus on maximizing productivity. One influential analysis found that, despite comparable numbers of high performers, these top brands outproduced their competitors by up to 40%.   

The takeaway from this shocking statistic? Businesses can either galvanize their employees to reach new heights of productivity — or get in their way. 

In many cases, businesses unintentionally slow their workers with inefficient procedures, debilitating infrastructure, unnecessary duplication of efforts, and dated technology. A Bain study found “organizational drag” hobbled up to 20% of an average firm’s productive capacity. 

If you’re looking to remove common obstacles to productivity, understanding your team’s current performance is a must. 

As Peter Drucker, the doyen of management literature, pointed out years ago, measuring productivity in the knowledge economy isn’t easy, especially in remote work culture. Checking off the number of automobiles a factory produces by labor hours is uncontroversial; figuring out whether a graphic designer’s inviting new webpage layout was an effective use of time is more difficult.

The challenge, then, is knowing what’s worth measuring. With the array of analytics tools at our disposal these days, it’s important to separate the signal from the noise. Different industries may vary in their metrics, but experts agree these five key performance indicators (KPIs) are critical for ramping up productivity.

  1. Overall Productivity

When evaluating productivity, it’s best to start with the simplest, most global measures. 

Calculating this number is a cinch. Simply take the number of goods or services provided, and divide that sum by the labor hours invested to generate this output. You’ve now got a foundational measure of business productivity.

That can give you the broad-brush landscape of your company’s aggregate performance with its current human resources. Making even marginal improvements to this figure can raise companies to new heights of prosperity.

That said, this global measure outlines only the most basic contours of productivity. What’s missing is the kind of granular detail that allows you to diagnose which parts of your business are humming along efficiently and which parts need more streamlining. To fill in those blanks, you’ll need to supplement this total with other metrics.

  1. Overall Labor Effectiveness

Measuring companywide productivity is like looking at your favorite college football team’s record over the last century: It’s a place to begin. But it’s not very useful in finding answers to more pressing questions, like how well its defense should perform this year. Nor does it offer much insight into how to improve productivity.

That’s why analysts resort to a more multifaceted approach to the data in the form of Overall Labor Effectiveness (OLE). OLE examines the interaction of three factors: availability, performance, and quality. Availability looks at how much time workers actually spend on a task. Factors such as absenteeism, equipment malfunction, and poor management all impact this number. 

Here, performance is linked to quantifiable outputs. While quality can be assessed in different ways, it’s evaluated here in relation to production — how many goods and services aren’t saleable, deemed defective, or get returned.

Where measuring bare productivity offers little diagnostic insight, OLE can help identify root causes of lagging output. It might be a lack of scalable procedure for onboarding new clients, or maybe it’s the need for new tech solutions. Whatever the case, you’ll be able to see more readily where the problems lie. That can be crucial data for evaluating notoriously hard-t0-gauge stats, like ROI on training. It’s also a useful starting point for improvement and forecasting. 

  1. Revenue per Employee

Is your workforce worth its wages? Which workers should get promoted, and which ones should you let go? Should you hire new employees? If so, in which departments?

These are the big questions managers and human resources professionals ask themselves every day. After all, businesses can only pay the employees they can afford.

While these decisions depend on multiple factors and can be hard to make, it’s best to look at the hard data on how much revenue each employee is responsible for. 

Nowhere is this measure as important as it is in sales. How much a salesperson closes directly reflects her productive value to the company. There are other relevant metrics to consider in assessing performance, of course, but this is a nonnegotiable baseline.

In other sectors, this metric becomes a crude way to assess value. Instructional designers or customer service representatives typically don’t directly generate lots of money but try to succeed without them.

  1. Units per Hour, Function Points, and Cycle Time

In some industries, such as warehousing or agriculture, units per hour still make sense as a basic measure of productivity. 

In service-oriented sectors of the economy, however, this can be a lot harder to get at. This is particularly challenging when a team undertakes long-term, multi-step processes. 

In completing complex projects, the best way to evaluate productivity is to divide them into discrete tasks, measuring the cycle time it takes for teams (or individuals) to cross off function points. That offers insight into just how efficiently the team is working, as well as demonstrating progress toward long-term goals. 

To track this effectively — particularly while your team collaborates remotely or your stakeholders have spread outlook into a customizable work OS like monday.com. According to monday.com, work operating systems are an asset to any team, especially for remote teams. Effectively collaborating is much more challenging from afar, and a working OS ensures that everyone is aligned on tasks and goals while providing visibility into progress and productivity. 

  1. Planned-to-Done Ratios

Another invaluable virtue of workflow optimization solutions is the insight they provide into project completion habits. Do you have an employee who over commits and underperforms? Do some of your employees have more capacity for work but aren’t volunteering? Is it better to have a true multitasker or a slow-and-steady operator who reliably bangs out one job at a time?

If you don’t have hard data to back up your intuitions about these questions, you need to collect it. Assessing planned-to-done ratios can reveal a lot about how agile your team is — and what can be reasonably expected to look forward. 

Because productivity is so closely associated with revenue growth and profit margins, businesses need to measure it carefully and use this data well. To get a big picture snapshot, start with gross estimates of overall output relative to overall input. Then, drill down to specifics, using metrics like cycle time and revenue per employee. Home in on specific instances of organizational drag to improve them. 

With advances in workflow optimization, managing tedious analytics has become much easier. That’s good news for companies looking to follow the productivity paths blazed by companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and General Electric.

The post 5 Data Points to Help You Track Your Team’s Productivity appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.



source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/track-productivity

Improving Your Client Reporting with Reliable SEO Software

Excellent customer service is the cornerstone of all great companies, even search engine optimization providers. According to a recent sur...