How can you reduce the costs of your workforce?

And no, the answer isn’t sacking all your staff! The key to reducing costs and increasing productivity in the workplace is automating processes.

How often are you frustrated by being unable to find important information at work? Or stressing about the amount of time it takes to carry out simple processes against deadlines, such as expense submissions?

With automated processes, you can improve productivity and save money by reducing the amount of time required for simple tasks, such as searching for documents.

Let’s take a look at the numbers:

If say 50% of your 500 employee workforce was able to save 5 minutes per day searching for information, such as phone numbers, policies or forms, the cost saving would look like this:

50% of 500 = 250 employees
An average cost of £1 for every 5 minutes per person = £250
£250 x 240 working days = £60,000 annual saving

The evolution of intranet systems into the ‘digital workplace’ means self-service tools are becoming increasingly easier for organisations to access.

Reducing the amount of time required for information searches isn’t the only benefit of this. Internal communication and project collaboration are also much more efficient and engaging. Research from Gallup suggests that, worryingly, only 13% of employees feel engaged. To improve this, specific digital project areas can be created, recording all interactions between employees and efficiently communicating project developments with the wider team.

Employees are able to complete basic administration tasks online in a consistent manner within faster time-frames. This reduces the number of errors and enables staff to dedicate more time to being effective in their job roles. Most systems are now also highly intuitive, removing the requirement for technical knowledge or budget to be spent on advanced training.

So, in conclusion, reducing costs in the workplace lies within making the processes for basic tasks more efficient for your staff. Of course, there will be initial costs in implementing a digital workplace approach in your organisation, however the long term savings and benefits of improved productivity substantially outweigh this.