20 WAYS TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE – Reduce Duplication
Productivity means higher output using your current resources, or achieving the same level of sales with less resource.
Duplication occurs when a workflow or process has evolved over time, possibly between different departments of the business with no one controlling how it evolves. It can also occur when staff are not trained adequately or don’t understand the work they have to do sufficiently, that they create additional work to ensure they cover their tracks. I have witnessed crazy things such as a highly qualified accountant taking out a calculator to add up a column of numbers in an excel spreadsheet. When he was asked why he needed to do that, and not just use the SUM function in the workbook, he replied that he didn’t trust the computer (yes this was this century). This is a rather extreme case of duplication, but you get the point.
Duplication can be difficult to see. Sometimes it may be a result of two people doing the same or similar function in two separate parts of the business, and both are under utilised. This is a duplication of effort, and costing you the salary of two people instead of maybe one, or one full time and one part time. Being in different departments is not a reason to not combine the workload
Centralising, or sharing common tasks performed in lots of different areas of the business can be cost effective as organisations grow.
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