3 ways businesses can reduce admin and streamline operations
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Whether you’re an acclaimed agency or a small start-up business, embracing the digital age will save you time, money, and effort wherever you are.
Whatever industry you are in, finding ways to reduce admin and streamline working life should be a top priority. This ensures you are maximising profits and successfully using the talents of your workforce.
Read on to discover how modern technology can start to improve your business operations.
Increase flexibility with cloud storage software
Given the rise of remote working during the coronavirus pandemic, switching to a paperless operation means you can work from anywhere, any time.
With recent advances in modern technology, cloud storage has risen to prominence in the business world. Meaning the flexibility of digital files is fast replacing tired filing cabinets bursting with paper.
The big advantage of this being, you can save time with easy access to retrievable data. Cloud storage software like DropBox saves everything to an external storage hard drive, which anyone on your team can have access to (so long as you permit them).
Better yet, projects are securely tucked away and the likelihood of losing any work is greatly reduced. Beforehand, physical hard drives could go missing along with all your time and effort. But with cloud storage, data isn’t held on a particular device. So, for example, if you lost your laptop , you can pick right up where you left off with another.
Reduce the hassle of admin with fuel cards
Businesses that are permanently mobile — like delivery firms and transport companies — can reduce admin in a similar way to remote workers. For example, many operations have been going paperless through the use of fuel cards.
Going paperless not only boasts an array of environmental benefits, but it also helps streamline your overall business operations. And to top it off this can also be a simple fix anyone can implement here and now.
Business tools like a Shell Fuel Card are often underestimated because of their overt simplicity. Yet Shell Fuel Card, among other options, is an effective way for businesses to roll back on admin and streamline tasks (particularly if day to day activities involve a lot of driving).
They produce an electronic receipt which eliminates the need for drivers to hoard bits of paper to claim back VAT. Also, from an accounting standpoint, fuel cards bypass tedious admin work by creating an HMRC compliant invoice. This means expenses can be claimed back by a business with minimal effort.
Schedule social media posts with a digital planner
While the web can be credited for streamlining industry in many ways, modern business has also been able to expand off the back of it’s biggest cultural commodity — social media.
To build a social media presence that people want to engage with you need consistency and quality, two things that require dedication and meticulous planning. Along with all this comes more work to juggle. Consequently, many smaller tasks can be forgotten or left incomplete if you don’t use the right tools.
Many companies adopt social media planners such as Hootsuite to manage their online presence. This proves to be far more successful than painstakingly uploading individual posts because it removes an element of human error from the process.
When managing a company’s social media feed there is a lot to consider, particularly if you are a technological novice or tasked to handle swathes of microtasks at a large company.
From social copy, publish dates and project trackers, there’s a huge amount to keep track of without mentioning the sheer number of social media platforms around — Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and LinkedIn to name a few.
Hootsuite and other social planners allow you to control all of the above from a simple interface. Plus you can bulk upload posts which helps you to stay consistent for long periods. This means that employees are free to tackle new/more demanding tasks. Also, the simplicity of the tool reduces the likelihood of mistakes and missed uploads.
Recommended reading: What lessons can businesses learn from COVID-19?
Modern tech has brought about several tools which help businesses streamline their operation and reduce the frequency of pesky admin tasks.
From fuel cards for drivers, storage software for remote workers or management tools for social media gurus. No matter what industry you are a part of there will always be a way to make working life easier.