Having a more autonomous workflow in your business can allow your team to experience a bit more independence, while allowing you to free up some extra time for your own tasks. If this level of independence is not something that has been previously practiced, you may wish to consider implementing gradual changes, rather than overwhelming your team with a number of major changes all in one go. This can be particularly useful when dealing with older employees, or those who have spent many years working in your traditional methods.
Independent HR
Allowing your team to manage their own human resourcing needs can help to save a great deal of time. From the alteration of any general contact details, payroll information, holiday requests, and even uploading doctor fit notes, these could all be done by the individual, rather than yourself or another member of the senior management team. If you support UK employees with HR software that allows them to undertake certain tasks themselves, you may also be helping them to gain a better understanding of their working life. As an example, this means that employees will be able to see how many holiday days they have remaining, and plan accordingly, rather than having to wait to find out from another member of staff, or miscounting and ending up owing time back to the company.
Minimising Meetings
Having meetings to set out who is undertaking which tasks each and every morning is not only hampering your team’s chances of becoming more independent, but it can also be wasting you a great deal of time. Theoretically, for a one hour meeting each day, that is potentially 5 hours per working week, or 260 hours each year, that has fallen by the wayside due to mandatory meetings. Some of the time, meetings may be essential but, if not, it may be better to stick to email communications and start to allow your team to work more autonomously, especially if their job roles generally lack major changes.
Raising Knowledge
Increasing the knowledge that your team has about various aspects of their role can also go a long way towards them gaining more independence at work. By allowing them the chance to build on their skills, and become confident using working processes, they may be better equipped to manage their workload without senior members needing to step in as often. In addition to this, the extra knowledge they gain can also help business resume as normal if a manager is absent for the day.
Looking at the ways you can create an independent workplace can allow you to raise the levels of motivation and enjoyment throughout the working day. By saving yourself time, and putting a bit more trust into the individuals who work for you, you can help those around you to achieve more of their potential, and focus more on your own tasks at hand.
