Posts Tagged ‘improve’

The Top 10 Tips to Help Improve Productivity

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

This article discusses the 10 tips to help companies improve their productivity.

Productivity is important to a company irregardless of their size or the market that they are in. In this article are the top 10 tips that have been proven to improve employee productivity and performance. It is understood that human resource is the most important component of any organization. Without people, there will be no existing business, organization or company.

These tips are important areas to watch out when you plan to further increase your productivity levels.

10. Curative Training – Curative Training should be a last resort. Curative employee training occurs when productivity levels are dangerously low. This is a form of damage control to help improve already down productivity ratings.

9. Pre-Screening – Company applicants should be screened efficiently before they are accepted. Their skill level and productivity rate should be checked to make sure that they will not be a liability to the company.

8. Pre-Training and Intensive Orientation – New employees should undergo training and an intensive orientation so that they will be acquainted with the processes of the company. Once they have undergone this they will have an increased productivity rate.

7. Constant Monitoring – You are only as strong as your weakest link, and with constant monitoring you will be able to see which area of production or service you are weakest at. This way, you will be able keep things in check as soon as they occur.

6. Incentives – Incentives help motivate employees to produce more because they know that they will be getting something extra if they do.

5. Stress Relief and Recreation – Stress can cause a slow production rate. That is why activities that relieve stress should be practiced as well as recreational activities should be implemented so that stress levels will decrease.

4. Delegate and Don’t Micromanage – It may be hard to let go of some responsibilities that you feel are crucial to the company, but micromanaging will only take up a lot of your time and decrease your productivity levels. Company’s heads should delegate tasks to able and qualified individuals.

3. Modernization – Modernization does not mean ditching the old and traditional ways completely. It simply means that you will employee modern ways like computerization and robotic aide to help improve productivity.

2. Avoid the Unnecessary – If something doesn’t need to be done, then don’t do it. Fretting over useless stuff will only take up your time and decrease productivity. Why fix anything that is not broken?

1. Keep the Employees Happy! – This is one of things that have been incessantly repeated. A happy employee works the best. This analogy stretches from parenting to economics. When an employee is satisfied with the work conditions, then he/she will work smoothly and without complains. This also greatly depends on the ideals of the company. This is easy for some companies if their goal is to make their employees as happy as possible.

If companies follow these tips, they can ensure that their productivity levels will increase and they will also have better, happier and stress free environment for their employees.

How to Measure and Increase Attorney Productivity

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

To ensure the success of a law firm, there is a need to measure and increase attorney productivity. Here are some ways on how to do that.

When you are a lawyer in one of the upscale law firms in any part of the country, then you could very well be asking yourself this question: Just how can you measure and increase attorney productivity? This is one of the many questions plaguing the minds of so many lawyers these days. And this is not just because these lawyers want to have more billable hours on their hands, therefore, make more money. This is because any professional would jump at the chance to be productive. Thus, there is a need to measure and increase attorney productivity then.

If you work in a law firm, and you are one of the premier lawyers in the lineup, then there is one concept you should embrace: Delegation. This is actually quite hard for lawyers because most lawyers, if not all, like to be constantly in control. It comes with the job, you know. When you’re a lawyer, and you take on a case, you would want to know every single detail about the case, right? Both the good and the bad. This is because knowing all details gives you all the more power to control the outcome of the case, by preparing a good offense and defense. Because lawyers are so used to being in control, the concept of delegating tasks could be a bit hard. But then, if you do delegate some tasks, this would actually benefit not only you, but the whole law firm as well. For starters, when you delegate tasks to other people in the firm, you actually have more time on your hands. You can then cater to more clients, which would mean more billable hours! Of course, the tasks you delegate should depend on their importance as well. Do not delegate tasks that you alone can complete just because you want to have more billable hours.

Another concept you have to familiarize yourself with is the importance of conducting reviews. You should implement such reviews both monthly and annually, and these should be done with all existing members of the law firms present. This way, each and every member of the law firm can be given an in-depth view of his or her performance. By all members, this does not mean just the lawyers or partners. This also includes the secretaries, the paralegals, the technical staff and crew, as well as the marketing and communications staff. You may think having such reviews is not really necessary, but this is quite the opposite of what is true. When you conduct reviews, you actually get an inside look on the performance of everyone in the firm against the target performance. Potential problems are also detected and solved quite faster. Thus, these reviews can indicate the productivity of lawyers in the firm, as well as increase it.

Lastly, conducting a happy hour promo actually helps measure and increase attorney productivity. By implementing this promotion, you can then invite more prospective clients to avail of your legal services, thereby increasing productivity of the firm as a whole. More projects can then be reviewed by every member of the firm.