Office Efficiency in Omaha, Nebraska

When it comes to keeping an office running smoothly, it’s all about utilizing your resources wisely. After all, if the work environment is in chaos, productivity and job performance will suffer among other equally important things. Maximizing efficiency in the office is the ultimate goal for all, but getting there will require taking a different path for each after carefully considering the approach and resulting plan of action that’s the best fit for that particular business or organization.

Headshot - Michael Holroyd - Holroyd Investment Properties, Inc. (HIP)

Michael Holroyd – Holroyd Investment Properties, Inc. (HIP)

The first thing to take into consideration is the office itself, and if you have things set up in a way that supports the greatest possible efficiency. When it comes to office space, particularly for those who are looking to open a new office, shopping around has become important because many that are managed by local commercial real estate properties have a nice selection of amenities available to tenants. One great example of this is the centrally located HIP/OffiCenters Executive Office Suites. Michael Holroyd of Holroyd Investment Properties (HIP)/OffiCenters explains, “HIP, OffiCenters offers a full service office environment for all of our clients and their customers. When starting a business or moving a company into a new location there are always startup costs involved, which generally includes hiring a support staff and buying office equipment. The time and effort required to accomplish these tasks can hinder how efficient a business will run, especially in the beginning. Our office eliminates those extra tasks and allows your business to start off strong and productive from day one. A trained receptionist, office manager, phone services, high speed fiber-optic internet, an executive conference room, copy center, janitorial services, all utilities paid, and free parking are all available on-site and at no additional cost.”

He further advises, “Office efficiency goes hand in hand with how successful a business will be or become. When customers can see and feel a strong sense of team work, and productivity within a business they are more likely to trust that company and feel comfortable referring them to others. The best way to achieve this trust is to make sure that your company is operating at the highest standards. Having the correct tools on hand to make operations run smoothly is only one key factor.  What really makes a company efficient and productive is having the right people in place to make sure the job gets done correctly.  HIP/OffiCenters has been in business for over 20 years and we pride ourselves on our consistent star quality service that would not be possible without a team of strong individuals working together to make our business a success.”

Headshot - Megan Lipert-Murphy - Executive Answering Service

Megan Lipert-Murphy – Executive Answering Service

“Office efficiency is all about utilizing your resources and communication,” adds Megan Lipert-Murphy, owner of Executive Answering Service. “I would say the most common issue that our clients face with respect to office efficiency is not being able to be available to their clients/customers during the times they are busy, in meetings, closed, and so on. Providing a solution to this problem is our area of expertise—as an extension of your company, our professionals handle all incoming communication seamlessly as directed during the times you are otherwise occupied. Similarly, we can increase efficiency and productivity for our clients by assisting with all of their phone needs even while they’re in the office or their place of business. By being available during hours of operation, this frees up our clients to focus on their office duties and the needs of their clientele. With our after-hours services, we can ensure that our clients are available to their clients/customer, whether it involves relaying messages or connection to on-call services.  As business owners our customers are our top priority; we want them to feel cared about and assured that we will be there for them whenever we are needed. With the help of a professional answering service, you can ensure that a representative of your company is available, even when you technically aren’t.

She adds, “Customer and employee satisfaction are critical for businesses to be aware of when it comes to office efficiency and productivity, and communication plays a fundamental role in both. Having an open door policy with employees will increase productivity because they will feel they have input in things around the office, feel safe and also feel valued as an employee and individual.”

Terry Herr LaRue Coffee & Roasterie

Terry Herr
LaRue Coffee & Roasterie

Speaking of customer and employee satisfaction, let’s talk coffee! “LaRue Coffee & Roasterie has many solutions for improving and increasing efficiency and productivity,” says Terry Herr, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for LaRue Coffee & Roasterie. “We provide fresh coffee solutions that will allow team members to stay energized throughout the entire day. A fresh coffee program will help the productivity as the team member will stay alert and is apt to be more social with peers and clients, leading to higher levels of customer service overall. Furthermore, some offices allow team members to leave the facility to go to the nearest coffee shop, which takes away productivity and can be a liability to the business all while the company loses money due to lost productivity.

A fresh coffee program can allow team members to stay engaged and have business conversations in the break room while pouring their fresh cup of coffee. We recommend including the team members in the decision by asking them about what will make them happier and more productive in the workplace as it relates to the fresh coffee station. In some cases, just adding a new flavored creamer can be the best thing since sliced bread for the office. It is all in the details, presentation and the items offered in the beverage center; this can be a driving force in happier team members.”

As far as any common problems the company helps its clients to address, Herr explains, “Feedback we hear the most is that when a team member goes to get themselves or a client a cup of coffee, they find that the pot/carafe is empty. We suggest two ideas: 1. Designate a rotating person to help monitor the area and keep the coffee/beverage station full and stocked; or 2. Move to a single cup system such as a Keurig K-cup system or a bean-to-cup machine, which is a specialty coffee machine that grinds the whole bean fresh and makes espresso shots, mochas, lattes, cappuccinos and more in less than 30 seconds. This has allowed businesses to raise the bar for the level of service they provide their team members, ultimately improving the morale and increasing productivity. Our non-coffee options are a big hit as well. Items such as tea, slushies, iced coffee or popcorn are other great options to boost morale and productivity!”

Indeed, all of the things working together to keep your office running smoothly are generally critical functions to the success of the business overall. These are most often the things that you might not excel at yourself, which means that you’ll likely be at your most efficient if you can bring alongside professionals in their areas of specialty, thus allowing you and your team to focus on yours too. Accounting, payroll and various tasks related to human resources are all great examples of this, as performing related duties and even managing these areas can prove to be very time consuming and detail oriented.

Joan Kurtenbach Paychex

Joan Kurtenbach
Paychex

Joan Kurtenbach, Small Business Consultant with Paychex, elaborates in saying, “Most of our clients are small- to medium-sized businesses, and owners and employees wear multiple hats out of necessity.  It can be very difficult for people to keep flipping back and forth from different types of activities, causing critical compliance matters to be overlooked, creating penalties and audits.  By streamlining to one integrated process, this frees up owners and key business personnel to focus on revenue producing activities and business growth without worrying about what they may be forgetting.

Two of the largest areas of where we have provided efficiency for a lot of our clients is timekeeping and payroll management.  When a client has to collect time cards and add them up manually, this takes a lot of time and is often an area where errors are made.  By automating this process with either an integrated time clock or a cloud based timekeeping system, we not only ensure accuracy and save time in calculations, we go a step further and provide visibility for employees to their work schedules, PTO balances, and shared PTO calendars.  In addition, we create efficiency by streamlining the payroll payment process for our clients.  We integrate paying employees via direct deposit or live checks with one simple click.  Then, after that is done, we automatically pay all the taxes and file all the tax returns for our clients, that way they don’t have to remember dates and amounts due going forward.  It frees up our clients to focus on growing their business, not paying their taxes!”

She continues, “Paychex’s mission statement is to help America’s businesses succeed.  To do that, we truly partner with our clients, offering support anywhere they need it along the employee lifecycle.  Depending on the client, we can provide efficiencies at a variety of points along this process.  Sometimes, this can be assistance in recruiting and applicant tracking, to keep their candidate pool organized and filtered to find just the right employee.  We can provide assistance in new hire onboarding, streamlining all the paperwork that an employee has to fill out to one online integrated process.  We also can support our business clients with timekeeping, processing payroll, paying payroll taxes, filing quarterly returns and even help support clients with choosing benefits and managing all the benefits administration.”

Office efficiency will be important to all else that goes on within your business or organization – the more efficient you are, the more you will accomplish and alternatively, if you’re disjointed or don’t have the right systems in place to support your day-to-day necessities, your business will ultimately suffer. With that in mind, even the businesses that have mastered certain areas of efficiency will still have other aspects that could be improved upon. Therefore, continually assessing where you’re at and comparing it to where you want to be will be the most telling about where you could become more efficient. As outside perspective is often incredibly helpful in providing clarity, make sure to utilize the expertise of our local professionals so that you can be the absolute best at what you do!