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We’re living in an era where technology is changing faster than has ever been seen before. If you don’t keep up, you can end up left behind.
As an operations manager, this isn’t an option. Your company’s success isn’t solely on your shoulders, but it depends strongly on how well you stay up-to-date with evolving technology.
We saw this clearly when COVID-19 shut down the world, forcing companies to go virtual or go broke. Since then, many businesses have continued the digital processes they implemented during the quarantine, seeing them as not just beneficial and safer but cost-effective, too.
As a leader in your company, it’s up to you to ensure your workflows and processes use the latest technology, including automation and AI, where possible.
Since we’ve seen firsthand how quickly systems change, this can seem like an impossible task. Yet, using these tips, you can keep your operations updated and stay ahead of the competition.
1. Digital Analytics
An integral part of your job involves evaluating what’s happening in the industry and your company, predicting what might happen later, and combining the two for optimal outcomes. Since you’re likely not psychic, the closest thing you can be is a proficient data analyst.
Luckily, technology makes this much easier than ever before. The field of digital analytics gives you software that analyzes your company’s data using various sources and compares it to the industry averages.
Using this info, you can suggest changes for areas that need improvement or offer ideas that drive future decisions.
2. Management Skills
How well you can handle project and risk management is an essential part of your job’s success. As the operations manager, you’re involved with planning projects from start to finish, establishing and following up on timelines, and assessing each phase for risks or opportunities for growth.
In each of these categories are other aspects that must be managed, such as training and execution and budgeting for the project. You’re establishing and evaluating every step, then communicating your findings with staff and stakeholders. If any challenges or obstacles arise, you’re fixing them (or delegating the fix).
The proper technology makes this complex job much simpler. When you’re using a mix of software to design your spreadsheets and complete your other tasks, merging them is a headache.
But by staying up-to-date on the latest project management software, you can integrate everything into one platform. This improves collaboration and communication and lets you coordinate the steps to meet your goals.
3. Task Automation
Any construction project manager knows that one of the most important elements of a successful construction project is keeping track of employee hours. In the past, construction timekeeping was a time-consuming and error-prone process, often done with paper time cards. However, construction timekeeping software has made it possible to track employee hours electronically, with far less room for error. By using construction timekeeping software, your employees will be more productive and organised, which will save you time and money in the long run.
The right technology can take every potentially automated task and make it a digitized part of your workflow.
Take a step back and think about what goes on in your daily role. Are there times when you get a little irritated about doing things that are so easy “a monkey could do them?” Those tasks could be automated if you knew the technology that could do the job for you.
Now, move on and start thinking about the other positions in your company and the tasks that are involved in each of those roles. Where could an automated process make the wheels in the system move smoother?
For example, are you still collecting logging and travel expenses by hand after a business trip? Those days are long gone, but if you don’t know what software is out there that does this for you, you’re still stuck in the Paper Age.
Worried that automating processes would mean your staff has too much time on their hands? Many business managers say the opposite is true. When you automate workflows and reduce mundane tasks, employee productivity often skyrockets.
Your workers have more time to spend on customer satisfaction and deeper-level completion of important tasks. Employee job satisfaction increases because they feel that their abilities are recognized and, in some cases, challenged and rewarded.
This part of your job is done in two parts. First, you must get to know every part of each role in the company and what’s involved in doing the job. Then, you monitor new technology as it hits the pipeline and remain alert for ways to make those jobs streamlined.
If integrating technology with the current workflow is done well, your staff is happy that their jobs are easier. Your customers are satisfied that they get the quickly disappearing human touch and impressive service.
Conclusion
Staying on the cutting edge of technology can seem like you’re trying to pin down a wave, but you don’t have to catch everything coming around the bend.
Follow your industry trends, watch for tech software and gadgets coming through in these three categories, and be ready to implement them. You’ll see a change for the better in your company when you start doing this consistently.
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