Investing in supplies, hardware and tools to get more from your staff

Investing in supplies, hardware and tools to get more from your staff 1

Business is all about making the right investments so that you make more money back than you spent. This might mean investing in the best staff with the hope that they’ll be able to help you earn more money back, or it might mean investing in bulk materials so that you can make more money back from the services or products you create with them.

When it comes to productivity, investing in the right tools and supplies is highly important. These are the things that your employees use in order to be productive, and this means that they can potentially help them to be more productive and creative without having to spend any more time or effort than they were previously. In short then they help you to get more from your staff and thereby help you to get more from your investment.

Here we will look at some ways that investing in the right tools can help you to get more from your staff.

Supplies

Close up / Macro of four felt-tip-pencils in green, yellow, blue and orange Little Pencil free creative commons

Office supplies include basic things like pens rulers and pencils and these are highly important for helping you to get the most out of your staff. When it comes to signing something or taking down notes your staff will need pens and pencils and this means that they won’t be able to accomplish those tasks until they have those supplies. If they then have to spend ten minutes searching for a pen, or they have to sharpen the one pencil they can find, then that’s time wasted that could be better spent. As such then, in order to maintain the very best productivity from your staff it’s highly crucial that you not only search for the very best supplies, but that you make sure they are well maintained and that you have plenty spare in case some get lost or damaged. This is one reason why you should order your supplies wholesale (in bulk), and at the same time if you do this you’ll be able to save money by getting them at a lower cost per item.

Hardware

Ray and Gaba working at Odeo

Your computers and other hardware are essentially more multifunctional versions of your pens and rulers. Again if hardware is slow to load and keeps going wrong then this is going to prevent your staff from being as productive as they should otherwise be. Say your computer slows down and it takes a good ten minutes longer to load every morning, then if you multiply that by the number of computers and then consider that some people will restart their computer a couple of times during the day then that’s several hours worth of paid labour you’ve lost by not keeping the computers maintained or by not investing in the most powerful machines to begin with.

Likewise by giving your staff more hardware tools to work with you can help them to accomplish things they otherwise wouldn’t have means to, and you can even help to benefit the reputation of your business – there are few things that make your company look like it’s modern and hip than one of your staff pulling out an iPad to convey an idea or some information to a member of staff.

Software

The right software can again allow your staff to do things that they otherwise may not have been able to. In many other cases though it can simply automate something that previously would have taken time and effort. While professional software can be a large investment, if it enables you to greatly increase your output, it is yet another investment that’s worth making.

About the author: Jason Bruce is a renowned business blog owner and pays a great emphasis on Business Office Supplies. He recommends some great intellectual ideas for the better working of office staff.