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ResourcesIncrease profits with a Usage GroupDo you have a group in your organization whose mission is to increase the use of technology and therefore your ROI? The operational realities within a staffing organization are filled with events that are screaming for attention. The exploration of developing greater efficiencies with automation will never happen amidst the competing events within a staffing organization unless there is a designated group and a specific time for doing so.It similar to the story of the lumber jack who becomes exhausted from the inefficiency of using a dull saw, but refuses to take the time to sharpen the saw because of the urgency of the task before him. Sharpening the saw would bring untold hours of added productivity, if only the harried worker would take fifteen minutes to sharpen it. By taking two or three hours a month, usage groups can produce countless hours of productivity for organizations through better use of technology. There are a number of things that usage groups can accomplish for a staffing organization. The first is taking the time to evaluate how much of a software package is actually being used by operational people. The simple creation of a usage group discloses critical information on the current status of usage of an automated system, because prior to its formation there was no other method to measure that part of the business. During the past few months we have visited a number of customers. Our visit created an opportunity for the managers of the organizations to inaugurate a meeting regarding the status and usage of the software. We asked them to gather a list of outstanding issues from the users. After we reviewed these together, they realized that the system already contained features that could help them accomplish many of the things that they were looking to do. The point is this; if we had not initiated the visit, there would not have been a mechanism or platform within the organization to discover and document the needs and to determine if there were ready solutions. A usage group is an inexpensive way of increasing the effectiveness of expensive resources - your staff. The impact that productivity can make on the bottom line of a staffing organization has been well documented. Economists have stated clearly that much of the economic health that we experienced in the 90's is directly related to the productivity gains that we realized. We can continue to experience those gains in our own organization as we become more diligent in leveraging the technology that we already own. |
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