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5 tips to become a productive highways business

Written by MyMobileWorkers

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Managing a business can sometimes feel more like an extended game of whack-a-mole. 

You find yourself constantly having to cope with problems that keep on popping up - and never seem to end.

It leaves you with virtually no time to do any of those tasks on your management to-do list. It means you don’t have the time take a step back, to take an overview of your organisation and find ways to improve the way it’s run.

But it's even more of a challenge when you're managing highways operatives: a pressurised and time sensitive world where you’re always having to work with tight deadlines and stringent budgets.

While these pressures go with the territory, we now have access to a set of digital tools that provide a smarter way to manage teams of mobile workers - saving time and boosting efficiency.

How to become a more productive highways business:

  1. Switch to digital management
  2. Make the most of metrics
  3. Empower your employees
  4. Harness scheduling power
  5. Simplify communication methods

 

Switch to digital management

One of the biggest problems faced by managers in the road maintenance sector is a lack of insight. It’s the fact that, once your workers are out on the road, there’s little way of keeping tabs on what they’re doing.

At least, that used to be the case. With mobile workforce management systems, we now have the ability to track the exact location of each employee - to get real-time information on where they are, what they’re doing and, even, how well they’re doing it.

Make the most of metrics

A major advantage of using a digital system is that it also provides you with accurate and up-to-date information on every aspect of your workflow. Without having to wait weeks for a report to be collated, you can instantly see where bottlenecks are occurring.

So rather than having to ‘firefight’, you can start to identify issues before they’re allowed to grow into resource sapping problems. It also means that you can start to set your team quantifiable goals and targets and improve mobile workforce productivity.

Empower your employees

Technology allows a move away from rigid top-down management as employees are given greater control over how they approach tasks. With everything they need to get a job done provided by a smartphone app, workers are no longer tied to attending an office to pick up or drop off paperwork.

With their activities able to be monitored in real-time, it gives management the confidence to adopt a more ‘hands off’ approach. It also helps to create a more flexible and adaptable organisation.

Harness scheduling power

One of the surefire warning signs of management overload is that you stop looking at what’s ahead and become fixated on the here and now. And part of the problem has been how cumbersome and time consuming scheduling can be when you’re reliant on paper - on post it notes, wall charts, calendars etc.

With a digital system, advanced jobs can be created in seconds with automated reminders being sent out as the date approaches. It allows you to keep a clear vision of what’s ahead and avoid being caught out by any nasty surprises.

Simplify communication methods

It’s great that we now have so many different ways for customers and clients to communicate with us. But unless you keep a tight grip on what these are - it can start to overload your organisation with a scattershot of information.

Limit your communications to what your business can cope with and don’t feel that you must support each and every social media platform. By simplifying your communications, you can save time, provide an improved service and become a productive highways business.

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Full image credit: www.pixabay.com

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