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A good HR department will have its fingers in so many different areas of the business that it can be confusing for anyone on the outside looking in. As an HR professional you may be tasked with cost cutting in a business, although this should really be left to the accounts department or the CEO themselves … but we all know what bosses are like? I was once asked to scrub clean a white board and build an Ikea cupboard ... I was an account manager. Whether you feel this is your problem or not, here are the likely candidates that are costing the business money (as well and unnecessary time and effort).

Printing

Yes, we all know that printer ink is really expensive and paper production is destroying the rainforests;so just making sure that you don’t print unless absolutely necessary isn’t the only thing you can do to minimise expenditure.

 

  • Black and White: This one is obvious, but it is amazing how many people still use colour printing in the workplace. Colour cartridges are so much more expensive than monochrome ones.
  • Double-sided: There are settings you can use that mean the printer will use both sides of the paper when printing, instead of just the one side before moving onto the next piece. This won’t affect your ink costs, however you’re paper costs will half.
  • Preview: It’s imperative to preview your printing jobs in advance, before you actually commit them to paper. If you just click the little icon, there’s no telling how it’s going to be printed, which might result in you having to print it again. Always preview, as then you can make any changes you need to before wasting ink and paper.

Productivity

Now this is definitely a job for HR. Employee satisfaction is tied directly to how productive individual employees are on a daily basis. If an employee isn’t satisfied then they are never going to be as productive as a person who likes to come in every morning.

  • Open Door Policy: As an HR department you need to have an open door policy so that employees feel comfortable coming to you with any issues or problems they are currently facing in the work place. If they feel comfortable and that any issues they have will be dealt with swiftly, their productivity will increase along with their general happiness.
  • Emails: Emails are a massive time suck. Not long after you’ve cleared you inbox of emails – if you ever can – then a hundred more emails will have taken their place. I don’t hate on emails as much as some people as they are 100% necessary for businesses to run efficiently, however I do understand that there is issue when it absorbs all of your time. Be aware that emails could be a major problem for the business – especially internal emails.

Communications

As I’ve already mentioned, emails are a big distraction, but so are the phones. People like to say that’s it’s easier to pick up the phone than reply via email, but that is rubbish and you know it. Emails are usually concise and to the point and there is 0 need for pleasantries and small talk that make up half of a phone call. Cutting that out isn’t the only way to reduce costs on communications.

  • Skype: Implementing Skype will save you money, as you can still call other Skype users, but it’s completely free. It also allows for instant messaging, which is quicker and more efficient then email.
  • Business Mobile Phones: I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that you are probably using one of the major mobile phone suppliers for your employee’s work phones. This is a mistake. When a company gets as big as EE or Vodafone, they can lose sight of individuals. It makes more sense to go to a smaller company that specialise in business mobile phones. This means you get the best service, tailored to your business, instead of a generic one.

Those are the three main areas that I feel most businesses can take a look at and trim up their expenditure. None of these can really be addressed without the help of an HR department that understands the needs of the business, however; remember that.

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Bill Clark

Bill is a freelance journalist who specialises in writing about culture and the arts, however will write about anything that piques his interest including business, travel and lifestyle. @BilboClark01

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