The current health crisis has impacted all facets of modern society, from education to entertainment. But the commercial sector is one of the worst hit sectors, even in the United States. According to recently collated data, over 72,000 businesses have shut down permanently due to the crisis.
Businesses are struggling everywhere to stay afloat and the best way to do that is to ditch the deadweight. Streamlining your company could be the only way you can ensure it makes through the month. Learn how you can efficiently and empathically streamline your company’s organizational structure to ensure it survives.
1. Consider All Alternatives First
Before you start circling parts of your organizational structure for elimination, make sure you’ve eliminated every other option first. Determine if your problem is indeed rooted in your organization. Maybe your business just needs a few more customers to make bank, or you just need one cash infusion to make it through the quarter. You can approach potential investors, shake up your marketing, and apply for loans if feasible. Once you’ve eliminated every alternative or you’ve been pushed to the wall, then you can begin paring down your structure. Reserving this option for last will also engender loyalty among your employees, demonstrating that they aren’t expendable.
2. Look into Outsourcing
Once you’ve determined that streamlining the organizational structure is the best option, you need to ensure that someone will be able to perform the functions of the positions that are going to cease existing. Outsourcing is the most reliable method you can use to entrust someone with fulfilling needed functions while still being cost effective. For example, outsourced CFO services will give your business the expert financial advice it needs without the drain of providing an executive salary.
3. Narrow Down All Redundancies
Now that you have your substitutes ready to take their place, it’s time for you to take a look at your organizational structure and determine the redundant positions. Make sure your decisions are based on collated data rather than personal preference. For example, a good metric to use for identifying which positions should be pared down are those that have high salaries but little utility. By focusing on these types of positions rather than multiple low-salary, high productivity ones, you can ensure you remove fewer positions while freeing up more resources. Also determine if such positions can be taken over by outsourced options to guarantee a smoother transition and continued operation.
4. Focus on Quality
Although one goal of streamlining an organizational structure is to ensure you are shelling out fewer salaries, you should check that such decisions won’t impact the quality of your goods and services. If your streamlining affects your product quality, you might alienate your customers, which you need now more than ever. If you’re turning to outsourcing companies, ensure that they’re up to par and that eliminating a position doesn’t ground your operational processes to a halt.
Streamlining your organizational structure is a difficult choice. However, if that’s what it takes to ensure your business’s survival, you should at least do it properly.
