Improving productivity is the key to getting more out your available resources to enhance the efficiency of your practice and boost your bottom line.

“People tend to look at how staff manage their time as the most common area for productivity improvement,” says Aiman Dally, president of Copia Financial in Toronto. “While that is important, you also have to look at how your business processes are set up to maximize efficiency.”

You also must have measurable goals with defined time lines, he adds, so that you can gauge where you are falling short or where there is room for improvement in your productivity.

Here are three areas you need to look at to improve the productivity of your practice.

1. Strategic productivity
You must have a written business plan to provide you with a reality check, says George Hartman, CEO of Market Logics Inc. in Toronto. That plan must articulate where you are today, what you want to achieve and the steps you must take to get where you want to be.

“If your plan is well articulated, it will make decision-making straightforward and will limit you from being distracted,” Hartman says.

The question you have to ask yourself, according to Hartman, is: “Does the plan take me toward my goal?”

Your staff must be aware of the goals you set, Dally adds, and their role in helping you attain them.

2. Process productivity
Your business processes must be well-structured to facilitate operational efficiency, Dally says.

Assess your recurring activities and processes to determine where you can achieve efficiencies. You should also ensure that your business processes and workflows are aligned with your strategic plan.

“People tend to get into the habit of doing things the same way,” Dally says, “and do not recognize that it’s necessary to change, which can be a huge deterrent to improving productivity.”

Hartman adds that you must align your service resources with the value of clients to your practice, making sure that every relationship is profitable. “Otherwise, high-value clients will be paying the cost of unprofitable clients.”

Most advisors have no idea of their per-client revenue and expenses, Hartman says, or the degree to which staff resources are allocated to clients. These anomalies can result in less than productive relationships between staff and clients.

3. Personal productivity
Managing your personal productivity and that of your team members is key to improving the total productivity of your business.

“Personal productivity goals must be aligned to roles of team members in the ‘big picture’ plan for your practice,” Dally says.

You must be able to prioritize tasks based on the capability of your staff, Hartman says. Time-management techniques are not universal in nature and the same methods do not work for everybody. Therefore, staff should be assigned to do what they do best and enjoy the most.

The key, Dally says, is that “everyone must be able to pull their own weight to achieve the goals of your practice.”