How can templates make your work easier?

Do you or your team work on the same documents again and again? Do you find yourself using valuable time, energy and resources on creating branded content, checking and double-checking to make sure it’s all consistent?

If the answer is “yes”, you may be thinking about one or more of these:

• Business proposals
• New hire onboarding guides
• Impact reports
• Fact sheets

For those staple document types, templates can be a very useful efficiency measure. Let’s look at just some of the benefits.

Can document templates save you time?

Having a library of branded document templates on hand makes life so much easier. Rather than sit down and create a document from scratch – which can be time-consuming and complex, especially if multiple team members are involved – you just pick a template and fill in the content. It’s simple. So why aren’t more teams using them?

The answer is that creating templates is a relatively intensive process. This is especially true if you’re not accustomed to using formatting tools such as paragraph styles or layout masters. Many Microsoft Office users are proficient enough to make a document that looks right, but they haven’t had the training or experience to use these inbuilt features. It can seem quicker and easier to keep doing what you’re used to doing, especially when you’re working under pressure.

This is understandable, but it’s a prime example of a false economy. By avoiding the upfront investment, you only waste more time and incur more stress in the long run. Even if the task of template creation seems daunting, it’s worth setting aside the time now to spare yourself a lot of repetitive work later.

Will templated documents keep you consistent?

The great thing about templates is that once they’re done, all you have to do is populate them with content. If they’re built effectively, it really can be that straightforward. If you want to change your standard layout or tweak your branding, all you have to do is make your changes in the relevant template so they’re always implemented going forward.

In contrast, creating a fresh document every time means there’s always the potential for errors and inconsistencies to creep in. The risk of this is high when collaborating as a team, but it’s also a hazard of working alone. People quickly become blind to their own mistakes, and this means that a simple once-through isn’t enough. You usually need at least a second round, and a second pair of eyes, to make sure your document is blooper-free.

If your business adheres to a quality management system, such as ISO 9001, it’s even more crucial to have a set of up-to-date templates on hand. That way, you’ll never have to worry about non-standard document formatting.

Would branded templates increase your productivity?

The benefit of templates really boils down to this: the less time you have to spend collating, formatting, and repeatedly checking your work, the more time you have for tasks that matter.

Yes, if you’re under stress and short on time, it can seem less of a headache to open a blank document and just throw something together. It’s a familiar workflow you’ve probably been through a thousand times. But how much time would you save if you could simply have a template created for your usual needs? A few minutes? Longer?

Over weeks and months, those short increments quickly add up to hours. Multiply that by the number of members of your team, and you’ve got a serious drain on your organisation’s productivity. Not to mention the mental load involved in manual formatting, which can be fiddly and often frustrating.

That’s why templates are such a powerful tool. They let you standardise part of the workflow so that you can reserve your time and energy for the bits that really matter, like communicating with your clients.

What can go in a template?

When you set about making a template, the first thing to do is identify which elements of your document can stay the same, and which need to be modified or inserted afresh every time. Standard elements often include:

• Your visual branding basics: logo, fonts, colours
• Your company and contact information
• Your greeting and sign-off
• Any boilerplate text, such as waivers, terms and conditions, policies and agreements
• How you lay out costs

You’ll notice that all these elements relate either to your company identity, or to the fixed, unvarying aspects of the business-client transaction. Depending on how you work, you might also want to have a standard opening and closing paragraph or section.

Anything relating to an individual client or new hire, their needs, and your relationship with them, can and should change. This might mean writing something completely fresh, or supplying model text that can be adapted for each client. In either case, your document template should clearly indicate where this text should be inserted and what it should include.

Once you’ve gone through this process, you’ll probably find that a lot of your documents can actually be standardised without affecting the significant or personal content. In fact, the standardised elements will help you make an even more positive and professional impression – as well as freeing you to focus on cultivating those crucial business relationships.

If this all sounds like a lot, don’t worry. You don’t have to do it alone! You can always choose to work with a visual efficiency partner like Beyond the Surface. We take a deep dive into your company’s requirements and working style, and create a template deck perfectly tailored to you. You can read more about our working process in this detailed blog post.

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