“How to improve workplace productivity,” is a highly searched term these days. While results may reveal answers ranging from Encourage More Breaks to Limit Meetings…the reality is, every work place is different. In fact, every employee is different. What behavioral strategy or method may work on one team member, may not on the next. So, how do we come to a universal solution on the impending dilemma of elevating workplace productivity? In truth, there may not be just one answer. We suggest, however, a wise place to start is by equipping staff with the most useful and adaptable performance tools and systems available on the market. Below we have outlined 7 Ways to Improve Workplace Productivity Using Technology.
1. Ensure Your Workplace Has a RELIABLE, HIGH-SPEED, and DEDICATED Internet Connection
In today’s competitive marketplace, having high-speed, reliable Internet is paramount to a company’s internal productivity. Fact: In a world reliant on Internet, digital downtime can cost a company upwards of $100,000 per minute.
So, what causes downtime, and how can we avoid it?
Work in a developing area? Construction may disrupt your connection. Does your community ever experience high winds, rain or snowfall? Weather can disconnect your service for hours or days on end. Operate in a shared office space or building? Your Internet speed may be inconsistent and unpredictable simply because everyone is sharing the same fiber optic line.
Enter: Fixed Wireless.
Simply put, fixed wireless provides high speed broadband Internet access to a single location via radio waves. By utilizing antennas, towers, and an express line of sight (LoS) to transmit point-to-point signals, fixed wireless technology eliminates the need for costly terrestrial fiber, satellite feeds or cable lines. Unaffected by weather, fixed wireless provides businesses with a dedicated connection that boasts faster uptime, ultra-low latency, and higher bandwidth.
2. Utilize Group Chats (We Suggest Google Hangouts)
In short, Google Hangouts is today’s modern instant messaging platform. Allowing up to 15 people in a single chat, Google Hangouts eliminates timely back and forth email chains or those “long walks across the office”. Questions can be asked and answered instantaneously and “losing” or “not seeing” an email is no longer an excuse. Accessible via desktop or mobile, group chats can even be named by department to further encourage organized and efficient communication streams.
3. Use Smartsheets to Track To-Do Lists and Monitor Deadlines
Smartsheets is a software as a service (SaaS) application designed for collaboration and work management. It allows users to assign tasks, track project progress, set priority deadlines, manage calendars, and share documents. With a spreadsheet-like user interface, managers are able to easily remind employees of approaching deadlines, ultimately driving employees to stay on-task and complete projects in a timely manner.
4. Switch to Hosted Voice—Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
By utilizing your broadband Internet connection to power your phone services, Hosted Voice, or Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), offers businesses a simple solution to significantly cut down overall communication costs, improve and expand interaction between employees and customers, and ensure a more reliable quality of service.
Popular features include:
Fax-to-email
Follow Me
Voice-to-email
Conference Bridge
Toll-Free Numbers
Unified Communications
…and more!
Ultimately, Hosted Voice equips employees with advanced communication tools that allow work to follow them inside and outside of the office.
5. Host Sharable Company Files in Dropbox
Employees need trustworthy and timely access to up-to-date company files in order to remain informed and successful. Instead of connecting to VPNs or searching through emails, employees using Dropbox can quickly access team data from almost anywhere. These reliable file transfers allow field employees to manage entire projects from the field.
6. Take Evernotes
Per its slogan, “Capture, organize, and share notes from anywhere. Your best ideas are always with you and always in sync,” Evernote allows users to easily create an endless number of notebooks from the palm of their hand. But this isn’t just any regular *hold on let me flip through a million pages to find what I’m looking for* notebook. With Evernote, users can quickly jot down ideas and notes via text, voice memos, real time photos or web clips. With added tag and category features, users can catalog notes for quick and easy access via search. It’s productive notetaking re-invented!
7. Systemize Workflow Integration through HubSpot
Successful marketing automation relies on triggering relevant and timely actions based on a customer’s response. HubSpot has developed a “Workflow” system that allows businesses to effectively and efficiently scale both sales and marketing efforts.
So, what’s a workflow? A workflow is an automated set of marketing actions that are executed based on pre-specified conditions. For example, a workflow action could be sending out a follow-up email with your promised offer when a contact fills out certain forms. These programmable and automated “outlines” of what to do and when to do it, keep employees on task and producing results as efficiently as possible.
“I’m most grounded on the role of technology. Ultimately to me it’s about the human capital and the human potential and technology empowers humans to do great things. You have to be optimistic about what technology can do in the hands of humans.” — Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation, USA