Productivity has been an essential buzzword in the last few years. Companies are always looking for ways to maximize employee productivity to help their staff get more done in less time. Meanwhile, employees want to boost productivity to make their jobs more manageable, and one way employers and employees get what they want is through technology.
Technology improves productivity inside and outside of the workplace. Of course, technology can’t solve every problem. Still, it can help employees complete more in a single workday with improved communication, workflows, and automation. But how does technology boost your productivity?
Improves Communication
Whether you work in the accounting department and are filling in tax forms or you work in marketing and use wireless headphones, technology enables more effective communication. For example, consider this: Your accounts payable department needs to know the tools marketing uses and spends money on every month. In this case, a marketing manager could easily create a spreadsheet or use accounting software to tag different tools as “marketing” to make communication and collaboration between teams seamless.
Communication and collaboration in the workplace are crucial, no matter which team you’re on, and they’re significant drivers of productivity. For example, consider regular office bottlenecks, such as someone waiting to speak with another person to get forms signed. Instead, someone could email documents and have them signed without waiting. But, of course, even with technology, communication can be lacking in some teams, so it’s up to leaders to ensure effective communication.
Workflow Customization
Technology allows teams to customize workflows and streamline various aspects of their jobs. For example, you can create events–based triggers that automatically record information in spreadsheets or send automatic emails to customers based on actions they’ve taken on your website.
Regardless of their position or duties, anyone can use workflow customization to enhance their performance and reduce human error. Whether entering data, sending marketing communications, updating calendar invites, or scheduling meetings, workflow customization can cut the time you spend on simple tasks in half, freeing up more time for more critical business initiatives.
Increases Engagement
Employee engagement is another way to boost your productivity. Happy, engaged employees have better work performances and are more efficient at their jobs than unhappy employees. Of course, many factors can impact your organization’s employee engagement. But technology is just one way to increase employee satisfaction to help them stay more engaged in their work.
Most employees don’t want to spend all day doing the same tasks. For example, tasks like data entry can be tedious, and many employees will turn off their brains while they read documents and enter data into a spreadsheet. If you want engaged employees, you must let them do tasks that require more focus and engagement. Instead of relying on data entry, you can use technology to create workflows and automation that will take care of all the tedious aspects of the job and allow employees to perform more engaging tasks.
Improves Project Management
Your employees must know what to expect every day they arrive at work, and they should be provided with the tools to track their progress. Additionally, their superiors can benefit from project management software that enables them to view employee progress without directly communicating with them, saving everyone time on meetings that could be used to help employees accomplish more work without interruptions.
Technology has made project management seamless, allowing everyone in the organization to work within the same tool and create dashboards so managers and executives can track progress in real-time without the need to check in on employees throughout the day. This boosts your productivity. Employees and their superiors can be more productive and less distracted when there’s less back and forth, random phone calls, and emails throughout the day.
Automates Time Tracking
How do your employees prove they’re at work and log their hours? If you’re using outdated technology, it might take them too much time to sign into work for the day. Instead, you can use tools and technology that automate time tracking and allow employees to start working as soon as they sit at their desks.
With time tracking technology, you can ensure your employees are working when they say they are, making HR’s job less confusing and stressful. In addition, HR professionals or managers no longer have to track employees and update time cards. Instead, the software will do it for them and integrate with payroll management tools to ensure everyone is paid on time and correctly.
Streamlined Onboarding
Onboarding employees takes time. Most organizations use a new hire’s first few days for onboarding, but it doesn’t have to be this time-consuming. Instead of having HR sit down with new hires, companies can invest in remote onboarding. Then, when the employees show up for their first day, they’ve already completed all of the documents and at least some of the training they need and can start doing real work for the company.
To simplify the onboarding process, numerous companies are embracing software solutions, and among the most dependable options are cloud-based HR software solutions that extend beyond conventional onboarding methods. These advanced HR software solutions are reshaping the employee onboarding experience in the UK. By adopting this technology and transitioning to remote onboarding, businesses can greatly enhance the efficiency of their onboarding procedures. Utilizing cloud-based HR software UK empowers new hires to finalize crucial documentation and training ahead of their official start date, facilitating a smooth transition into their roles and significantly reducing the time required for onboarding.
You can also check out this ultimate collection of HR templates to help create a smooth and efficient process for integrating new employees into the organization. These templates can help simplify the onboarding process and provide an easy way to get new hires up to speed with the company.
In addition to onboarding, you can also use these tools to begin an employee’s training as soon as possible. The faster your employees are trained, the sooner they can begin working. In addition, with remote training sessions, you can teach new hires about the tools they should know how to use for their first day to make it less stressful for everyone.
Reduce Bottlenecks
We’ve already talked about one way technology can reduce bottlenecks. First, however, it’s important to consider how technology can reduce bottlenecks in the workplace. Bottlenecks in the workplace occur when someone can’t complete their task on time. This causes a delay for other team members. This task can be as simple as signing a document or doing part of a larger project. Whatever the case, technology can help. Through effective project management, email, time tracking tools, and communication tools, companies and employees can begin to understand where their bottlenecks are and use various technologies to reduce them and help everyone do their jobs promptly.
Technology and Productivity in the Workplace
Productivity at work isn’t a new concept. Employers have always looked for ways to help staff accomplish more in the same amount of time. Of course, many factors can impact employee productivity, but technology has been proven to help. With technology, you can automate and streamline almost any process in your business and improve communication across departments and teams.
Unfortunately, technology can also become a distraction. For example, many companies use direct messaging software. But if your employees are bombarded with messages throughout the day they’re expected to respond to immediately, they can’t focus on the work they need to complete. Increasing technology in the workplace can help boost your productivity. But, it’s essential to consider how technology can affect an employee’s work. Before you start buying new software, consider whether it can truly improve employee output or if it will become a distraction.
