According to the 2017 study conducted by Team Office, your employees spend more than 40 minutes every day on the activities that have nothing to do with their job. They spend this time on answering private email, checking their social networks, shopping online, playing mobile games, and browsing through entertainment sites. Worse yet, the researchers came to a pretty devastating conclusion that, if every full-time employee in the U.S. behaved like that, this would mean a $15.5 billion in lost workplace productivity on a weekly basis.
However, we live in the 21st century, the age of the ever-growing IT innovations. They have revolutionized every segment of our lives and it would be ridiculous to talk about doing business without them.
Just stop and think for a second. Can you imagine your employees working without the fast internet connection? How would you reach out to your customers without Google? How effective your customer services would be without social networks, emails, and instant messaging apps?
This is something you cannot even imagine.
That being said, here is how to use technology to your advantage.
Safer Data Storage
Facing the problem of limited storage solutions, businesses sometimes need to throw their old documents away to make room for new ones. Still, before you decide to shred your employees’ sensitive data, customer service interactions, or tax records, you need to understand that you’re permanently destroying something that may be important to you in the future.
But, why shred them when you can move them to the cloud?
For example, we all know that audio files are huge and that they occupy most of your storage space. Sooner or later, you will have to delete them, no matter how significant they are. But, did you know that, with the right academic transcription services, you can upload your audio files and convert them to a text document?
Over the past few years, cloud computing has become an integral element of both our private and professional lives. You can use cloud storage platforms such as Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive to safely store, share, and download massive amounts of sensitive information.
The majority of cloud service providers offer data encryption, making it impossible for hackers to read your data even if they intercept it during the process of transmission. Most importantly, you won’t have to store your data on your business’ servers anymore. This not only means that you will free up your storage space but also, if something happens to your employees’ computers, everything they’ve uploaded to the cloud remains intact.
Automated Working Environment
There is a myriad of awesome automation tools that can simplify just about any aspect of your business that comes to your mind. If you want to create impeccable client reports, then invest in a client reporting tool. Those investing in social media marketing, can use social media management tools to curate and schedule their posts effortlessly. If hiring an in-house accountant is still too much for you, then use cloud-based accounting software. You can even automate your email marketing campaigns and use auto attendants to answer your calls.
By having your tools do these tedious tasks for you, you will be able to focus on some other, more creative aspects of your business. Most importantly, you will reduce human error, boost the quality of the tasks performed, and improve the overall employee performance.
Effective Workplace Communication
The inception of a technologically advanced society has set the bar higher in terms of employee collaboration. Your workers expect you to provide them with a highly interactive working environment, where they can exchange information and communicate effortlessly, regardless of where they are.
And, this is possible with the help of the right tools.
Let’s take meetings as an example. No matter how important they are, they can be extremely exhausting and time-consuming. Precisely because of this, the number of companies implementing video conferencing tools, such as Skype for Business, GoToMeeting, or WebRTC is on a steady rise. Switching from regular to online meetings helps them remove all logistical issues and save both time and money. Most importantly, they are more flexible, allowing both your in-house and remote employees to participate actively.
Another awesome example is project management. Traditionally, the communication between employees and project managers was based on sending dozens of emails during the working hours. Everything, from sharing files to writing reports was done via email.
However, by investing in an adequate project management tool, like Basecamp or Trello, you can make this process much simpler. Managers can have full control over all projects and monitor their teams’ progress. They can create new projects over and over again, make countless lists within these projects, and open numerous tasks within these lists. Also, they can choose which employees will be added to a project, allowing them to leave comments and share/download files instantly.
Flexible Working Arrangements
Doing business successfully isn’t all about growing your team overnight. On the contrary, companies are now more focused on hiring the right people. According to the recent Glassdoor review, 76% of hiring managers emphasize that attracting top talent is their major challenge.
In the past, recruiters were restricted to hiring people from their own cities or regions. However, the times have changed. Today, you can be in the U.S. and connect with your perfect employee from a distant country via platforms like LinkedIn.
And, thanks to the rise of the tools mentioned above, your projects won’t suffer. Irrespective of their location and time zone, your employees will be able to communicate effectively and work on their projects synchronously.
This provides your employees with more flexible working arrangements, as well as the opportunity to manage their time proactively. At the same time, this is a great chance for you to minimize your costs and maximize your revenue. Statistics show that work-from-home programs help businesses save on up to $11,000 a year.
Conclusions
The tech trends keep revolutionizing the way we work and communicate. Some of our most common workplace performance problems are being gradually overcome by this innovative approach. It provides us with an uninterrupted workflow transmission, better collaboration, greater flexibility, and higher levels of efficiency. Above all, it builds a highly intuitive, unified, and smarter working environment, proving that the right use of technology is not about separating people, but about connecting them.