Despite being more connected than ever, nearly 90 percent of professionals admit to wasting time at work on a daily basis. Nearly 50 percent of people waste at least one hour per day. From responding to smartphone messages, to participating in sub-optimal meetings that garner no meaningful results, even when your employees are “working,” not all of those hours are positively impacting the bottom line of your business.
Sometimes the state of technology in the office is to blame for sub-par productivity. Slow speeds can impact download efficiency or website loading, and even negatively affect an employee’s ability to join an online meeting. More than 87 percent of employers rely on employees to use personal smartphones for work, and the bring your own device landscape is exponentially increasing for professionals today. Whether your employees use company devices or their own, it’s important to equip your office with cellular modems that offer maximum speed and efficiency to keep your team connected throughout the workday.
There is also at least 20 percent of the workforce that is telecommuting at some frequency, according to June 2017 Global Workplace Analytics statistics. With no way to stand over employees’ shoulders and make sure they’re working when they’re out of the office, cloud-based tools can help your team stay on track and keep people productive. Here are four to check out:
Skype for Business
Skype for Business makes it possible for employees to log into phone calls, video meetings or team chats at any time, on any device. Logs of chats can be saved for future reference, screen sharing is easy and documents can be shared in real time.
Skype is great for quick communication among mobile team members all day long, without requiring the hassle of a lengthy email chain that might get buried in an inbox. It can also enhance collaboration for immediate sharing of creative ideas.
G Suite
Your employees who already use Gmail will love G Suite for business. You can use the same Gmail interface for business email, plus get cloud storage through Google Drive for large business files like videos, slideshow presentations and high-resolution photos.
G Suite also features a Calendar, which works for scheduling business meetings. It also comes with document creation systems for documents, spreadsheets, slideshows and more. Instead of employees having to log into several systems for document creation and sharing, everything can be shared from one central place with G Suite.
Trello
Keep projects on track with Trello, a project management system that’s customizable for whatever teams your business has. Teams get “boards” which feature cards that allow members to share task-related documents and communications. As elements within each project are completed, the cards move along the board wall for easy progress reference.
Due dates can be assigned to each card, and the visibility of tasks to all team members keeps people accountable. Instead of divvying out tasks and guessing how long components will take, using Trello allows your business to gain more accurate insight into how to maximize productivity for projects.
Yammer
Mitigate your employees’ desire to waste time on social networks while balancing the need for a strong workplace culture with Yammer, a social network for enterprises. With an interface that is similar to Facebook, Yammer is a place where employees can connect and share industry news, comment about workplace happenings or just get a little more social without wasting hours in the break room.
Yammer also works as a replacement for email for project management, since it features the ability to create private groups and upload files. Because the design is friendly and familiar, it might encourage more introverted employees to join in more conversations with coworkers.
Make Productivity Tools More Effective with Buy-In
To maximize the use of productivity apps at your business and cut down on training time, send out a survey to employees about what they’d most like to use before investing in apps. Or, allow for testing before committing to tools. Employees who are already familiar with ones you want to move forward with can help train co-workers, and using these apps for work will be more embraced by your team.
