According to recent research commissioned by Konica Minolta—a Japanese multinational technology company, digital technology can help to significantly increase workplace productivity. The company reached this conclusion after 89% of UK businesses surveyed has invested an average of over £3 million ($3.8 million) in a digital initiative in 2016. The story is no different here in the U.S and new technology is increasingly helping businesses to increase workplace productivity significantly. Here is how.
The report ‘The Digital Workplace Initiative’ outlines how aging hardware, minor distractions, clunky software, and rigid workplaces all add up to cause loss of productivity for businesses in the UK. However, these problems are not unique to UK businesses. Instead, they affect businesses the world over, including here in the U.S.
According to the surveyed employees, the biggest stumbling blocks in achieving or maintaining peak performance are interruptions, problems with the office computer or network, and problems in accessing data when working away from their desks. Konica Minolta believes—and this is the belief of many other tech experts, that businesses and their employees can overcome the above barriers by investing more in digital technology, not just any technology but technology that changes how people and workplaces interact.
How New Technology is Improving Employee Productivity and Engagement
Most businesses in the U.S agree that advancing technology is essential stay relevant and achieve success in the future. When it comes to achieving success, nothing is more important for a business than employee productivity and engagement as they are paramount to a company’s success. Perhaps, the best way to recognize and capitalize on these business/industry needs is investing in new technology.
New technology serves as a bridge between, as well as facilitates a more cohesive drive toward unified goals, within the organization. As mentioned above, productivity and engagement in the workplace is crucial to an organization’s success. The good news is that new tech makes increasing workplace productivity easier than ever before.
With proper hardware and software in place, companies can identify specific organizational challenges affecting productivity and can strategically plan for improved results. Following are some of the ways new technology helps to increase productivity and engagement in the workplace.
Transparency
Transparency across the organization is crucial to an organization’s success regardless of industry, company size, or goals for the future. Transparency in an organization gives teams more power to make informed decisions and shows employees the purpose behind their work. Through new technology such as smart phones, new hardware, or new software, employees in an organization can better communicate with each other, which increases workplace engagement and productivity.
Collaboration
Organizations that strive for long-term success realize the value of teamwork and collaboration. Work stations are no longer the cubicles in a row format that they used to be. Today, employees work from home, in open plan workplaces, and in offices across the country, which makes collaboration and interaction more difficult and more important than ever before.
However, the right modern technological solution can make collaboration between staff, regardless of their location, easier than ever before. Today, there are a bevy of technological tools that enhance and inspire teamwork and collaboration. Businesses that want to be successful must leverage such technology to empower their workplace and employees.
Flexibility
As mentioned above, workers are becoming increasingly mobile and many now expect a degree of flexibility in their work. With the addition of technology in the workplace, employee flexibility is at an all-time high, allowing employees to work outside of the office, while sending and receiving vital information.
Even when they are miles apart, modern technology ensures regular contact between team members, while maintaining and even strengthening the tenants of transparency and collaboration. Today, technology is at a point where most employees can work from a remote location like they are physically present at the office.
Tracking and Analyzing Work
Though not many businesses make use of it, tracking and analyzing work is one of the major benefits of modern office technology. Today, technology is empowering employee progress through their own system of goals. Using new technology, management as well as employees can follow productivity trends for individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole. This in turn allows individuals goals to be tracked, which can be useful in evaluating and motivating the performance of each employee.
With the ability to assist, monitor, and streamline workflow for maximized production, new technology is taking businesses into a new era of workforce management.
4 Tech Solutions Increasing Workplace Productivity
Following is a quick wrap up of 4 modern tech solutions that are helping to increase workplace productivity.
Collaborative Software
Modern collaborative software allows businesses to crate, collaborate, and share projects all in one place, changing the way teams operate and work together. An example of this software is Atlassian’s Confluence—a software that allows team members to easily publish, access, and organize information in one location.
Digital Recorders
With digital recorders, business teams can vocally document their big ideas and thoughts. Today, there are digital recorders available that can capture fresh ideas without the distractions common to smart phones. With these recorders, information can be stored to play at a later data, which eliminates the need to ask repetitive questions via email to find out what was covered at a specific point and time in a meeting or conference.
Modems Designed for Efficiency
Today, we have modems designed/engineered specifically for efficiency. An example of this is the Snapdragon cellular modem. Available in the 4G LTE and 5G configurations, the Snapdragon cellular modem is designed to deliver never before seen wireless performance. This ensures fast internet speeds, reliable and crystal-clear calls, and long battery life that is engineered for efficiency.
Smart Thermostats
You may be surprised to see smart thermostats in the list but thermostats are said to increase the productivity in a workplace. According to some studies, lower office temperatures can increase errors and decrease total output. A smart thermostat such as Ecobee can not only keep the temperature in the office at optimum levels, it can also learn your preferences, heating and cooling the office accordingly throughout the business day.
If you want more information on how new technology and modern tech solutions are helping increase workplace productivity, then get in touch with us today.
by Bobby J Davidson
We love our company and we love what we do. Check out the ‘Why Percento‘ page to learn more: Love of Technology and Business! As the President of Percento Technologies International, I provide day-to-day leadership to the company’s senior management and I am personally involved in the strategy, business development and sales activities of the firm.
The company was founded in 1999 with the purpose of providing a one call source for organizations in need of Enterprise IT Consulting and Management. We also provide a line of products in the boutique Cloud Server space with a touch of high-end website strategy consulting and design services. We personalizes the IT Service experience with a team approach, working with clients from diverse sectors of industry, including energy services, financial, legal, entertainment, healthcare, hospitality, retail and general and/or corporate business.
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