Amazing new types of software and hardware are being developed each day, each with the goal of making your businesses run smoother and more efficiently. By keeping yourself updated with these new developments every once in a while, there may be some potential technology upgrades that would just be what your office needs for that additional motivational boost – a new smart appliance, or an automation app that helps out greatly with most of your tasks.
Not sure where to begin? Here are three technology upgrades to motivate your employees!
1. Hardware Upgrades
Let’s begin with the one that makes the largest impact – what use would software upgrades be if your employees are still grinding it out on clunky desktop computers? Slow Wi-Fi networks and sluggish computer systems drain the energy right out of us, affecting morale, motivation and productivity in many ways.
With slower processing speeds come longer task completion times. This means your employees could be spending more time waiting on the Wi-Fi connection to start on their work, rather than acting on the actual task itself.
While you’re at it, remember to develop long-term technology plans, because frequent replacements of office hardware or tools can be disruptive to workers. Minimise these interruptions to operations by aligning yourself with both short-term and long-term business objectives – the required hardware solutions and timelines will then be mapped out even clearer.
2. Collaborative Software
Google Drive, Dropbox, Skype – these are just some of the many tools we’re familiar with and use pretty often outside of work, but why aren’t most companies tapping on their collaborative potential? These tools allow for unrivalled speed and responsiveness, both very important factors in enhancing collaboration and quick communication.
Concerns about these apps not having the best security and privacy functions aren’t warranted, as each of these tools have their own counterparts and alternatives. Many of these are built specially for corporate use, placing emphasis on the importance of a secure outlook.
With these tools, your employees are able to bring work outside of the office, responding to queries, emails and tasks in their own capacity and pace. This gives your employees greater ownership in their tasks, while increasing their motivations even further. It’s a simple yet underappreciated fact that many of these disruptive technologies are changing the landscape of businesses, and for the better.
3. Automation Tools
For mundane tasks that do not require much human supervision, we say – automate them!
There are many tasks that can be automated, which would help out tremendously both in terms of time-savings and resource management. The office manager already has lots of stuff on his plate, so why should he be concerned with trivial tasks such as pulling together charts and graphs for the monthly report, processing heaps of receipt claims, or pre-verifying identities for the issuance of door access cards?
These little things pile up – and they pile up fast. They’re wearisome, repetitious, and drain the motivation right out of your office manager. Help your office manager out by directing him or her to the many free tools online that can assist with these tasks. Tools such as IFTTT, Zapier, and a couple others easily found on the web, marry the elements of software, hardware and physical appliances. There are also other smart-appliances on the market that can greatly aid with many of these tasks, including physical biometric sensors and document-less registration softwares.
These improvements would undoubtedly allow your employees to focus more on higher-value jobs, and for your business to zoom in on its core competencies instead of having to fight these little fires every day.
Technology may just be a part of the equation to getting the most out of your team – but we dare say it is one which will have the most impact in the shortest amount of time. Other than employee motivations, technology upgrades also supercharge your productivity and efficiency in the workspace!
