In our most recent blog, we talked about all the ways you can leverage your company’s IT to gain a competitive edge and ultimately grow your profits. Today we’re going to be delving deeper into the idea of employee productivity.
We previously shared a recent survey of CEOs by Gartner that states, “When asked to consider productivity and efficiency actions, CEOs were much more inclined to think of technology as a tool. Forty-seven percent of respondents mentioned technology as one of their top two ways to improve productivity.”
In fact, according to Forbes.com, another recent report shows that “53% of employees state that they can save up to 2 work hours a day (240 hours per year) through automation, and 78% of business leaders posit that automation can free up to 3 work hours a day (360 hours per year). Think about those numbers. They’re staggering.”
As a business owner, leveraging your IT to encourage productivity among your employees can take your business to the next level, and here’s how:
Firewalls
Firewalls boost productivity in a major way. We all know at least one coworker or employee (honestly, probably several) who are major internet time wasters. (Looking at you, Facebook). So, a firewall to block certain non-essential and known-time-waster websites from being visited. That also increases productivity by saving bandwidth for work essential tasks! Win-win.
Network Setup
Having an IT professional assess your network to ensure proper network setup ensures all employees are able to share files and access resources quickly and easily. Think about how much time can be wasted over a week or even a month when employees are having to track down files that aren’t always in the right place or easy to access.
Automation
There are tons of tasks you can automate that will end up saving you precious time and sanity.
Automation doesn’t just save time; it also increases overall customer service and efficiency. Setting up an automated reply to contact form submissions on your website, thank you emails to clients, invoicing and payment reminders, and even payroll are some small things that add to a lot of time saved.
Data backup is another area where automation can be a huge help. It’s a task that takes up time and seems trivial compared to other items on employees’ to-do lists, but it’s very important. In many fields, backing up your files is a necessary precaution and it’s quite simple to automate.
Data Backup
Speaking of data backup, making sure your data backup system is not only reliable but also maximized can save a lot of time in case of loss. If files are not properly backed up, employee work could be lost and have to be redone.
Network Health
How effective is your current network? Even if things seem to be working fine, there could be hidden issues or inefficiencies. We have found that these issues often come to light during a critical time of company growth and they often cause significant delays and time wasted. Finding the right solution for your business is critical if you want to enjoy optimal workflow. Without the right network in place, you run the risk of compromising productivity, sacrificing efficiency, and unnecessarily increasing monthly costs as you grow.
Organization & Management
Cloud-based software (such as Office 365) can make a world of difference when it comes to productivity. It takes care of things like software licensing which can be not only time consuming, but also frustrating. However, with Office 365 all licensing is included, company wide. This means that all your employees will always have the same, most updated version of each Microsoft Office app. Also, data backup (which we previously touched on), security, and recovery are included and managed by Microsoft, which is huge.
Conclusion
We’d love to help you get set up with an effective, healthy operating system and help you figure out which of these systems and tools are the best fit to boost your company’s productivity! Give us a call today.
