The world is going through dark and uncertain times right now, and it doesn’t seem that the COVID-19 pandemic is going anywhere anytime soon. Now that business leaders across the globe have been forced to send their teams home and create digital workplaces for their employees, there is a need to take a more proactive approach to training for uncertainty and change so that your employees can adapt quickly to the new normal. What’s more, there is a need for you to optimize your processes in order to maintain efficiency and productivity for as long as you’re required to lead a remote workforce.
To achieve a certain level of efficiency while elevating your employees’ happiness in the process, you need to use the right tools that will help you minimize financial waste and also stop you from wasting other precious resources, like your employees’ time and sanity. After all, you can only push an email thread so far before one of your employees blows a fuse, so let’s take a look at the five key tools you need to maximize productivity and minimize waste in 2020.
Make better decisions with analytics tools
Firstly, what’s the best way you can keep your employees happy and your business from losing money? By not making dumb decisions, of course. While there is nothing wrong with following your instincts and making some decisions based on your gut feeling, it’s important that you base the majority of your decisions on relevant, timely, and actionable data.
So, the first set of tools you need are analytics tools. Make sure to leverage employee monitoring software with built-in reporting tools to help you extract valuable insights about your team members, and use them to take a personalized approach to improving their happiness and well-being. Remember, taking care of your employees’ mental health is a crucial step in these trying times.
Eliminate paper waste with a project management tool
It doesn’t really matter if you’re all at your main office or everyone is stuck at home, chances are that you’re wasting a lot of paper on menial tasks on a daily basis. In a digital era, there’s just no excuse for that. What’s more, you’re vastly undermining your productivity by not using smart tools like project management software to keep all information, files, and data in a centralized location that everyone can access with a push of a button.
Project management tools allow remote employees to organize all of their work quickly, and most importantly, to collaborate seamlessly and in real time without going back and forth with emails and losing documents in endless email threads. Plus, when you pick a tool that has built-in file sharing, storage, and management features, you can easily ditch your paper notebook for good.
Communicate with remote teams more efficiently
Communication is one of the key pillars of efficient and productive remote work because, again, you can’t expect your employees to achieve much through endless email threads. Instead, you need a way for everyone to communicate seamlessly in numerous ways, including phone, video calls, and direct messaging. This means that you need to use phones, of course, but traditional phone systems are extremely wasteful and they can rack up quite the charge, which is why you need a digital solution like VoIP (voice over internet protocol).
As a cloud-based system, VoIP comes equipped with various handy tools and features that allow you to communicate affordably with your remote teams. Now, there are many providers out there, so be sure to find the best VoIP service provider for you by going over reviews and comparing the features they offer. Ideally, your provider should give you a fully-optimized mobile app, video conferencing, transcription, low-cost calls for national and international teams, and even call analytics to gather some valuable data in the process.
Minimize time waste with automation tools
If there’s anything worse than wasting money on ridiculous phone charges, then it’s wasting time on menial tasks. Particularly now that your employees have to adapt to the new normal and a new way of doing business, you can’t overburden them with menial tasks that only waste their time. This is why automation is so important nowadays, especially for remote teams.
Luckily, you can find a handy piece of software for every department these days, so be sure to give your employees the right CRM software, organizational tools, sales tools, and marketing software that will allow them to automate numerous tasks throughout the day. This will allow them to focus on the bigger picture and push your company forward.
Don’t forget about network security
Last but not least, now is not the time to risk a data breach while your company is trying to survive the COVID-19 crisis. Your remote employees are now constantly communicating via the internet and are sharing important files and information through your company’s network, so you have to make sure that your IT infrastructure is air-tight.
To improve your level of cybersecurity, be sure to integrate a network of monitoring tools, a reliable password manager, two-factor authentication, and combine software and hardware firewalls. Don’t forget to conduct cybersecurity workshops to educate your employees on proper data sharing, management, and storage.
Wrapping up
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the business world for good, and it’s important that you embrace that change by adapting quickly to avoid wasting money and other resources. Be sure to implement these tools, and you won’t have a problem keeping your employees happy, your cash flow secure, and your productivity high.
