One of the most challenging parts of being a manager is maintaining productivity among team members. According to the Interim VP of engineering, Trevor Harwell, it’s becoming even harder and harder to increase the overall team performance. Harwell, who has always been fascinated by technology for many years, believes that technology could be the solution managers need to ramp up productivity in the workplace. By simplifying simple tasks, improving communication, and automating repetitive tasks, managers can help their teams work more efficiently. Here are the five ways by Trevor Harwell managers can use technology to increase productivity.
1. Use engagement software to get teams involved
An efficient employee engagement software provides you with an outlet to recognize employees that go above and beyond. As a manager, you want to ensure that your employees enjoy working with you by appreciating their efforts, training, and giving positive feedback. Trevor Harwell recommends investing in software that allows your coworkers to work together, encourage one another and even appreciate their colleagues for helping them with specific projects. This helps promote a more robust culture of coloration and teamwork, which motivates employees to give their best.
2. Bring employees together through efficient communication systems
Effective communication is crucial for team productivity, yet many companies don’t see the need to create reliable communication systems for their teams, says Trevor Harwell. They end up dealing with significant losses due to poor or lack of communication. With so many technological solutions available for communication, managers can improve communication among their teams. Some reliable communication software includes Slack, Flock, Chanty, Zoom Treat, and Tribe.
3. Organize workflows with the cloud-based project of task management software
Working with computers means constantly dealing with computers breaking down important files, losing important documents, late submissions, and low internet speeds. All these can be detrimental to your company’s productivity. That’s why Trevor Harwell suggests using project management tools and saving all your projects in the clouds, which makes it easy to access the same documents using different devices. That means if a computer breaks down, nothing stops.
4. Track productivity with reliable time tracking tools
If you can’t measure your productivity, it’s impossible to improve it. To help increase performance and productivity in your workplace, Trevor Harwell recommends learning your work clock and creating a realistic plan. He suggests identifying the common distractions among employees to determine productive hours and using time tracking tools to improve efficiency and productivity. He also advises addressing all employees’ problems, including their mental health, leave days, work-life balance, remote working, and work breaks to ensure they are comfortable at work.
5. Declutter your digital workplace
Proper planning and organization plays a significant role in productivity. When you and your employees work with a well-developed plan, you can complete projects on time and efficiently—clutter and, on the other hand, limit the ability to focus. According to Harwell, the best way to declutter your digital space is to break down your projects into smaller bits and award every employee with a specific task. You can do this by creating a structured spreadsheet with employee names and tasks. This makes it easy to follow up and know which tasks are complete and which ones need more effort.