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6 Productivity Tools for the Modern Workspace

Productive employees are every organization’s boon. They generate more creative ideas and yield more results and get more customers, which then translates to higher profit. However, many factors can affect employee productivity. Motivation, job satisfaction, and work environment can all greatly influence employees’ task performance, but they can also be hard to control.

However, there are other aspects employers can control fully to help increase employee productivity. One of which is the tools they provide. From high-speed internet to time trackers, here are six tools every modern office needs to boost employee productivity.

1- High-Speed Internet and Servers

Communication, business transactions, and information sharing—all these and more can be done digitally. The internet gives organizations many avenues to their business, find and connect with their target audience, sell their products, get the latest industry news, and network with partners, all without stepping out of the office.

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A slow internet connection and server can disrupt the workflow and cause frustration, which then hampers the productivity. For example, accessing and sending information happen at snail’s pace with slow internet.

On the other hand, fast internet allows you to move through tasks smoothly, making many business office processes faster and more efficient. Smart devices connected through Wi-Fi—like printers, security systems, and office automation systems—will also function smoother and faster with fast internet service.

2- Smart Typewriter

The smart typewriter is a tool made for authors, writers, journalists, and other professionals who do a lot of writing. Internet users are bombarded by content and stimuli from all sides. With a portable smart typewriter, your can reduce distractions while writing and increase your daily word count.

The device works indoors or out, online or offline, so you can continue that report at quiet café when the office gets too stuffy. The smart typewriter can store about a million pages, but it uses cloud technology, so there’s no fear of losing files when the internal memory runs out. You can also access your completed drafts in your other smart devices.

3- Interactive Whiteboards

A powerful educational tool, interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are used widely in modern schools to enrich lessons and engage learners. Interactive whiteboards can be used to display images and play videos, like a digital projector but more advanced.

Users can manipulate the display and are able to drag, click, add, and remove elements on the screen. However, IWBs are more than just glorified digital projectors. They can function as standalone computers or as large connectable touch pads to control computers.

The IWB was originally invented for the office and was used in small group meetings and round-table discussions. In the modern office, where clear communication and collaboration have become even-higher priorities, the use of interactive whiteboards can make brainstorming activities, presentations, and meetings run smoother and quicker. The IWB has a great potential of bridging the gap between ideas, understanding, and reality.

4- Cloud-Based Office Suite

Cloud technology, particularly cloud-based office suites, enables people to access and share information at a staggering pace. You don’t have to wait until a file is completed and saved to access them. Now, you can read a document real-time and edit it, as long as you have the necessary permissions. Creating, editing, and sharing content have never been as easy and fast as it is today.

With the use of cloud-based office suites, reports and presentations can be submitted, reviewed, and revised quicker without the tedious process of sending emails back and forth. You can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations directly on the cloud-based office suite and share them with your team members.

In case there are any revisions, anyone with the right permissions can make those, and the whole group can keep track of any changes by checking the history of the document.

It’s not just text documents you can share. Images, videos, recordings, and other media can also be sent and accessed in your shared suite. Plus, you can create surveys, forms, and calendars with your office suite. You can connect other apps to your office suite too. Cloud technology is a boon for collaboration and productivity.

5- Team Chat App

Missing deadlines, using wrong information, and repeated revisions—these are problems that can arise because of the lack of proper communication. People need to communicate in order to understand one another, more so to work effectively together.

In the modern office, teams can have members who work remotely, so in-person interaction is not always possible and not always convenient even when you’re working in the same office. However, that doesn’t reduce the need for real-time communication.

When you’re working on a time-sensitive project, you don’t want to waste time crafting a proper email to ask a simple question, checking on the status of a task, or waiting for immediate feedback. For these occasions, what you need is a team-chat application, like Slack, Hangouts, or Voxer.

These applications work like the old Yahoo! Messenger or the latest Facebook Messenger does. You can send messages, media, and emojis, as well as share links and files, in an instant. You can also call and invite people to a video conference.

Using a team-chat application, team members can update one another on projects, ask for feedback, and share information real-time, which makes collaboration faster and easier.

6- Time Tracker

Being productive means managing your time wisely. Following a schedule and assigning a time frame for every task help you complete your goals on the deadline.

However, always keeping track of your time can add unnecessary pressure to you, making you lose focus. You need the help of a time-tracking application, like Toggle, Hours, and Qbserve. These applications will keep track of how much time you’ve spent on a project and give your weekly productivity reports. They will also let you know if you’re spending an unusually long time on one task.

A time tracker helps you divide your time wisely so you can finish all your tasks efficiently. Using the weekly report, you can analyze how much time it takes for you to complete a certain task and figure out how you can be more effective at managing your time.

Stay Productive

Proper tools are necessary for employees to complete their tasks effectively and efficiently. When used well, they can make work faster, increase quality, and boost productivity.

However, tools are just tools. They can temporarily aid employees to be more productive, but they can’t motivate and satisfy employees in the long run. Aside from better tools, employers should provide more reasons for employees to work hard and stay in the company.

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