Technology is always evolving and it can affect your life profoundly, especially if you own a business. Social media, mobile-friendly websites, and other developments in technology can offer you a wide variety of ways to improve your business and the way you communicate with your customers. However, because technology changes so rapidly and you must keep up to stay competitive, you may find yourself overwhelmed when it comes to using it effectively. If you want to stay on the cutting edge of your business niche, here are six ways to improve your productivity with technology.
1. Use a Note-Taking App
Whether you are at a fast-paced business meeting or taking an important phone call and need to remember important details later, taking notes effectively may mean the difference between landing an important client and fumbling around during your follow-up communication, which may make you appear unprofessional. Note-taking apps, such as OneNote, allow you to record, store, and easily access all your notes and then access them across a variety of technological platforms. Take advantage of trial versions and reviews to find a note-taking app that works best for you.
2. Hire More Efficiently
Before technology allowed professionals to represent their talents and experience online, the hiring process took months. Reading printed resumes, making phone calls, and conducting interviews took up valuable time for business owners, who could have spent it coming up with new and innovative products and services for their company. However, as a business owner who has access to a wide variety of technology, you can streamline this procedure in a number of ways.
If you need to hire new employees, they may be as close as the click of a mouse. Online professional sites such as LinkedIn host a variety of professional profiles, allowing you to browse a prospective hire’s experience, abilities, and work history before you even reach out to him or her. This can cut search time in half, giving you the ability to fill your staffing needs quickly.
3. Keep Up With New Innovations
As a business owner, keeping up with the latest business technology can be daunting, especially if your days are already filled with meetings and ensuring your customers’ happiness. However, keeping up with a few technology blogs and being informed about the latest innovations may help keep your business running smoothly. For example, Keith Krach, CEO of DocuSign, a company that specializes in tracking business transactions on the cloud, hosts a blog about up-and-coming business technology that would allow you to discover new technology without getting overwhelmed with too much information.
4. Use Time-Tracking Technology
If your business involves selling products or services by the piece that are created on demand, then using time-tracking technology may help your employees be more productive on a daily basis. Not only may they help your employees remain on task, some compile productivity data automatically so you can discover gaps that you may not have been aware of previously. Encourage your employees to use social media blackout apps that prevent them from checking Facebook, Twitter, and other sites during working hours to help increase their productivity.
5. Create Employee Portals
If you employ more than a dozen people or manage several different departments (sales, marketing, payroll,) setting up employee portals to create a unified system of communication may help your company be more productive. This will prevent one or more sectors from being isolated from the rest of the company, especially if they are located in a remote location.
For example, if you have a marketing team that works from home most of the time, then creating employee portals will allow team members to communicate with you and other members of in-house teams so that collaboration is much more efficient than it would be communicating via phone or back-and-forth emails.
6. Focus on Innovation, not Presentation
When it comes to choosing which technological systems to use in order to increase productivity for your business, it is important to focus on innovation and how they will help your business instead of what kind of bells and whistles they have. While some apps and websites may look flashy and have a wide variety of features, taking the time to review and compare them may save you even more time later on.
As you compare different systems, consider how each one may help you reach your business goals. To illustrate, if you want to choose between two voice over internet protocol systems that allow you to make and receive calls over the internet, consider the factors that are best for your company’s bottom line now and in the future. Will one system become more expensive in the future? Which one offers the kind of features you are most likely to use? These are just a few of the questions you should ask yourself before purchasing technology for your business.
Technology can increase productivity within your business, but only if you use it wisely and ask your employees and customers where it works best and what could be improved. As a result, your business may have a better chance of thriving now and in the long term.
