6 min read
Employee engagement is an ongoing challenge across many workplaces. You want your employees to be focused when they come into work each day, engaged with the projects in front of them, and ready to take on whatever challenges might come their way. Engaged employees are productive employees. Those engaged employees are also much less likely to leave your business and go to your competitors.
Unfortunately, maintaining high levels of employee engagement is not always as easy as it sounds. While 71% of executives feel that employee engagement is a critical part of company success–and companies with engaged employees tend to see an average 21% increase in productivity–many employees struggle to deliver the high level of engagement needed by their employers. In fact, only about a third of the workforce sees high levels of engagement in the workplace.
Leveraging the right technology can make a huge difference in overall employee engagement and productivity–and help your employees feel more appreciated, essential parts of the team can help motivate them to achieve those higher levels of success.
Using the right technology can help keep things running more smoothly across your business.
The difference between the right technology and the wrong technology can be exponential. Staying up to date on the latest technology can help streamline many of the processes that your business engages in regularly.
Modern technology, particularly with the increase in automation and artificial intelligence, can help improve many of the processes your business uses every day as employees engage with one another and with clients. It can help move processes along, provide reminders for employees who need more help getting the job done, or ensure that employees have whatever information they need at their fingertips, rather than having to go digging through past records to access that much-needed information.
Clunky old technology can slow your business down. Instead of being able to focus on the task at hand, employees may spend the largest chunk of their days dealing with technology problems–and the better part of their daily energy will go into those tasks. By utilizing the right solutions, however, your business can see an immense overall increase in productivity and engagement.
Technology can take over many of the processes your employees struggle with most.
Many of the processes that employees hate most–the ones that sap energy and make it difficult to remain engaged–are the ones that are repetitive, boring, and require little active interaction or thought on the part of employees. While there are some things that only employees can do, technology has provided an alternative for some of the most monotonous processes employees engage in every day. With the right technology, you can automate those processes, freeing up employees to focus on the other elements of their jobs.
Some employers worry that picking up new technology options will lead to a decrease in overall employee productivity since those apps are now doing many of the tasks that once fell on those employees’ shoulders. In reality, however, many businesses find that automating those processes frees up employee energy, not just to take on other tasks, but to focus fully on those tasks–and to engage creatively and energetically. Employees who don’t have to worry about monotonous basic tasks may have more energy to focus on innovative new concepts and ideas, which can help keep your business at the top of the industry.
Using the right technology solutions can help encourage employees to remain with you, rather than pursuing employment elsewhere.
Losing employees can have a substantial cost in both time and money. Constant turnover may leave you feeling as though you are never quite on top of all the tasks that employees can handle once they have a chance to settle in with the business. Unfortunately, for many businesses, it’s not just attracting top talent that has become increasingly more challenging. It’s keeping that top talent within the business!
Employees are looking for a lot of things from the employers they actually want to work for and are most likely to stick with. They want recognition. They want to feel as though they are an important part of their company and their company’s processes, rather than feeling as though they are a replaceable element that can be exchanged in a moment if things don’t go the employer’s way. Using the right technology, including communication apps like Pronto, can make it easier to keep up with employees, check-in on their needs, and ensure that they receive that vital recognition regularly.
There’s another way in which technology is vital to your employee retention, too: employees are looking for businesses that utilize that technology to full advantage, where they do not have to fight to get the latest tools to do their jobs.
It’s not just about always having the latest and greatest technology or the shine and natural attraction of a great new app or platform. It’s about the tools that your employees have on hand and your willingness to provide them with those tools. Today’s employees know their worth and what they can really do if they have the right tools on hand. They don’t want to feel as though they’re locked into the most monotonous parts of their jobs, particularly not to the exclusion of all else. By choosing the right technology and tools, you can show employees that you appreciate their contributions to the business as a whole and that you’re willing to go the extra mile for them, too.
Simplify communication and bring employees together.
To make the most of every aspect of your business, you need to be able to bring your employees together in an effective, comprehensive whole. They need to be able to contact one another and share information, including sharing information between departments. Your sales and marketing department may have more information to share with one another than they think, and your IT department may have information that impacts every area of your business and every department in the company.
Technology can be the critical tool that helps bring them together.
With effective technology, you can:
Bring employees together no matter where they are physically.
Today’s communication apps and opportunities, including Pronto, can help connect employees regardless of where they are physically. Remote employees can easily check in with the office, access vital documents, and even participate in meetings, all from wherever they are. Employees out on the road, who may need quick access back to the information usually provided by the office or to check in with a colleague for the answer to a vital question, can check in with ease.
Ensure that no employee is left out of vital announcements or information-sharing opportunities.
Remote employees or employees who frequently travel, in particular, need to know that they have the same information coming in as employees who work within the physical office environment. With a communication app like Pronto, you can ensure that announcements, communications, and policy changes go out to all employees at the same time, which can make it easier for them to remain connected even when on the go.
Keep all the information employees need in one location.
One critical aspect of communication is ensuring that employees have access to the information they need when they need it. Employees need to be able to access vital documents or check out communications no matter where they might be. A quality communication app can help keep all of those communications in one place.
Make it easier for employees to connect in the way that works best for them.
Some messages are best handled through a brief text stream: a text message or a message on your internal communication systems, for example. Others need to be handled with more direct communications, including the option for face-to-face communication. Seeing people’s changing expressions can make a huge difference when it comes to communicating as seamlessly as possible–and the right communication app can help you achieve those goals and increase your overall sense of community within the office environment.
Improve organization throughout your business.
Using the right technology and the right platforms can substantially increase organization throughout your business. With the right apps and solutions, you can do away with unnecessary paperwork by keeping your solutions virtual. You can also make it easier for every employee to understand that organization’s system and access vital data and information as needed, all by utilizing your technology to store that information and make it accessible to all users.
Furthermore, technology offers a more secure level of organization. You can control user access to specific documents and types of material, ensure that the information is protected from external threats, and even create much-needed backup solutions for that data and information.
Do you have the right tools and technology for your business? Pronto can help enhance engagement and productivity for your employees by streamlining your communication and keeping it all in one easy-to-use location. Contact us today for a free demonstration.