The best strategic ways to boost your office productivity

Do you feel like everyone always seems busy, but you don’t feel like anything is being accomplished? If all of your projects seem to be stagnant, office productivity might be what is lacking.

Office productivity is the measurement of the outputs by everyone in the office. And keeping an eye on the productivity of your office is like checking the pulse.

In 2018, 74.8 percent of global organizations were projected to increase the use of productivity tools and processes. Are you one of those looking to work toward a more productive office?

If so, we’ve got some tips for you on how to do this strategically. It is time to be proactive instead of reactive.

Lay a strong foundation with the initial training

Hours and hours can be wasted trying to reinvent the wheel, and often, it can be done unknowingly. Take a minute to review your onboarding process. It’s important to ensure that employees are properly trained in the beginning so they don’t spend time making mistakes others have already made or trying to recreate something they might already have access to.

Improve collaboration and communication

Miscommunication and a lack of collaboration are two of the largest causes of a lack of office productivity. And 78 percent of employees say that communication should be a higher priority for their company, so there is clearly room for improvement.

When trying to improve collaboration and communication, here are a few things to consider:

• Project management software: This will help everyone track who is working on what and overall productivity. Also, people can easily access information and notes about what they are working on.
• Centralized communication tools: Sending emails is efficient but using instant messaging systems like Microsoft Teams or Slack is more efficient. You can create specific and private channels within the company, enabling your employees to quickly and effectively communicate with each other from all over the workplace and even from a remote location.
• Cloud storage: The days of saving everything to a company server are over. Cloud storage is a more secure way to save documents and makes them more easily accessible.

Provide access to ongoing training

There is constant change that naturally happens across all industries and within all companies. To remain the best at something, you must be constantly learning.

In order to maintain a consistent level of outstanding office productivity, you should provide employees with access to ongoing training to ensure they are up-to-date with the most efficient technology available to them, processes of the company, and other industry tips and tricks that improve productivity.

This ongoing training is also another great opportunity for the peer-to-peer learning discussed earlier in this blog.

Consider outsourced IT

You don’t have to do everything in-house – finding an IT provider allows you to step away from the wheel knowing your IT will continue working as it should.

Outsourced IT supports the productivity of your office by:

• Constantly monitoring for any events that could cause a disruption in your business or technology
• Providing help and technical support to your staff
• Conducting regular reviews to support the future growth of your business

All of these aspects of managed IT help reduce technology support costs, improve communication and efficiency, boost productivity, and support the growth of your business. 

Choose a provider

Boosting productivity takes constant effort. However, it is essential to employee retention and to your bottom line.

Start taking the steps to boost your office productivity today by tracking current office productivity and surveying employees on their interpretation of their own productivity and what would make them more productive. Then take these tips into consideration as you start to work strategically to improve.