The success of a business relies on a lot of things which include the quality of their goods, services, and customer support, and just exactly what they contribute to the industry they are in. Most importantly, the success of the business relies on the productivity of the people that work behind it.
Without a productive team, any top brand will only be as good as those below them.
Productivity inside a business is a broad term. But one thing that all entrepreneurs can agree on is that engaged employees are those that perform the best. Recent studies suggest that employees who are engaged are able to perform at least 27% better than others. This is big news but of course, getting employees engaged is easier said than done.
If your business and team is small, then getting your employees more engaged with their line of work will be a lot easier. As there are fewer members in your team, talking to them and getting them motivated to be more productive is easier. Don’t worry, though, as there are ways to maximize production in your team and that’s by using business productivity software.
There are many other lines of solutions that can help you have a more productive team. If you want to truly rise above the ranks, then it’s high time you invest in such tools. Of course, you may be completely new to SaaS and other productivity software. But worry not as we are going to give you a short tour on what types of solutions you can add to guide your team.
In times like these when remote work is more popular, and necessary, than ever, it’s time you consider tools that will help you be the boss for employees who are working at home.
CRM
CRM or customer relationship management software are tools that can help you retain engagement between your business and its current and potential clients. Something as simple as CRM software for a small business allows brands to retain a following of loyal customers which of course, will help their operations grow even further.
Although it may seem like a CRM is a tool for businesses to retain a relationship with a group of people, it does wonders when it comes to connecting with individuals as well. Some experts predict that CRM will have the single largest revenue area of spending for enterprise software by 2021. That tells a lot about how important CRM is.
One of the primary features of a CRM software is contact management. This allows your employees to easily keep in touch with your clientele. These solutions come in various capabilities and offerings, such as a Mac CRM software for small business like Daylite so you can keep track of clients, deals, and projects in one place.
Small business CRM solutions allow you to organize all your interactions and next steps for clients, deals, and projects in one place so nothing slips through the cracks. You can save money by providing an improved client experience and better efficiency internally.
Keeping in touch with your best customers at this time might be hard but with CRM, customer engagement will feel like a breeze.
Employee Collaboration Software
When it comes to your employees, one of the best tools you can provide for them is an employee collaboration software. It is built for keeping your employees and their tasks in line with the goals of the company. Ensuring that employees can collaborate effectively contributes to successful project management.
Some leading examples of employee collaboration tools are:
- For team communication – Slack, GoToMeeting, and WebEx
- For task and project management – Asana, Trello, Wrike, Daylite, and monday.com
- For document collaboration – Google Docs, Igloo, and Quip
There’s also expense management tools like Fyle that can help make the process of managing expenses and reimbursements much simpler and faster to help increase productivity.
The goal of employee collaboration software is to guarantee that employees can work together and communicate efficiently, helping them reach their maximum potential. With features such as time trackers and collaboration tools, your employees will be able to see just how much work they can do within a certain time period. In essence, it allows them to see what they are capable of.
These kinds of solutions are now more important than ever as remote work is starting to become the norm. You can’t keep bugging your team for updates if they are working from home. With this software, you can keep track of their work without having to talk and bother them directly.
IT Security Solutions
Your valuable assets are more at risk at a remote setup. This is because your employees are working across different devices and connections. This is where IT security solutions come in to prevent breaches and other privacy threats online.
These tools can safeguard your employees regardless of where they are. Today’s IT security solutions now provide protection not only for your office devices, but also for the devices your employees use to access files, assets, and other important documents. How does this make a team more productive you ask?
Giving them the right protection online lessens the burden on their end. They no longer have to worry about hackers and malware if there’s already a solution that’s doing the job for them.
For instance, if you want to monitor firewall policy and bandwidth, ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer is a reliable tool. EventLog Analyzer is ideal for data encryption. Meanwhile, Keeper is a digital vault that can be used for storing and protecting confidential information and passwords.
Employee Training Platforms
Employee training is often overlooked by many companies. Not maximizing and pushing your team to their fullest potential is a waste. With the right training, you can improve employee expertise to fulfill their role which, in turn, translate to better performance and productivity.
Not only that, but it can also increase employee retention. Hiring and onboarding is time-consuming and expensive. Hence, you’d want to leverage your current talent pool and nurture their career in your organization by providing fruitful resources and training to advance.
Using tools such as a learning management system simplifies delivering employee training and ensures employees can easily access training materials. Some of the top solutions in the market are TalentLMS, Absorb LMS, and SAP Litmos for small business teams. Evaluate FinancesOnline best solutions to get a list of tools to compare and discover which one suits your needs best.
Video Communications
Lastly, we can’t deny the importance of communication when it comes to remote work. Without leaders to supervise them, how can you make your team more engaged? More importantly, how can they work together when there’s no line of communication between them?
Getting video communication software like Skype and Zoom provides your employees with a private and safe space to communicate with each other while working remotely. Communicating through chat can be taxing and it can also lead to miscommunication. As such, it’s always better to communicate vocally, even if it is through a virtual platform.
Through these tools, you can keep in touch with your team and their progress easily every day. In fact, you should set aside some time to communicate with your team at least once daily. By making your daily huddles effective, you can save time by preventing wasting time in meetings while making sure the entire team stays informed and aligned on the work they need to do.
Consider the Digital Upgrade Now
Many top brands have already undergone digital transformations but that doesn’t mean the much-needed changes are only for big businesses. All business sizes can benefit from these productivity tools and these may as well be the best investment you can make for yourself. Make sure to choose your solution wisely so that your productivity tools can be maximized to the fullest!
Keep in mind that these tools are going to be just as helpful in an actual office environment and not just in a remote setup. Even after the Covid-19 virus has been beaten, you can turn these tools into useful office companions as well.
