Effects of Technology on Productivity in an Office Environment
Technology has significantly impacted the way we work, boosting productivity in many ways. From improving how we communicate to increasing connectivity of staff and allowing you to track and analyze performance, there are several technological solutions that can increase the efficiency of your workforce.
Let’s look at how technology has advanced workflow and productivity in the office environment over the years.
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It’s made us faster
Productivity is about assessing the efficiency of a person, system, factory, or machine, by measuring the rate of output per unit of input. Advances in technology have allowed us to do more in the same amount of time, essentially making processes faster and businesses more efficient.
Even office tech items like printers have come a long since the 80’s. While the 1984 LaserJet only printed eight pages per minute, the newest models can print as much as 27 pages per minute!
In a fast-paced office environment, faster technology can have a significant impact. Just think of how much easier it is to get your work done now you have access to high-speed internet, compared to when we had dial-up.
It’s made us more organized
Online productivity and collaboration tools have made it so much easier for teams to stay organized and on-task. Tools like Asana will keep all of your ongoing projects and individual tasks in one place, allowing you to set deadlines and assign different jobs to all of your colleagues.
It makes it easy to keep track of your progress and spot if team members are falling behind schedule, so you can take the necessary actions to ensure deadlines are still met on time.
You can even integrate the tool with collaboration platforms like Slack, which is a tool that allows you to communicate more effectively with your team. Using the two together makes it easier for teams to coordinate and manage their work, turning conversations into tasks without even having to switch between tools, further saving you time and effort.
It’s improved networking
Taking the time to network with others in your industry is well worth the effort, as it can help you acquire new business leads, generate awareness of your company, identify business best practices or industry benchmarks, and identify new business trends.
With social media sites like LinkedIn, it’s never been easier to connect with like-minded individuals in your industry. Technology has not just made meeting people easier; it’s also made it easier to keep in touch with them.
Business cards can get lost quite easily, but once you’ve added someone to your online network or initiated an email chain, you’ve can contact them in an instant. Going online has made the whole networking process faster, easier, and more efficient.
It’s given us knowledge at our fingertips
Now that we have the internet, you can find the answer to pretty much anything in an instant. You no longer must rely on books and others alone to give you the information you need.
If you’re not quite sure how to do something in Excel, you don’t have to waste time trying to figure things out or interrupt one of your busy co-workers. All you must do is look it up online, and then you can get back to work. In many cases, going online is the fastest and most effective route.
The wonderful thing about technology is that we’re not wasting as much time on the smaller, more tedious tasks that used to take up so much of our time. Things get done so much quicker, allowing us to move on to the next task without delay. Any tech that will enable you to complete a job in a fraction of the time it typically takes is something any business owner really needs to take advantage of.
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