8 Major Benefits of Using Productivity Tools for Your Business
Did you know that an average employee is productive for only 2 hours and 53 minutes each day? [1] No, we are not making that up! As a business owner or a manager, would you not want to change that? After all, productivity is a fair indicator of how efficient your business processes are.
This is true regardless of which sector you are working in. Whether you are into manufacturing, the service industry, or a completely different niche sector, productivity, the same productivity parameter applies to all businesses.
Besides, high productivity translates into higher profits, more revenue, and eventually, business growth.
SEE ALSO: 7 Best Remote Work Software in 2021 to Improve Team Collaboration and Communication
Is Being Productive Difficult?
Despite having a clear understanding of what productivity is, many businesses struggle to achieve it. How you get there will primarily depend on your business requirements and goals.
Today, there is a wide range of productivity tools available that will help you improve your company’s productivity levels. These tools can range from a simple application that helps you create to-do lists to some advanced solutions that streamline your core business processes.
In a nutshell, productivity tools will help you stay productive.
But before you embark on the journey of choosing a single or multiple productivity tools for your business, you need to understand their advantages.
In this blog, we will highlight the main advantages of using productivity tools and why purchasing one is a good idea.
1. Quality improvements
One of the first things you will notice after using online productivity tools is an improvement in the quality of your work. This is more or less true for all types of productivity solutions you integrate into your system. For example, a well-organized content calendar will automatically help your content team to stay on top of their assigned tasks and never miss deadlines. This is a step up and a notable quality improvement.
The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled businesses to turn to video conferencing platforms that enable face-to-face meetings from remote locations. Seamless communication through such tools plays an important role in improving productivity.
2. Time
One of the most vital parameters while gauging your workforce efficiency is time. Are all your team members making most of their time? Are they completing their tasks within the set deadlines?
Good time management can make a world of difference and ensure your team members do not miss crucial deadlines. Besides, your clients are bound to raise their eyebrows if you are delivering your services and products late and missing deadlines. Not to forget, there is a high potential of straining client relationships.
There are some really resourceful time management tools available in the market that can help you with time management. At the end of the day, good time management equals high efficiency.
Top tools for time management: Scoro, Harvest, Toggl
3. Remote working
Let’s face it! The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way we work. In fact, one of the most notable impacts of the ongoing pandemic on the workforce is the steep rise in employees working remotely.
Companies have discovered the perks of working remotely. Besides the massive savings on overhead costs, even business travel has gone down. This has paved the way for video conferencing platforms to take over.
Mobility and remote working are gradually becoming a staple of modern working life. Businesses need to adapt to these changes to stay ahead of the curve and at the same time, create a robust remote working environment.
The drastic surge in the number of remote employees means that you should be able to identify the best productivity tools to facilitate efficient remote work. These tools can range from office or cloud-based systems to communication tools.
Top tools for remote work: Slack, Hiver, Miro
4. Communication
Here is an interesting stat for you. A staggering 96% of people believe that the company they are dealing with could improve their communication and project management capabilities [2].
What’s even more surprising is that 8 out of 10 people think their business communication is average or poor [3].
We can’t stress enough the importance of effective communication to run a successful business. The best productivity tools enable you to improve communication at all levels of your organization, both internally and externally.
Typically, companies rely on different tools for video conferencing, file sharing, audio communication, email, and more. However, there are a bunch of online productivity tools that allow you to integrate everything into a single portal. This plays an important role in streamlining the different areas of communication.
You should look for tools that make collaborative work easier. After all, the productivity levels automatically shoot up if your team members can seamlessly work together.
If you are dealing with high volumes of traffic, you should also consider using automation tools as a part of your communication strategy.
Top communication tools: ProofHub, Microsoft Teams, Jive
5. Tracking and Reporting
Let’s consider you implement the right tools and strategies to improve the productivity of your workforce. However, if you do not have enough data to measure the progress of different tasks, your efforts are pointless. You should be able to identify how much progress is being made on each project at every stage.
For instance, if you can only move forward with your tasks after your fellow team members complete theirs, you should know the progress they made.
Besides, if you have a comprehensive view of your projects, it is easier to identify various bottlenecks and improve communication. In a nutshell, performance management tools can boost the overall efficiency and productivity of your company.
Top tracking tools: Asana, Wrike, monday.com
6. Workflow management
Have you ever come across disorganized and utterly chaotic work processes? If you have, you may be aware of the negative impact it can have on productivity. Besides, a sloppy workflow can hinder efficiency, productivity, and also affect profits.
A good business workflow is all about providing the right business tools to your workforce to increase productivity.
However, which tools will turn around the fortune of your company’s productivity levels primarily depends on the type of business you are running and its size. There is no running away from doing your own preliminary research and identifying which type of tool you want to use. That is one of the first steps you are going to take to improve productivity.
Top workflow management tools: Zapier, ProWorkflow, Automate.io
7. Resource planning
Resource planning is a key component of project management. With the right tools in place, it is easier to assign tasks and allocate resources. In addition, these tools also ensure that a particular resource is not being over or underworked.
For instance, if your graphic designer performs tasks for marketing as well as the web design team, you can easily track what tasks they are working on using resource planning software.
Right from estimating the cost, planning resources, and managing them, productivity tools do it all.
Top resource planning tools: GanttPRO, actiTIME, Teamdeck
8. Security
Data is the fuel that keeps your core business processes up and running. Naturally, data security should be given enough attention and taken care of using the right tools. As a business owner, data security will always remain one of your main priorities.
The value of data security increases multiple times especially when you are sharing data and files externally. Thus, it is important to ensure that you opt for productivity tools that provide excellent security and keep your data secure.
Wrapping it Up!
Yes, there are hundreds of productivity tools out there, and choosing the right tool may seem like a daunting task. Before you start your research, ask yourself a few simple questions. What is the primary objective of purchasing productivity software? What pain points do you want to address? Do you want to improve team collaboration? Or do you want to focus on reporting and tracking?
When you have answers to all those questions, you can move on to the next stage with more clarity. You can go through our tool reviews, blogs, and all sorts of content on the web to narrow down your choices. You could also take the old-fashioned approach and ask for recommendations from clients, colleagues, and more.
Either way, regardless of the approach you take, your ultimate goal is to find the right tool to boost efficiency and productivity.
SEE ALSO: 5 Reasons Why Your Startup Needs Marketing Automation Today
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Sources:
[1] Dimovski. A (2021) “21 Remarkable Productivity Statistics [2021]” GoRemotely [online] Available from: https://goremotely.net/blog/productivity-statistics/ [accessed June 2021]
[2] [3] (2019) “Communication Statistics 2020” Project.co [online] Available from: https://www.project.co/communication-statistics-2020/ [accessed June 2021]
