Which of these statistics is more surprising to you:
- An average employee is productive about just 60% of the time OR
- An average employee is distracted every 3 minutes at work OR
- 91% of employees daydream in meetings
The demand for workspace productivity improvement is very real. An organization’s return on investment heavily depends upon the productivity of the workforce. Gaps in productivity are not easy to spot manually, and that’s why brands turn to productivity tools for help. Here’s how productivity tools change the game.
Productivity gaps in workflows
Organizations refer to different resorts to boost their productivity and workforce output. Some of the productivity approaches include setting up standard operating procedures, providing proper training, and assigning management professionals. However, these traditional productivity hacks can only get us so far.
Here are some of the productivity gaps where software solutions can help:
Disorganized work
Often companies suffer from a simple lack of attention and human errors. Employees can often miss meetings, schedules, and deadlines without a proper organizing tool. Disorganized work is the primary reason behind confusion, errors, misinformation, and lack of visible progress.
Mismanaged tasks
Projects must be broken down into small yet substantial steps/tasks in order for continued progress and traceability. It is only possible to track such micro tasks with a proper software tool to help.
Unclear roles & responsibilities
Team members are often put in a spot where there is an overlap between roles, and it can be unclear to divide or assign tasks. Unclear roles and responsibilities can lead to miscommunication, time consumption, and disputes.
Lack of visible progress
Visible progress refers to measurable achievements and successions. Without visualization, analyzing data and understanding the progress is time-consuming and erroneous. Likewise, there are chances that everyone is not on the same page without clear visuals and imagination.
Poorly coordinated work
Every team member has a different work ethic, communication style, and approach to work. Poor collaboration can result in vague communication and information exchange bringing severe consequences. Especially in our current remote/hybrid work culture, coordination is more important than ever.
Lack of automation
The major gap between manual management practices and productivity tools is that manual methods do not allow companies to benefit from automation. As a result, manual progress is stagnant and can lead to slower growth without automation.
Poor time management
The inability to monitor the time taken by different employees on various tasks can blindside the company management. Identifying unproductive practices or poor performance is quite hard without a time-tracking tool.
Mismanaged documentation
Uncollaborative documentation limits a handful of accessibility features. Without a productivity solution, documentation abilities like assigning, sharing, and working together is not feasible. Aligning all members with the latest documentation or version control becomes difficult without a proper tool.
Lack of insights
Manual project management and meetings can only gain a certain level of visibility on progress and statistics. Digital insights can help verify statistics and trends to predict the output or assess risk.
Remote/hybrid working culture
In the era of remote work, it is crucial for organizations to establish a common ecosystem that can facilitate conversation, exchanges, and task management. Without such a medium, it is extremely challenging to manage organizational productivity.
Additionally, the absence of a workforce organizing tool leaves companies to rely on individual skills and the discipline of team members, leading to inconsistent output.
Productivity tools can help bring different advantages to companies in this competitive era. Here are some of the benefits of productivity tools:
Effective communication
A team thrives on the mutual understanding and alignment of team members. Eliminating gray areas and doubts can ensure that there are no loopholes in the workflow. As such, Productivity demands that every team member is clear about their role, instructions, and course of action.
Better employee involvement
Employee engagement and involvement relate directly to their productivity and performance. Engaging workflows can help ensure that employees deliver higher productivity and improve the output for the company.
Utilizing time
Productivity and time utilization are synonyms in this context, where how efficiently one can finish a task can make a company more profitable. Employees who can schedule and track time on tasks can easily achieve their productivity aims.
Task prioritization
Some tasks have more influence on the overall output compared to others. As such, teams must understand priorities and be aligned on the same page to prioritize tasks. A productivity tool can help all members understand their mutual goals and maximize their output within any given time frame.
Managing resource availability
The availability of sufficient resources is a must-have need for companies to keep functioning. Unavailable resources can lead to roadblocks and hold ups that can cost companies severely. Productivity tools can also help map out any dependencies or third-party help so that the project is always in motion without running out of resources.
These benefits of productivity platforms are subjective based on their implementations and usage. However, the mutual goal is to facilitate better communication, exchanges, handover, and efficient work that can save companies time and revenue.
Productivity tools can change organizational workflows drastically. Here are some examples of productivity tools that can help a business flourish:
1. Jira
Jira is a well-known project management tool that helps teams be productive by planning, tracking, and managing their work. Some of the notable features of Jira include features like issue tracking, workflow customization, agile project management methodology, collaboration tools, reporting, and third-party integrations.
Teams can use Jira to create and assign tasks, track progress, communicate effectively, and visualize project status. These abilities of Jira can help boost productivity and make the organization more efficient.
2. Asana
Like Jira, Asana is another popular project management tool that can boost productivity through better coordination and task management. Asana is comparatively usable and simpler when it comes to user experience. In addition to simpler processes and visualization, Asana can manage tasks, divide responsibilities, and provide a handful of productivity provisions without being as complicated as Jira.
3. Clockify
Time is an important parameter of productivity. Clockify is one of the productivity tools that allow teams to log and track the hours of work done on a particular activity. The platform allows companies to understand where users invest their time through a handful of features. Users can record their time spent manually or through the timer.
Organizations can dig deeper to find gaps in their processes if there are any huge gaps in expected hours of work and hours on the Clockify log. It also measures the resource cost of a project through hours and can help bill the clients accordingly. It can also document timesheets and generate reports for deeper analysis.
4. RescueTime
Another famous name among productivity tools is RescueTime. It is a program that helps gain insights into different users’ activities and patterns. Unlike Clockify, it runs in the background and tracks activities automatically to provide a breakdown of time spent on various applications.
The tool allows users to set productivity goals and track them while allowing users to block any distracting accesses. It can also limit and notify users of less productivity. The product’s simple dashboard conveys these statistics through effective graphs.
5. Clickup
Clickup is a suite of different solutions related to project management and productivity. It provides a handful of features and modules that help teams streamline their work processes. This task management and collaboration platform allows teams to create & manage tasks, set deadlines, assign roles, and track progress.
Just like Jira, there is a good provision to customize this tool to meet unique workflow needs. Clickup’s abilities, like collaborating on documents, communication tools, and third-party integrations aim to resolve different gaps in productivity.
6. Smartkarrot
Smartkarrot is another comprehensive platform with a different set of tools to help organizations increase their productivity on various fronts. Smartkarrot focuses on strengthening business aspects such as task execution, automated activities, customer satisfaction, operational alerts, and easier user experience.
What makes Smartkarrot different is that this productivity tool completes tasks through touch points. The tool facilitates a unique way to gather feedback/approval on tasks in order to complete them, making it result-oriented.
The market is flooded with various companies operating in the productivity domain. These tools have the potential to improve the output of users if they are utilized efficiently.
It’s essential not to fall under the productivity trap and implement a lengthy solution that can’t meet your needs or even hampers the overall output. Here are some of the steps to find and implement the right productivity tool:
1. Have a clear list of goals & requirements
It is important to be aware of your unique needs before searching for a productivity tool to help you out. Listing your goals and needs is a good first step to assessing your organization’s needs. Parameters such as your company’s team size, management style, workflows, and even industry can help define these requirements better.
Online research of different productivity tools and asking around peers can help one find a set of productivity tools that might be relevant to their needs. Then the list of productivity tools can be shortlisted against the company’s list of requirements. It would help filter a few good options to choose from.
3. Finalizing a product for your organization
Before finalizing and implementing the tool, the last step would be to consider feasibility parameters, such as the suitable payment structure, user access model, product scalability, customer support, and even the peer reviews of the platform. If everything is aligned, then you might have found the solution to your productivity problems.
4. Onboarding & implementation process
Once the solution is finalized, the next step is to come up with an internal implementation plan. It may include defining the users, their roles, the implementation timeline, and educating the workforce to use the tool effectively. Every tool provides some sort of training or onboarding guidance that one can utilize to train the employees.
Productivity tools like Jira or Asana can be comprehensive and flexible to use as per your organization’s unique needs. Customizing it beforehand helps to implement the tool with more stability and precise instructions. Creating users, configuring accesses, updating settings, managing notifications, and creating workflows are the key to boosting organization efficiency.
6. Considering data migration
If you were already using a solution, then chances are that you have a pretty decent workflow already set up with significant data. Unless that information is no longer necessary, one should consider migrating that data into the new tool they are adapting. It would ensure that you are not starting back from square one.
7. Test run & monitoring
Ideally, one should start using the new workflow with a test run to minimize the risk and observe its impact on productivity. Perhaps one can start with a smaller team or a demo project in order to identify if the tool is actually solving productivity challenges. This is when a productivity tool’s trial period can add value.
8. Feedback, improvement, and optimization
Upon the implementation or at the end of the initial run, users can share their feedback and statistics to see if the tool is actually helping them improve their output. If there is room for improvement, the administrator can customize the tool to address any challenges. Such iterations in a timely and strategic manner would improve the tool’s effectiveness.
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Warning: Don’t fall for the productivity trap!
Often companies overlook the uniqueness of their productivity challenges. Choosing a product or solution solely because of peer approval or advertising influence can actually put you into an unproductive and expensive process. As such, it’s always good to consider the need first and then evaluate available options before incorporating a productivity tool in your important workflows.
In conclusion
Productivity has many perks for any business as it helps them deliver more, generate higher ROI, get ahead of the competition, and boost overall profitability. As there are many tools, all of them offer unique advantages in specific situations. The better you identify your needs, the better a solution can help you out.
Still confused? Reach out to us, and we would be happy to discuss your precise needs and the ideal productivity hack for you.
Rohan has over 11 years of experience in client services, marketing and hospitality field. Previously, he was head of digital marketing for a hi-tech mobile application. Rohan is driven by new challenges and the possibility of making an impact on individuals and businesses.
Published June 09, 2023, Updated October 08, 2024
