Time-Saving Tips and Tech to Keep Employees Happy How can the right technology help employees stick around?
By Chris Byers Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As business owners or company leaders, we spend countless hours worrying about how to ensure our employees are set up for success. We coach them and give them every opportunity we can. But there is one question we don't ask often enough when it comes to our workforce: Are they happy?
Are your employees, generally speaking, satisfied with their workplace?
Related: 11 Habits of Truly Happy People
Today's workers are quick to switch companies if they aren't happy with their employers -- young professionals, in particular, may often as much as four times in 10 years. Finding ways to keep valued employees happy while saving time and money for your business may seem like a fairy tale. But, with the right tools, apps, and automation technology, you can maintain a positive, engaged workforce and maximize workflow.
How can the right technology help employees stick around? Here are three simple ways:
1. Eliminate meeting overload
Meeting overload is an epidemic. Forcing employees to spend valuable time in unnecessary meetings will not only impede productivity -- it won't do much to improve morale, either. Luckily, by adopting some intuitive information-gathering tools, businesses can easily keep meetings to a minimum.
Instant messaging and project management tools can serve as great meeting replacements. With these tools, status updates and project check-ins can be quickly and easily accessed for team members to review tasks and progress.
Another useful tool is an online form builder. When used efficiently, a form builder can prevent the need for any number of meetings. Project proposal forms can eliminate meetings and, in the process, efficiently gather the details you need to determine if a project is even worth pursuing in the first place.
Related: 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader
2. Keep necessary information easily accessible
As you might imagine, employees can become frustrated if they aren't sure where or how to access important information on company systems. This may seem obvious, but it is a major pain point for many employers.
There are a number of applications available to assist in keeping necessary information organized and accessible. Web-based file storage and project management applications can have a significant impact on productivity and, more importantly, relieve employee headaches.
In addition, employees can benefit from form-submission data centralized in an accessible database, as well as grouping frequently used forms or documents into standard folders.
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3. Implement workflow automation
Nearly all employees have been frustrated by small administrative tasks getting in the way of larger to-do's. Employee empowerment is an important factor when looking to create happy, productive teams. Employees bogged down by menial tasks are less likely to feel productive or valued.
Implementing workflow automation solutions can help eliminate the tedious, repetitive work required of most employees. This technology opens up time for employees to focus on more interesting projects that help advance critical business initiatives. In fact, according to an ADP study, 55 percent of modern employees feel positively about replacing repetitive tasks with automation.
Automation can also help streamline your organization's workflows with powerful web forms. These forms can often integrate seamlessly with existing company applications, allowing employees to update email lists, input contact information to CRMs, collect payments and manage HR-related tasks among countless other possibilities.
Implementing these tips and technologies can maximize employee workflow and retainment. And, in turn, these strategies can go a long way toward keeping employees productive, engaged and happy for years to come.
