A positive workplace is key to attracting and retaining a strong team of employees. In turn, leading to better business outcomes and growth over time – what we all strive for, right?
But achieving that positive culture is about more than ‘pizza Friday’ and giving people the day off for their birthday. It’s about making their job simple and removing unnecessary stresses. This is where your tech comes in.
How to use your tech to build a positive workplace and retain staff
There’s nothing more certain to frustrate your team than slow-running PCs or poorly implemented technology. Oversights like these can hinder productivity, lead to increased staff turnover and eventually make for a poor customer or client experience. But using your technology to its full potential can make your business a positive place to be with positive outcomes.
Enable flexible working
If there was one thing the global pandemic highlighted to businesses, it was that having the flexibility to run your business from anywhere can be imperative in the event of a natural disaster. It also highlighted to some businesses that remote working teams can work very well and can save money on overheads. And, most prominently, it highlighted to many employees that remote working supports a healthier work-life balance.
But for flexible working to be successful, your communication and collaborative-working solutions need to be spot on. Team members need to be able to access working files and each other to avoid frustrations and reduced productivity.
Software like Microsoft Teams enables employees to work efficiently with their colleagues regardless of their physical location. Instant chat, reliable video calling, file sharing and co-authored files, all avoid relying on sluggish email chains to keep a project moving.
But that’s not where Microsoft Teams stops in supporting collaborative working. Integrate apps such as SharePoint, Planner and OneNote and you have a virtual workspace everyone can use to perform their role to their best ability.
Keep an eye on staff wellbeing
A positive workplace for an employee is one that has passion for the service it delivers and that shares that same passion for the teams that are key in its delivery. Traditionally, keeping an eye on your colleagues’ wellbeing was as simple as a casual chat in the staffroom but with the advent of hybrid working, it’s not always so easy.
This hasn’t been overlooked by Microsoft and in 2021 they launched Viva Insights. A data-driven app, Viva allows employees to manage their time in a way which balances productivity and wellbeing. They can reserve diary time for focussed work and set prompts to take breaks and time for headspace.
For managers, it gives insights into workflow so you can ensure a healthy balance and demonstrate your support to your team members.
Do you know about these 5 apps you can use to develop Microsoft Teams even further?
Give your staff the right tools
If your staff don’t have the best tools to do the job, they can quickly become frustrated and demoralised. Many good team members are lost for this reason.
Introducing a cloud infrastructure puts all your business data and applications in one space that can be accessed from any device, anywhere, securely. Having access to all files at home as they would in the office, enables your employees to carry out their roles to the best of their ability and feel fulfilled in return.
Here are 5 more reasons you should move your business to cloud services.
Listen To Your Team
Your aim should be to create a team that over time becomes a ‘family’. Having a workforce that shares the same vision demonstrates a positive workplace and a reputable company. With this culture, attracting and retaining talented staff will come easy.
To build this calibre of team, it’s important to listen. Actively seek employee feedback and embrace everything they have to say – good and bad.
Tap My Back is an employee feedback app that works with Microsoft Teams. Not only does it enable management to request feedback by sending surveys and polls, but you can also give real-time peer-to-peer recognition, public recognition, and award badges. All these gestures play a part in making your employees feel valued.
Your tech is only as good as its support
Finally, your tech needs to be supported effectively for it to support your staff efficiently. If your IT support takes too long to respond to issues or issues are frequent, your staff will lose momentum and, eventually, interest.
At Jupiter IT, we resolve 90% of issues in under an hour and 55% of these take less than 12 minutes! (We know you’re wondering about the other 10% – these are ongoing projects). On top of this, we provide a managed IT service and monitor our clients’ systems constantly to prevent issues affecting users.
We go that extra mile because we know that downtime costs. It costs in loss of business and can cost you good staff.
“It can feel like we don’t have an IT provider because our issues are so infrequent, and our systems run so smoothly.” – Director – Wilson Yacht Management
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