5 Things Enterprises Can Do to Help Employee Performance and Productivity

Mr N Narayana Murthy, one of the most influential and defining names of the Indian technology landscape, recently suggested that Indian youngsters should work 70 hours a week if the country had to achieve the progress levels seen by some other nations. His statement got the internet talking and brought productivity under the scanner once again.

Improving productivity standards has consistently been one of the top strategic priorities of businesses across industries. Digital transformation acceleration across industries and enterprises has been focused on driving efficiencies and improving productivity. Automation, cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, and data analytics are a few of the technologies that are now improving processes and workflows to create more seamless work experiences.

However, the world of work is changing. Businesses now need to work across global teams and novel work models to keep the wheels of innovation and productivity turning. And even as the world of work becomes more boundaryless and open, and as technology proliferates, talent constraints and skills shortages have become a burden across most industries.

What was once a select benefit for some is now becoming a default work of work. As the hybrid work model becomes our normal we need to identify how to influence productivity in the workplace today.

Productivity now depends significantly on:

Workplace culture

The hybrid workplace needs a culture remodel to create an environment where in-office and remote peers can connect seamlessly. As most meetings, work conversations, and employee interactions move online, the right audio-video solutions become prime enablers of communication and collaboration.

The meme world has exploded displaying the woes of the remote worker in a Zoom meeting. While it generates the intended laughs, it also exposes the most frustrating side of hybrid work.

Seamless collaboration now needs a strong audio-visual backbone to create and sustain a successful hybrid work model. High-quality AV solutions are now building the necessary rapport by creating online workspaces where everyone can see and hear each other clearly.

AV solutions like Microsoft Teams Rooms, Zoom Rooms, etc. are now essential drivers of workplace productivity. These solutions bridge the gap between remote and in-person attendees and ensure that everyone present is seen, heard, and fully engaged whether they are working in small, medium, or large meeting spaces.

Workplaces that boost collaboration

The role of meeting spaces as a productivity enabler becomes more pronounced when driving client interactions. The workforce now needs more powerful tools to communicate with each other and with clients to boost engagement and drive impactful outcomes.

Productivity is now inextricably linked with how easily people collaborate and communicate online. Effective AV solutions are now essential for creating spaces that allow employees to present their ideas easily and more effectively with peers, stakeholders, or clients. Solutions like Crestron Flex panel or Jabra PanaCast, for example, now help enterprises create immersive, optimized, simplified, and ideal meeting spaces by providing systems that boot collaborations while removing meeting disruptions and enabling optimized hybrid interactions.

Smooth Processes

Apart from process improvements, businesses need to assess their collaboration and communication environment to remove all productivity blockers. Technology solutions that enable easier room scheduling, wireless presentation, and device management, and support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) conferencing environments and facilitate employee productivity.

Enterprises of today need a strong technology backbone to support employee productivity, help them manage the challenges of hybrid workspaces, and allow them to collaborate across platforms consistently.

Employee engagement

Employee engagement has consistently been one of the critical influencers of employee productivity. Employee engagement tops the productivity influencer charts even in the day of hybrid work.

One of the key enablers of employee engagement is ease of work and collaboration. Employees today also want to work in technology-powered, high-tech work environments that demonstrate a forward-thinking attitude.

Optimized virtual onboarding experiences, for example, are critical for employee engagement. Choppy video, poor audio quality, and restricted virtual real estate are a few things that can impact the onboarding experience negatively and consequently lead to a less engaged employee.

Technology that boosts employee interactions such as high-resolution video displays, intelligent HD cameras, automation solutions that make workspaces more responsive, analytics that help manage and measure how rooms are being used, table-top consoles, soundbars, and room scheduling software, etc. are now all contributors of employee engagement.

These make communication seamless and provide an immersive environment that is conducive to productivity in the hybrid age.

Upskilling and reskilling transformation

The rising skills gaps across industries are a gap to bridge to win the productivity battle. Digital technologies are reshaping the world of work and are compelling businesses to reskill and upskill their workforce to navigate the digital future.

Delivering consistent, uniform, high-quality, and intuitive training and learning and development experiences at scale to a hybrid workforce will be pivotal in driving learning outcomes.

Learning and development initiatives powered by robust audio-video solutions now help businesses reduce upskilling and reskilling costs, access technical and subject-matter experts, and deliver uniform training experiences across the workforce including field and remote workers.

These solutions now have to meet subtle needs like ensuring visual or speech cues do not go unnoticed and are used to facilitate more meaningful interactions and that AV controls drive greater meeting participation.

Today’s work environment needs the tools that drive employee innovation, collaboration, and mobility for optimal workforce productivity. As the nature of work changes, it becomes imperative for businesses to help the workforce develop the requisite skills, create optimized workflows and processes, and deliver systems that enable productive engagement using the most appropriate technology solutions. That’s when productivity goals will be met, irrespective of the hours the worker puts in.