As a necessity within most modern businesses, technology is a vital part to ensure the smooth running of daily operations and tasks. With so many advancements over the years, it can be overwhelming when choosing certain services, products and processes that can make a difference, especially if employees aren’t particularly tech-savvy. To help, here are 7 ways to make the most of technology in a small business environment.
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Bring the Team Together
Technology helps to bring people together where before this could only be done in person. Whether you are in a remote or office environment, team building is important and there are a whole range of online events that can be organised. Whether you want to hold a conference with an industry speaker, online training, or something different like a virtual escape room, the possibilities are endless and mean not having to transport staff to a location to do so.
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Keep Documents Safe
Having physical copies of documents in filing cabinets just won’t do these days, so making the most of technology available will ensure companies documents are as secure as possible. Using cloud services that allow you to save huge amounts of data online will free up hard drive spaces on computers and allow employees to access files when they need them wherever they are. It will also ensure all work documents stay safe and do not become lost or damaged easily.
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Automate Tasks
A huge benefit technology can bring is automation, taking time-consuming admin tasks and making them a breeze to schedule and complete. Many project management systems can do this and automate anything from task scheduling, data crawling and much more. The amount of time you can save by automating where possible will allow productivity to increase.
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Streamline HR
Many human resources tasks can be aided by technology, making easy work of handling payroll, holiday requests and employee details. You can use dedicated HR tools that also allow easy access for staff to make requests and get in contact with HR when they need them from their device. This will also help keep company records all efficiently documented and safely stored, reducing the number of calls and emails needed between individuals.
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Manage Workloads
Organisation within a small business is key, so utilising workload management systems can make life much easier. Somewhere that all employees can access and update throughout the day, using a cloud-based project management system to schedule work, assign tasks and meetings, seek approval etc. is much easier than firing hundreds of emails each day.
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Promote Your Services
For promotion, there’s nothing better than using technology to put your business out there whether that be through your company’s website or social channels. Keeping an online presence is crucial and being active with social posts can ensure you are getting the message out there, promoting services you can offer, your successes, case studies, employee achievements and more. This will all help to bring attention to your brand and raise your company profile.
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Collaborate Remotely
Being able to collaborate with your team and share ideas can be made much easier using online tools. This way if you have a workforce that works remotely and in an office, they can all collaborate no matter where they are based. Using file and screen sharing through video can enhance collaboration further and allow no loss in productivity within remote teams.
