Logic might tell us that new and better tools will help us grow, but beware… in practice, adding new applications into a business workflow can often have the opposite impact. Instead of reaching new levels of productivity, your team is waylaid by additional notifications, obstructive updates, and expanding, fragmented work processes. It is, in a word, exhausting.
This mental tiredness is known as tech fatigue, and its impacts permeate your entire business. Let’s talk about how these impacts manifest and what can be done about them.
If you had to take a guess, how many times per day do you think the average knowledge worker/white collar office professional has to switch from one application to another? A few dozen? Maybe a hundred or so?
Multiply that by twelve, and you’re close.
1200 times per day, we switch between applications… and when you really think about it, it makes sense. We’re always working on something, except when we have to call up our communications platform of choice, update some notes, log our time for the day, or any of the millions of other things we have to do.
All this jumping around isn’t great for our focus. You know the midday slump? That’s more than just the morning coffee wearing off…it’s all the switching your brain has had to do, catching up with you. As a result, productivity suffers, and your investment in your workforce yields diminishing returns over time.
On a related note, there’s another statistic we need to address: what percentage of software licenses that businesses currently subscribe to are unused? 10%? 15%?
Try over 52%. About half of all subscription software licenses are literally just holes for money to leak out of the subscriber’s budget. That’s a lot of wasted cash (and a lot of potential notifications to break an employee’s attention).
Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of one of your team members for a second. They have to accomplish A through Z, but if they use the approved toolkit, they’ll be lucky if they get to M. To make up the difference, this team member will try to find shortcuts wherever they can.
For example, passwords. The temptation to recycle weak, predictable passwords rather than memorize dozens of complicated, random combinations is strong. Every additional password—like the ones used to access each new tool—is another stressor pushing them toward bad habits.
There’s also the direct link between tech fatigue and shadow IT—unapproved and unmonitored tech used for work—that businesses need to contend with. Let’s say one of your team members is just so tired of all the new tools and process changes that they unilaterally decide to just download a copy of one of their preferred options from the Internet and use that instead. Your business’ risk of a data breach just skyrocketed. That would be bad enough, but there are also now compliance concerns to add to the mix. The worst part? All these problems were caused by someone who, deep down, had the best intentions: they downloaded the tool they liked best to work for you as well as possible.
So, your IT is fragmented, but you’re determined to resolve that and get your team working to their true potential. How do you do that?
There are a few actions that help a lot:
Your first step should be to create a truly comprehensive inventory of all of your software, particularly if it comes from a paid service or a subscription. This will require an internal audit. Once you have a complete list, ask yourself a few critical questions:
As you do so, be as comprehensive as possible. Look into each service and identify the specific capabilities it allows you to access. Many platforms are more robust than they initially appear.
Using the results of your audit, identify where your service stack has overlapping capabilities and note them. These instances are where you have the obligation to make cuts. These cuts not only eliminate unnecessary expenses, but they also mean you have less technology to maintain and support. Your team can spend more time using the tools you provide, rather than juggling all their different options.
Your employees are the ones who will have their hands on these tools, so it only makes sense to collect some input from them as well. Ask them directly where they experience bottlenecks and other obstacles to their productive work, and use their responses to inform your next steps. It wouldn’t do you any good to completely overhaul your workflows when the real issue was an undisclosed Wi-Fi connectivity problem, right? Your team will have a unique and invaluable perspective that you should take into account.
A big part of the issue we’re discussing is the tendency for business networks to collect tools, creating a fragmented work environment for your employees to navigate.
Rather than allowing the opportunity for more tools and services to accumulate, put a policy in place for your business’ adoption of software, platforms, and other resources that requires there to be a strategic reason and purpose for adopting anything new. By mandating an operational outcome, it becomes much easier to resist the urge to add more to your network when a complication arises.
At First Column IT, we specialize in managing our clients’ information technology strategies, covering everything from maintenance and security to procurement and design. In doing so, we take on the complex aspects and busywork of IT management so you can focus on optimizing your operations. We’ll cover it all on your behalf.
The whole point of technology is to simplify, especially in the case of your business’ operations. If the opposite is happening, you have a problem that needs to be fixed, as collecting new software and tools is an expensive way to wear out your employees.
Let us take a look at your IT setup as it stands and tell you the first steps to optimizing it. Reach out to us at (571) 470-5594 to learn more about a network evaluation.
