Business Solutions & Software Group Blog

Being productive isn’t always easy. There are a lot of things that can derail productivity, from distractions to simply discomfort. It’s important to set yourself up for success so today, we thought we’d go through some tips on how to set your workstation up so that you can improve your productivity. 

Now that employers are calling their employees back to the workplace, the question has become one of whether or not pushing for this return to the office (RTO) is the appropriate call for your organization. Let’s examine what variables might go into making this decision and certain scenarios in which returns to the workplace have not been successful—or, at least, not as successful as the decision-makers expected.

Whether we like it or not, remote work is not going anywhere, and now that employees have gotten a taste of what it feels like to work remotely, more are eager to do so than ever before. Unfortunately, the reality is that employers are eventually going to want their employees to return to the office in at least some capacity. How can employers do this without upsetting employees too much? The answer lies in a hybrid work environment.

For those of you who are serial note takers, one of the best tools you can have on your mobile device or PC is a note-taking app. Today, there are literally dozens of apps that push features and benefits for the average individual. Today, we will take a brief look at some of the features that the modern note-taking application has and how integration plays a big role in their success. 

One of the biggest pain points that companies have to consider for remote workers is how productive they are actually being with their time. To solve this dilemma, some employers are opting to use the webcams installed on their employees’ devices to keep tabs on them. While we understand the idea of monitoring your team, perhaps using the webcam to spy on them is not the best way to approach this concept.

For numerous reasons, collaboration software has seen widespread adoption—and despite many workers transitioning back to office operations, this software has proven to hold its value. Let’s explore the features that collaboration software can provide to you and your business.

Email might be one of the biggest methods of communication in the business world, but it’s hard to stay on top of, even for the best of us. One of the ways you can take back control of your email is to utilize filters. Let’s discuss how you can set these up for your Gmail or Outlook accounts.

If employees can remain productive for extended periods of time, their business tends to enjoy rapid growth. Unfortunately, this high level of productivity is not always sustainable, and it eventually slows for a variety of reasons. However, if you can make sure your employees are comfortable, then they will be more likely to maintain a manageable level of productivity.

With the pandemic lingering far longer than expected, many workplaces have adjusted their operational strategies to accommodate both in-person and remote work. Some companies that did not see remote work as a viable option before have now made it central to their operations, including onboarding. With new employees joining these businesses, some in a remote capacity for the first time, we thought we would go over some strategies that can help them stay productive throughout the workday.

The many different types of departments within business, including sales, human resources, customer service, IT, accounting, and management, all have remained relatively compartmentalized throughout the years. While they might work together to fulfill various tasks, they operate (for the most part) independent of one another. How long will this remain the case, though? Let’s go about a thought experiment and look toward a future where departments are a thing of the past.

A common framework for developing products is the RICE prioritization framework, but we might argue that you can apply it not just to products, but also to services you might offer and even project implementation. What is the RICE framework, and how might you leverage it to your advantage?

Isn’t it incredible how some people can build bad habits over the span of several years, then break them and replace them with better ones? It might look like it’s easy, but the reality of the matter is that building bad habits and replacing them is an incredibly difficult and time-consuming process. The brain literally undergoes physical changes during this process, and it’s all thanks to a neuroscientific principle called neuroplasticity.

Workplace stress has become a key issue in today’s business environment, and many studies have been performed to demonstrate why there has been such an increase, as well as what can be done to stymie its impact. Microsoft has recently filed a patent to show how seriously this issue must be taken. While it’s good to see the tech company invested in resolving this issue, one has to wonder whether the help of a new technology solution is necessary in identifying stressors in their workplace environment.

While it may not seem so at first glance, the concept of “productivity” has evolved significantly in the last few centuries—the amount of time it has been seen as a priority. Beginning once technology enabled the focus of life to be less day-to-day survival and more centered around industry and scale, the first whispers of our modern view of productivity started in the late 1700s. Let’s briefly examine how our view of productivity developed, and how many are looking at it today.

Email is a hugely useful business tool, which is what makes solutions like Microsoft Outlook so popular in today’s organizations. Having said that, it can become far too simple for the inbox to be overstuffed with outdated and unnecessary messages that ultimately serve little more than to hide the ones you need to review.

Did you know that there’s a capability built into Outlook that can help you keep track of your important messages? Let’s go over how you can use it.

Workplace burnout has been discussed quite a bit in the last year—which in and of itself seems funny, considering how relatively little time many people spent in the workplace this past year or so. However, just because the conventional workplace was altered doesn’t mean that the potential to experience burnout has been at all.

We’re not telling you anything you don’t know when we say that productivity is important for every business. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, there was widespread fear that productivity would drop to levels that would ruin the economy. Today, we’ll talk about the change in strategy that kept that from happening, by looking at the past year’s numbers. 

Technology is a big part of the front end of almost every business. This is doubly true today as most businesses have built—and actively support—a robust web presence. Technology, however, is also used to power a business on the back end. Today, we’ll discuss a couple ways that today’s businesses are benefiting from automation behind the scenes, as well.

During the workday, many of us have tasks that just seem to pile up and all seem to be given the same level of priority. However, if you want to accomplish anything effectively, you need to be able to identify the importance of your tasks and prioritize them accordingly. Let’s go over some tips to keep in mind as you do so.

Meaningful business productivity requires a lot of elements to line up, particularly when remote operations and mobility enter the picture. This week, we wanted to offer a few tips pertaining to the kinds of applications that could prove beneficial to your operations.