What your employees aren’t telling you

In today’s increasingly competitive world there has never been a more important time for businesses to be aligned in their ways of working.

Success demands that everyone within the organisation is pulling in the same direction but as Microsoft’s Work Reworked report reveals, there is still much room for improvement.

This is highlighted in the discrepancy between how managers think the implemented technology is being used by employees and the reality of the situation. So what exactly does the report reveal and what can be done to improve business efficiency?

Make the objective obvious

Unless the goal of the deployment of a specific solution is  made crystal clear across the organisation , your employees are unlikely to use the solution as you intended. Perhaps because managers are closer to the corporate mission, they are 20% more likely to use a collaboration tool than an employee and 12% more likely to get the most from a tool’s functionality.

Make the benefit personal

Change is easy to adopt if it’s apparent what’s in it for us. Since a manager’s performance is only as good as their team’s, it can be no surprise that they view collaboration tools to be more important than employees do. 22% of managers gave it the most importance, compared with 16% of employees.

Make technology accessible

Investment in technology sometimes favours the more senior staff but seamless collaboration demands everyone has access to the same tools and devices. 66% of all employees regarded lack of access to the right tools as a major obstacle to effective working while just 17% of managers believed this to be an issue.

Make it easy

Human behaviour dictates that unless migration to new ways of working is made simple, we will default to what we know. With employees more likely to feel that there is insufficient training, the use of non-compliant applications remains commonplace. This not only poses a security and compliancy risk but can also dramatically impact productivity.

As the headlines of this report imply, it is not enough to have the best technology for your business. You need to implement fit-for-purpose technology that addresses the needs of your business and the mindset of your employees.

Microsoft Teams does it all. As a tailored collaboration tool it is designed to enable the new culture of work, by breaking down silos and empowering everyone to work the way they want, wherever they are in the world.