4 ways you should integrate tech in your workplace

You’ll often hear me refer to the value of offering a flexible workplace. While you may agree that it sounds great, if your office is not set up for it, the whole idea is probably a little easier said than done. To help you bridge the gap here are 4 ways you should integrate tech into your workplace to support more flexibility.
1. Communication – you must start by getting creative with the way you hold your meetings and communicate within your teams. There are plenty of great options out there, whether you prefer Skype or one of the many other group meeting platforms available. Whichever you choose, make sure all your team feel comfortable joining or hosting a meeting and this style of conferencing becomes the new normal. Using these online options ensures everyone is included in important conversations.
2. Time Tracking – not that I would necessarily encourage micro-managing your team, if you need to monitor their time and / or billable hours, consider using software to do it. Toggl is a great, and free (to a point), option which will help you break down the hours of your team into staff member or project. The benefit of this is you can have individual discussions with your team about their productivity regardless of whether you’re seeing them every day or not.
3. Project Management – an awesome way to avoid the dreaded micro-management is by encouraging your team to get on board with a project management platform. There is a whole bunch to choose from with some really good free options available, which is particularly helpful if you’d like to try before you buy. With the ability to communicate as a group or privately through the platform, an ability to oversee an entire project and its deadlines and track the progress of each component, you’ll have visibility on how everyone is managing their workload and tracking to deadlines.
4. Portability – if you’re encouraging hot-desks and breakout spaces in your office, you absolutely must ensure they’re equipped with the technology to facilitate them! Your employees will be less motivated to make the commute to the office if they’re forced to peer into their small laptop screen, perched on their lap. Providing monitors, docks and keyboards around the office and even in the lunchroom is definitely a priority if you’re hoping to tech-up your workplace.
Now, I’m sure there are a number of other ways to integrate tech in your workplace and if you have further suggestions, I would love to hear them! However, these 4 ideas will lay a solid foundation, providing great starting point for improving the flexibility in your workplace.

Shannon Wood, Managing Director S8 Expert Recruitment Solutions. I have over 14 years recruitment experience specialising in the animal health industry across the ANZ region. Areas of expertise include sales and marketing, technical roles (Quality Assurance, Quality Control & Regulatory Affairs) and operational & financial positions. I work extensively in the veterinary, ruminant, monogastric, aquaculture and the pet specialty industries and I look forward to the next 14 years.