We often find that teams and workers are at their best when they’re in a state of ‘flow’ – a concentration zone where they can dedicate their attention to a single task. This is hard to achieve in today’s working environment. We find ourselves time poor, bombarded by distractions and demands to multitask and context switch. Time poverty is hardly conducive to a good day at work so it’s no surprise that teams are feeling burnt out.
With a surge in employees handing in their notice, it’s become essential for business leaders to adopt a new approach to retain talent. Technology and digital dexterity is key to this. Here’s how the right digital tools can help tackle time poverty in teams.
Do less, achieve more
In today’s world of work, we’re seeing an increasing trend toward context switching. This is when a team swaps between projects – stopping work in one area and picking it back up after completing another task. It’s hard to avoid in any environment, but it also drives down productivity and dials up fatigue. The right tools can help introduce simplicity into daily tasks, minimising the taxing side-effects of context switching.
SafetyCulture has helped some of the world’s largest organisations get back to business amid the challenges of the pandemic. In doing so, we’ve found frictionless technology is key to combating time poverty. It’s time to take stock of digital systems you have in place – how can you enhance what’s there to streamline processes and make them easy to maintain? Start by replacing complex tasks with simple processes. Digitising cumbersome paperwork or breaking down lengthy assignments into bite sized tasks can reduce the time and energy wasted on ‘work about work’.
Stress less, listen more
When employees are time-poor, they can feel distracted, exhausted or burnt out. SafetyCulture research also recently uncovered that 3/4 of UK workers don’t feel listened to on topics that matter to them. Leaders can take proactive steps to ease the load. How? Seek out feedback. Now is the time to check in ‘ how are your teams feeling? What is robbing them of time and causing stress? What do they really need?
Such feedback can be quick to gather and act on. Raising issues that once took time and effort can quickly be raised using tech such as scannable QR codes that instantly notify the right people. Individual voices can be amplified and power can be put back in the hands of each and every team member. Equip teams with the right tools to ensure they can easily speak up and have their voices heard and valued.
Time poverty and talent retention are challenges that we will continue to tackle over time. In order to stay ahead of the curve, the first step for businesses is always to listen and find solves that will help teams reach their full potential.
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