Collaboration tools have advanced leaps and bounds with the advent of cloud technology, and the services available are only getting better. Promising features such as sophisticated group communication, productive management of tasks and meetings, and the ultimate dream, working remotely from some gorgeous island destination, innovative collaboration platforms are becoming a necessity for every business valuing high productivity and superior performance.
Poor productivity is a huge concern for organizations around the world, but with the distractions of social media, a variety of communication tools such as email, text, chat, and phone calls, along with the very elementary noise of one’s colleagues in an office environment, concentration becomes a challenging feat.
“It takes planning and effort to help you cope in such a noisy environment. However, it is possible to cut through the noise with the right approach and the right collaboration platform to back it up,” says Elena Carstoiu, COO at Hubgets.
But it is possible to cut through the noise with the right approach and a collaboration platform to back it up.
First things first, if you don’t want to be interrupted, log off. Sign out of your social media accounts, switch email to offline mode for an hour, silence your mobile phone. And then, if you’ve implemented an advanced collaboration platform, you’ll almost certainly have access to a ‘do not disturb’ tool to keep colleagues at bay until you’re ready to chat. The next step is to ensure you’ve got the right focus. It’s very easy to waste hours puttering around a problem with no real end in sight because you don’t really have a handle on the problem or the right information to combat it. Making use of the right collaboration tools allows effective communication to gather the relevant data in a focused and distraction-free environment. Changing the way we work goes a long way to improving our work habits and boosting productivity.
According to a Harvard Business Review report, in excess of 65% of leadership team meetings are unproductive. If you’ve attended many meetings, this probably won’t surprise you. In her article, Irina Nica suggests a relatively bold solution – decline some of your meeting invitations. The idea, certainly, is not to boycott all meetings, but instead to carefully manage which you do or don’t attend. Firstly, be clear about your own priorities and participate in the meetings which run parallel to them. Be sure the meetings you’re attending have properly defined aims, and if a clear agenda isn’t available, count yourself out. Check who’s been invited, who’s attending, and decide whether the people relevant to your own work focus will be present and participating. And finally, if you decide a meeting will be relevant to you and you do plan to attend, give yourself enough time before and after to ‘decompress’. Back to back meetings can be the ultimate time-waster.
Notably, outdated communication means are seeing a decline and being replaced with dynamic, productivity-boosting collaboration solutions. Though I hesitate to class all conventional meetings as ‘outdated’, when compared with some of the tools offered by collaboration platforms such as Hubgets, it’s difficult to see the value in these meetings. A recent addition to the Hubgets toolbox, Hubgets Page provides an interactive business card for every team member where they can be reached via chat, phone and shared files, and it’s easily accessed by any of their contacts through their web browser. With no software installation necessary, Hubgets notifies the page owner when someone would like to chat and quickly connects the parties. Chat history is saved for the Hubgets user, along with any files transferred. To enhance accessibility, Hubgets users can easily insert their Hubgets Page URL into their email signature, their Twitter bio, or publish it to their website.
While the Hubgets Page tool is useful for all teams, it’s particularly relevant for sales, marketing, and support. Anyone interested in communicating with your business, be it partners, customers, leads, providers, journalists, etcetera, can reach out to your team members free of charge. No Hubgets account required, no software installed, and no device restrictions.
And Hubgets Page doesn’t only receive communication; Page owners need only the email address of whomever they’d like to communicate with, and an invitation can be sent through in seconds. Available with a free plan to begin, Hubgets Page lets teams keep all their communication in one place, including both internal exchanges with teammates and external discussions with partners and customers. Along with improved performance and enriched collaboration, businesses increase visibility and better satisfy their customers.
Sponsored series provided in collaboration with Hubgets
By Jennifer Klostermann
