Information overload can dilute employee engagement, drop productivity and raise turnover rates. Easing this burden requires having the right balance between communication, collaboration and technology without contributing to overload. Here are some trends to adopt that can ease the burden for your business…

• Trend #1: Integration of Team Collaboration Tools – Rather than stretch email as a “one-size-fits-all” communications channel, it’s more productive to use team collaboration tools. From instant messaging and team workspaces to audio/video conferencing and desktop sharing, collaboration tools will transform the way you work and enable your teams to be more productive, whether they’re in the office or off-site.
• Trend #2: Shared Calendars & Presence Capabilities – Many emails are from people trying to coordinate schedules. A better way to organize meetings is to adopt shared calendar functionality and integrate presence features. That way, colleagues will know instantly who is currently in a meeting or on the phone. Everyone will be more productive when group interactions are centralized into a single, synchronized workspace.
• Trend #3: Document Collaboration – Shared document collaboration systems store and organize documents in a central online location. Team members can log into the system and edit, comment or review documents whenever they need to. With only a single instance of every document stored online, there’s no problem of multiple versions floating around or multiple emails causing confusion and delays. This makes teams more productive and businesses more efficient.
• Trend #4: Unified Collaboration for Project Management – Projects don’t have to get bogged down with a disconnected array of messages and tools. Collaboration technology makes it easier than ever to keep up to date on projects, assign to-dos with deadlines and track the progress of team members within a single application. The entire team can have a common view of where the project stands and everyone’s roles and contributions.

Embracing one or all of these trends will reduce employee stress and lead to better, faster decision-making.

Email isn’t going away any time soon, but the deluge of information created by disparate systems is a factor you can control. Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.