Smartphones have become a significant part of people’s everyday lives. One smartphone can have everything a person may need to get themselves through the day, from maps to planners. Over the years, smartphones have become tools to help boost productivity for people in their personal lives. In addition to while they are in the workplace.
Companies have begun to realize the potential of integrating smartphones as a tool. This is to help translate productivity into profitability in their business. Using smartphones can work against your business if you don’t implement the right policies to get your employee’s smartphone usage to work for you and minimize distractions. Here are some tips you can use in your business to effectively use smartphones to boost productivity and reduce distractions.
Increase Collaboration and Communication
Smartphones are an effective business tool. You can utilize cloud-based applications to help employees complete tasks and communicate quickly from wherever they work. With smartphones, employees can work better with their teams by improving communication and collaboration. Employees can have email, productivity apps, and communication tools installed on their devices. This will increase productivity and allow them to easily connect with customers and colleagues.
Limit Smartphone Notifications
One of the drawbacks of allowing smartphone usage within your business is they have the potential to be incredibly distracting. To optimize productivity, control notifications by limiting them when possible. Then there will be few distractions to take you or your employees away from their tasks. Encourage or require your team to disable notifications from unnecessary apps to minimize the number of disruptions during hours when they need to focus the most.
Reduce Digital Clutter on Smartphone
A smartphone designated for work should have limited applications that can potentially waste time and not be directly used for work purposes. However, this more applies to smartphones that are company-owned devices given out to employees. Many companies implement a mobile device manager or MDM to limit the ability to download apps on devices and ensures enough space is available on the device for essential functions.
Use a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy
Issuing company-owned devices can be a major cost and allowing your employees to use their personal smartphones for work purposes. Employees are likely comfortable using their personal devices and are likely to be more productive using them for work tasks. Allowing employees to bring their own devices for work purposes will require clear policies to ensure employees know how to use their devices when on the clock correctly.
Smartphones have come a long way and, when used with the right tools, can help boost workplace productivity. Your business can be the most productive by using an MDM to ensure your employee’s usage of smartphones is working for you to help your organization.
To learn more about how we can help you get started with mobile device management and smartphone productivity, reach out to 4 Corner IT at 954.474.2204.
