Traditional office work is no longer the norm for many businesses. Plenty of brands and companies have now adopted a “digital-only” mindset, where both their business and internal operations are conducted online. There’s a lot of benefits to this approach. Companies save money for facilities and employees’ time used for travel and meetings.
But while these tactics work for companies that were founded and built on a digital platform, how can existing business involve these methods into their operations? To answer that, we’ve compiled a list of three common workplace processes that can be moved entirely online and the tools you can use to help you.
Meetings and memos
Previously, it was necessary to hold in-house, in-person meetings to properly align people’s goals and directives. But today, with the availability of G Suite service providers, remote work assignments, online meeting software, and other office-based tools, that’s no longer the case.
Today, it’s perfectly possible to come up with a client meeting, team alignment, memo board, and project management in one software or service. Existing companies can move their offline resources and digitize them into one online storage location for easier access, or teleconference with their clients instead of setting meetings.
Task assignment and submission
With the majority of our work moving through the internet, it’s no longer a necessity to have physical evidence of our input lying around. This goes for tasks to be assigned and to be received – all you need is the correct software that can organize, track, and move your output accordingly for better task organization.
This has a couple of advantages when compared to traditional methods, but the biggest one is the reduction of human error. Automating task management allows projects to be disseminated towards the relevant personnel in a prompt and orderly manner, while processing completed tasks more efficiently. Overall, this system can reduce turnaround times and greatly improve total work output.
Payroll and financing
Another key aspect of business operations is financing. While traditional methods usually call for the services of an entire finance department to handle issues such as payroll and quarterly reporting, simply replacing it with finance management software can improve financing at all levels in the business.
This goes further beyond automation – with a key aspect of employee satisfaction linked to proper workplace compensation, it gives the company a way to be transparent about their decisions when it comes to pay. Not only will it be easier to dispense salaries, but it’ll be clearer to each employee as to the precise breakdown of their efforts on the job.
Challenges Of This System
Of course, there are things that are integral to the function of an office that can never be digitized – such as proper employee evaluation – that companies need to be aware of. The key to balancing these needs with the tools of digitization is proper awareness of the critical points that need human-to-human interaction for the best results.
With enough time, patience, and practice, companies today will be able to leverage the digital tools for running a company with the physical requirements of a workplace. Done right, a company can easily balance an “offline-online” presence, taking the best of both worlds towards reaching their business goals.
