There are countless stressors that must be taken into consideration for your business, but there are two that stand out as chiefly important during the workday: digital/workplace friction and interpersonal friction. What can you do to help make them less of a problem for your employees?
Let’s examine what digital/workplace friction can do to disrupt your employees’ productivity.
Digital/Workplace Friction Comes from Excessive Options
Your team members have specific applications which they are expected to use for communications and collaboration, but how many of them actually have a choice in what they use? Simply put, the more options that your employees have to choose from, the greater the chances that they will have difficulty finding it later on—particularly in the realm of data storage and information processing. You could say the same thing about your company, to a degree.
Communication is the same way. The more ways that people have to get in touch with each other, the less clear the lines of communication will be, leading to miscommunication or being unavailable on platforms which someone expects them to be available on. Consider how many of these communications are strictly necessary and trim the fat, so to speak, so productivity can become the central part of their workdays.
Soothing This Kind of Friction is Relatively Simple…
To streamline the tools you use for communication and collaboration, consider removing your business’ legacy applications and systems, as they could be holding your organization back while also putting it at risk, if you aren’t properly maintaining them. Really, after a certain point, it becomes a question of value, as well. Surely there is a better application that fulfills the needs of your business, right? Remember to keep your eyes on the outcome and your mind open to the tools that help facilitate that process.
Interpersonal Friction is a Somewhat Different Beast…
…and it’s one that remote work has created complications for. Furthermore, since it is easy for employees to hide behind their keyboard, dead giveaways for friction like body language can go unaddressed, allowing feelings to fester over time.
If left unchecked, this kind of friction can eventually lead to a disdain for the company or even resentment, something which will impact your bottom line. Imagine a workplace where people would rather call in sick than deal with the interpersonal friction they might experience, or the mental health problems it can exacerbate.
It’s In Your Best Interest to Minimize Interpersonal Friction However You Can
Fortunately, you can do something about this before it’s too late, and it all starts with involving your remote team in more communications. This starts with ensuring that your business’ employees have access to the tools they need to work with each other in a productive and personal way, like video conferencing and instant messaging. They can all be found in modern collaboration platforms, for the most part.
It’s also incredibly important to be able to spot potential problems with your employees, all while opening up the conversation and ensuring that communication tools are there to help you facilitate it. While in a video conference, for example, you might notice body language cues or tone of voice. Little things like these can be powerful hints as to what must be addressed with interpersonal friction.
We Can’t Help You Ease Workplace Tensions, But We Can Give You the Tools You Need to Do So
NDYNAMICS wants to help your company overcome its friction through the use of better communication and collaboration strategies. To learn more, reach out to us at 408-927-8700.
