Efficiency Amidst Uncertainty: Impactful Work Management
Say goodbye to mundane tasks and hello to measurable, impactful work.
Work has changed. Accelerated digital transformation initiatives created app overload, costing organizations millions in wasted time, delayed or canceled projects, and employee churn. Economic uncertainty has business leaders thinking about investments in work management software that optimizes efficiency, says Andrew Filev, founder and CEO of Wrike.
The modern workplace has changed dramatically in the last few years, resulting in productivity whiplash fueled by economic instability. When organizations shifted to remote work, they had to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives. This caused many to invest in tools and apps to make working from home successful while navigating a pandemic. But while early signs pointed to increased productivity, many of these investments have had a negative long-term impact. For instance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed dips in productivity last year that we haven’t seen since WWII.
As organizations face economic challenges this year, business leaders have been forced to think nimbly about their IT spending and prioritize strategic investments in workplace tools that optimize efficiency. Because of this, I believe we are on our way to reversing the productivity decline, as these tools free up workers’ time and enable them to focus on the work that matters. This is why 2023 will be the year of impactful work.
Start by Streamlining Workflows
It’s becoming clear that some of the digital tools that got organizations through the pandemic won’t be the tools that will help them stay productive, despite working with smaller teams, smaller budgets, and limited resources. Many companies overinvested in workplace apps and tools to address the overnight shift to remote work, resulting in increased work complexities and app sprawl. Wrike data shows that employees today use up to 14 apps to get work done and handle an average of 295 messages each day, making it difficult for teams to focus on results-driven work. This also paves the way for significant work to fly under the radar – in the gaps between systems and applications that aren’t integrated. At Wrike, we call this the “Dark Matter of Work,” – and we’ve found that it costs businesses $60 million a year. Dark Matter impacts organizational productivity and has a damaging effect on the workforce.
Fortunately, as organizations are feeling the effects of dark matter, we found that 85% are planning to prioritize investing in and implementing a solution that provides greater visibility across business functions. Over the next few months, IT teams will need to look for robust solutions that are cost-effective, easy to use, and get teams going upon sign-in. Enter work management.
See More: 3 Digital Workflow Management Best Practices To Boost Developer Productivity
Invest in Work Management
Work management tools offer a single source of truth for teams, departments, and organizations. They can remove complexity, increase productivity, and free people up to focus on their most purposeful work. When selecting the right tool for your business, it’s important to look for intuitive solutions for easier deployment and adoption, leverage AI and automation technologies to streamline repeatable tasks, and are flexible enough to scale across multiple teams. Ultimately, organizations should view work management as a means to replace some of the current single-use tools in their stack.
As companies begin to implement and depend on a work management solution to collaborate, it may become obvious that other apps are no longer needed or can easily be integrated for streamlined workflows. Email is a great example of this and a tool that I believe is on a downward slope regarding workplace apps. Email is hindering rather than helping communication, and in the coming years, email will be used mostly as an identity provider and notification service while solutions powered by workflow automation will take over. By moving work out of disparate conversation threads and into a trackable space, organizations are less likely to fall victim to dark matter.
Integrations should also be considered outside of eliminating tools from your tech stack. Look for a work management solution that plays well with others in the sandbox, so teams can keep the tools they love and need to do their jobs. When those apps all come together in one place, less time will be spent toggling, and more time will be spent on meaningful work.
See More: Guide to Tackle Remote Work Management Challenges
Focus on Work with the Biggest Impact
Business leaders believe they have visibility into 54% of the work across the organization, but their teams say that number is even lower at 45%. With a work management solution in play, organizations can get a handle on the visibility divide and start to close that gap. This is paramount as economic circumstances have required many organizations to maintain and increase productivity and output on a reduced budget. This shift will force business leaders to dig in and focus on the work that is truly most impactful.
To increase efficiency and optimize processes, leaders will look to employees to prioritize work that has an immediate and long-lasting impact. If tasks don’t directly contribute to the bottom line, drive ROI, or support company-wide OKRs, they will not be prioritized. As a result, I expect to see employees cancel up to 25% of planned projects as they refocus work that drives impact and meet 85% of their planned goals simultaneously. When teams can free up time and resources to focus on the most impactful work, we will also start to see an uptick in productivity – a reversal of the steady decline we saw last year. Another upside is that focusing on the work that matters will also give employees a greater sense of purpose when they are not as bogged down with working on menial tasks, which boosts productivity and engagement.
We’ll see more organizations streamline work and focus on the tasks that matter most to their business’s bottom line in 2023. To do so, companies must be more strategic about where and how they spend on workplace apps and tools, prioritizing solutions that eliminate silos. This will make it easier to collaborate on one platform and improve visibility across teams. As a result, these organizations will improve productivity across the board, alleviate burnout and disengagement, and deliver impactful work as they navigate economic uncertainty.
How do you think organizations can increase efficiency and optimize processes? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
Image Source: Shutterstock
MORE ON PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE
