Permanent Productivity Lessons Learned During a Temporary Crises
As we come to terms with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has taught us many lessons. We realized many important things in these turbulent times, such as healthcare, environmental protection, economics, mental health and more. But it also greatly impacted how we work and perceive productivity.
This is an area where our learning curve has been steep, and yet, we are still discovering many new methods that help us cope with the new normal of working and to boost our productivity as we work from home.
Important productivity lessons learned during the lockdown
1. Maintaining Flexible Communication
Just like our workplace scenarios – where one can easily walk out of a conference room and join in on the gossip at the desk, and then go catch up with his/her teammates at the cafeteria – we’ve learned how to bring flexibility in our remote work communication. By leveraging some of the best team collaboration apps, we learned how to be virtually flexible using dedicated discussion channels and groups and be available for various discussions simultaneously.
How Zippi makes it better?
Zippi provides an integrated ecosystem for communication where chats and discussions can be set up for specific agendas or goals in a project. It allows team members to provide contextual feedback on any step of the project, along with setting up meeting on Microsoft Teams, all within one ecosystem. It truly serves as one of the best communication app for remote work. In Chola MS, where 20,000+ employees had to be connected quickly after the lockdown, Zippi played a crucial role in organization wide information flow. It helped address questions about new modus operandi, work schedules, etc. and contributed in dissipating panic and employee anxiety.
2. Focusing on Output
The remote work scenario created many roadblocks, like employee unavailability, due to connectivity issues, and uneven distribution of workloads due to communication gaps. Managers needed to find a way to get things done in viable timeframes, no matter what! With the use of task management tools, managers learned how to effectively set daily agendas, assign tasks as per the skill set required, tweak processes on-the-go, and stay updated with the latest developments across all projects. Thus, we learned how to focus more on achieving the desired output, rather than following a set process, and expedite our work.
How Zippi makes it better?
Zippi facilitates a 360-degree project collaboration platform, which integrates goal management, to-do lists, and workflow management, all together for a powerful virtual team management experience
3. Leveraging Cloud-based Data Storage
Inter-departmental collaboration is key to enhancing every organization’s WFH productivity. The remote work culture pushed organizations into leveraging various cloud-based tools, like Dropbox, to make most data available online for all departments and enhance the collaborative work between departments.
How Zippi makes it better?
Zippi uses a built-in AWS S3 service to provide on-demand data storage and sharing service for all members of the organization. Being an integrated feature, project management becomes much easier as large files can be shared right from the project discussion channels.
4. Time Management
When home and work environments mix, time management mishaps are bound to happen. Staying committed to our daily schedules and not succumbing to an unnecessary nap or binge-watching a TV series has been one of the biggest struggles. With the use of various reminder apps and to-do list platforms, we learned how to leverage AI and automation to plan tasks intelligently and keep track of the time consumed for each task.
How Zippi makes it better?
Zippi offers an in-built AI chatbot, Jinie that manages entire work schedules, including curating information regarding scheduled meetings and discussions so as to intelligently prompt users about various activities.
Find out how Jinie integrates with Microsoft Teams and manages your schedule & calendar! (Link the blog)
5. Maintaining Real-Time Visibility
Team members need constant visual cues and information to stay on their toes and work efficiently towards meeting deadlines. Workflow tools and platforms offer real-time workflow and data visualization features using proven methodologies like Kanban. We learned how to leverage intuitive UIs and advanced data analytics dashboards that come with such platforms and make real-time data visualization even more impactful.
How Zippi makes it better?
Zippi serves as a holistic work management tool that brings task management, project management, collaboration, and AI-driven decision making, all into one platform. Team members can get all kinds of information, analytics, and updates right from one window in real-time
The Future of Remote Work: Bringing everything under one digital roof!
Zippi helped organizations boost productivity on these five aspects and achieve optimum output by providing a holistic framework. But there’s a lot more that goes on in an organization, isn’t it? Zippi takes care of that as well! It allows for full-fledged integration of various tools and suites used for special purposes like accounting, payrolls, and HR processes.
Many popular products like ZOHO CRM, SAP, and Freshdesk can be integrated with Zippi via a single account. This feature has enabled organizations to bring all types of siloed systems under one digital umbrella, making all employees and departments a part of one big family, just like an actual office!