Employee Productivity and Happiness: The Impact of Technology

employée sur un ordinateur
Stories
Morgane Lança
November 25 2024

We often talk about the benefits that technological tools can bring to our professional lives, such as reducing repetitive tasks, simplifying operations and processes, and centralizing information.

However, the real impact of technology on employee productivity and well-being is often overlooked. In this article, we present statistics and key insights on the relationship between technology use and the increase in your team’s happiness and productivity.

Workplace Happiness: Quick Overview and Key Criteria

Workplace happiness includes job satisfaction, but it goes beyond that! It can be defined as the set of positive feelings employees have about their organization, their job, and the tasks they perform on a daily basis.

Here are the three main criteria for workplace happiness:

  1. Engagement: This involves the emotional and cognitive engagement of the employee, as well as the enjoyment and safe environment their job provides.
  2. Job satisfaction: This relates to salary, relationships with colleagues, managers and supervisors, organization, and work environment.
  3. Emotional commitment: This includes attachment, a sense of belonging, and alignment with the organization’s culture and values.

Does Workplace Happiness Impact Employee Productivity?

The short answer is: yes. A Harvard Business study showed that a happy employee is 31% more productive than their stressed and dissatisfied coworker.

Their engagement and loyalty to the company are also 9 times higher, and their absenteeism rate is 6 times lower.

Finally, managers who prioritize their team’s well-being report that 60% of their employees are more motivated at work.

4 Ways to Use Technology to Increase Employee Happiness and Productivity

While effective human resource management is, of course, essential for improving employee well-being and productivity, technological tools are also crucial assets in creating a positive and innovative work environment.

1. Organizing Work Processes and Operations

Employees are interrupted an average of fifteen times a day, which often leads to task delays and a feeling of stagnation. These challenges contribute to a sense of discouragement and issues of burnout.

Technological tools can help address these issues by reducing workloads, facilitating task and project management, and simplifying the communication of information among team members. However, the use of these tools should be efficiently framed to encourage digital disconnection and provide employees with proper training to get the most out of their work software.

2. Offering More Flexibility to Employees

Workplace flexibility is central to employees’ concerns and expectations and represents a key factor in happiness and engagement. However, if flexibility policies are not properly managed, they can lead to loss of motivation and efficiency.

Fortunately, technology can facilitate flexibility measures within your organization by:

  • Enabling effective remote communication;
  • Centralizing information on a single platform;
  • Streamlining administrative processes;
  • Giving employees more autonomy to carry out tasks and make administrative or HR requests.

In short, technological tools allow for the streamlining and management of remote operations and processes, supporting the implementation of workplace flexibility that enhances employee well-being and productivity.

3. Supporting Daily Productivity

By providing employees with all the tools they need to be effective on a daily basis, you not only improve their productivity but also their happiness and motivation at work. Technology thus creates a virtuous cycle for your teams and your organization.

Here are some examples of software that support employee productivity:

  • Scheduling software: these tools are particularly interesting for companies that use specific shifts and schedules, as it automatically assigns work shifts and offers timesheets to save time and gain efficiency.
  • Project management software: these solutions encourage collaboration and enable you to track the progress of each team member’s tasks, while providing deadlines and detailed project descriptions.
  • Communication software: these platforms enable effective communication and productive collaboration wherever and whenever your employees are working. However, it’s important to supervise their use by encouraging digital disconnection.
  • Generative artificial intelligence: AI-powered tools like ChatGPT help generate text and ideas and deliver information quickly, enabling your employees to focus on more rewarding, value-added tasks.

4. Enhancing the Overall Employee Experience

Technological solutions are not only for supporting a high operational pace or facilitating remote work! HR software, in particular, is designed to centralize staff information and automate administrative tasks related to human resource management, but it also improves the entire employee experience.

  • Employee onboarding: Manual management of onboarding documents increases workload in 37% of cases. Additionally, new hires must complete numerous administrative tasks as part of their onboarding, and any document oversight can cause delays and a poor onboarding experience. HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems) automate task reminders, centralize document management, and offer e-signature capabilities, in addition to helping customize the onboarding plan. These features contributes to making a good first impression on new hires!
  • Performance reviews: Statistics show that organizations with ongoing performance evaluation processes are 39% more effective at attracting top talent and 44% more likely to retain them. Performance management software facilitates the implementation of regular, personalized evaluations to provide ongoing and constructive feedback to your teams.
  • Leave and absence requests: With HR software, vacation requests can be made in just a few clicks and approved in minutes. These efficient processes save time and increase motivation.
  • Training and career management: HR technology also encourages personalized employee development by sending reminders when training needs to be renewed and centralizing information related to career progression and performance appraisals. By effectively using these tools, you’ll be able to assess productivity and offer training and development opportunities that match each employee’s profile and aspirations.

And much more: the entire employee life cycle, from their first day to their exit interview, can be improved by leveraging an efficient use of HR technology solutions.

In Conclusion

When used wisely, technological tools can support employee productivity and contribute to workplace happiness by making daily professional life easier. Reducing repetitive tasks, improving communication, centralizing information, and handling administrative tasks with just a few clicks… The benefits are numerous and crucial in an increasingly digital and innovative work environment!

Folks HR is a flexible and intuitive HR software that enhances the overall employee experience within your organization. Want to learn more? Find out here!

Enhance your employees' productivity and well-being with HR tech:

Discover our powerful and intuitive human resource management software!

DISCOVER FOLKS HR TODAY

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