The Role of Smartphones in the Modern Workplace: 5 Tips to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity

Nowadays, it seems that everyone has at least one smartphone at their side at all times. From the men and women in fancy suits rushing to the office, to the children whose parents want to stay in touch with throughout the day, smartphones have become an inextricable part of our reality. Needless to say, they have also become essential in the modern workplace. They’ve become so smart that you can easily run a small business from your smartphone if you’re a leader on the go. 

However, if you don’t take an organized approach to smartphone use, you won’t be able to maximize the technology’s potential. After all, there are many ways you can use smartphones to boost productivity and efficiency across the board. From integrating it with VoIP and its features, all the way to standardization or making your own company app, smartphones can revolutionize your organization.

With all of that in mind, let’s take a look at how you can take your company forward by leveraging smartphone technology in the workplace.

Standardizing smartphone communication at work

First and foremost, it’s important to recognize how your employees are using their smartphones to communicate internally. This requires some research, so feel free to send out surveys and ask for anonymous usage data. Doing this will allow you to identify the communication apps they use the most. Next, you’ll need to distinguish between work and non-work-related communication. 

You need to standardize the former in order to achieve several key goals, but you can’t nor should influence the latter. It’s important that you integrate a strict work-related communication policy in which all work should be discussed via predefined apps and smartphone channels. For one, this will elevate the level of data security, but it will also help keep all data in one place that the employees can access at any time.

Focus heavily on cybersecurity via smartphone communication

Elevating cybersecurity in this digital day and age should be one of your top priorities. However, while you’re preoccupied defending your company against common cyber-attacks, your employees might be inadvertently leaking valuable data via smartphone communication. You need to improve cybersecurity on all fronts, and that includes creating an air-tight smartphone communication network in your company.

Again, you need to standardize the use of smartphone messaging apps, but not just for the sake of data availability. When all of your employees are exchanging work-related information via the same app, you’re actually getting that much-needed end-to-end data encryption that you wouldn’t get if you were to switch between apps. However, using a single app is not enough, so make sure to research which apps have the highest security, and be sure to educate all employees on proper data handling via messaging apps.

Staying connected on all channels while on the go

One of the most powerful features of the smartphone is, in fact, the original purpose of a mobile phone – portability. In a day and age of remote work and mobile businesses, it’s more important than ever before to enable remote teams and leaders by allowing them to work on the go via their smartphones. However, it’s important to unlock the smartphone’s full potential by connecting it to your VoIP system.

In case you didn’t know, the way VoIP works is that it actually allows you to utilize all of its features on the go, which means that you and your employees can hop on the phone and video calls, collaborate and schedule meetings, and do everything you would normally do from your laptop. It’s important that your teams are all connected via smartphones to a centralized communication system like VoIP to reap all the benefits of both technologies.

Using smartphone communication to build company culture

When thinking of smartphone communication, you’re probably looking for ways to improve productivity and communication with customers. Great, keep thinking of that, but also consider how smartphone use can revolutionize your business and its culture. 

You have a unique opportunity here to inspire employees to communicate and socialize continuously. This can happen organically, but you can also nudge them in the right direction by creating groups for sharing memes or organizing online team-building events that everyone can attend wherever they are.

Consider developing your own company’s app

Lastly, don’t dismiss the idea of creating a dedicated, branded communication app that all employees can have on their smartphones. Think about it, apps are affordable and easy to design nowadays, so with a relatively small investment, you can have your very own app that accommodates your employees’ every need.

You can pick and choose the features, organize the layout of how your employees think is best, and choose the best and latest security features on the market. If you’re thinking of the long term, then having a company app could be a worthwhile investment, especially when you consider just how much freedom you’ll have to create something truly useful for your employee collective.

Wrapping up

Smartphone technology has revolutionized the way we do business. That said, a smartphone can be a liability or an asset depending on how you use it, so make sure to use these tips to take your business forward by utilizing the full power and potential of smartphone tech.