Forget Hard Work, It’s All About Smart Working!

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Did you know that spending long hours at work doesn’t guarantee productivity and efficiency? Are employers or employees to blame for long hours of work with fewer results to show? There are many factors that account for lost productivity even as we spend more hours at work. The key to turn this around lies in smart working.

What does “smart working” mean?


Emerging global challenges are forcing companies to change their culture of doing things. Smart working means changing company processes, structure, teams and workspaces to achieve a more flexible, agile work system that can respond to current market needs.

This also takes advantage of the latest technological tools for higher efficiency, creativity, productivity team wellbeing. Smart working is about getting rid of predetermined patterns and inflexibility in favor of focusing on relevant ideas, people and projects.

Smart working technology


Smart workers capitalize on the ingenuity of technology and new methodologies to enhance both the performance and efficiency of team members. This strategy creates value and innovation through inspired collaboration between technology and people.

Employees who enjoy remote working and employers who have gained insights into the ongoing organizational revolution see smart working as a framework for change in the work culture that helps to generate agile and clever processes that boost the effectiveness of organizations.

Smart working also involves staying ahead with time-monitoring software that will provide a detailed overview of everyone’s time. One of the best tools for monitoring employee time management is the TimeTrack Timesheet.

 

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Efficiency at your fingertips with the TimeTrack Timesheet

Innovative smart working concepts


Smart working focuses on the concepts of time, technology, people and space.

Space

The latest work trend is the employment of remote workers because work is no longer limited to an organization’s physical constraints. With co-working spaces, working from home and hybrid working, employees can focus solely on work, not the commute.

Time

Automated and reorganized work processes place a greater emphasis on projects, objectives, processes and completed tasks, regardless of when or where they are completed. This creates more flexibility for individual tasks and the time that team members spend on innovation, brainstorming and planning and creativity.

Technology

New technologies have revolutionized workspaces while creating efficient ways to collaborate, optimize processes and streamline projects. This may mean setting aside existing technologies, especially where high productivity and efficiency cannot be guaranteed. Innovative technologies like TimeTrack support employees who work remotely while allowing employees to work smarter. Technology enables flexibility in the work environment while aligning with the structure and operation of companies for greater effectiveness.

 

People

A smart working culture places people at the center of processes. It supports a healthy work life and gives employees greater freedom to deliver on their promises. People place their trust and responsibility in each other, resulting in successful deadlines and projects.

Why you should adopt a smart working culture


Smart working keeps workers motivated and engaged. It offers employees the opportunity to manage their time autonomously, working only when it is essential to achieve goals and not necessarily for nine hours straight with little to show for it. Smart working provides workers more flexibility to organize themselves while attending to family and personal needs.

While this business model benefits workers, companies also stand to gain so much. Smart working requires a high level of accountability for every employee while relieving management of the need to control others.

Meetings will be shorter and more focused, while unnecessary meetings and breaks are completely removed. Organizational objectives move from focus to achieving the objectives.

 

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Smart working gives employees the edge

Examples of smart goals for work


Smart work remains incomplete when the goals of the new system aren’t smart. If goals cannot match the workforce, there will be a lag in the system. Some examples of smart goals for work include:

  1. Prepare to launch a product through the development of a launch checklist of activities, due dates and tasks with all approvals by a specific date.
  2.  Gain seven new clients in a month by conducting four customer meetings each week.
  3.  Gain 30 000 new online clients this year at an average cost per acquisition of $20, with an average profit of $7.
  4.  Cut operational costs by allowing employees to work from home three days a week.

Smart working to boost efficiency


There are a variety of ways you can promote working smart in your organization.

Personal time management

According to a Udemy 2018 Workplace Distraction Report, 70% of workers admitted to feeling distracted at work. This has resulted in less productivity, lower performance and employees being unable to reach their full potential or advance in their careers. This is a good reason to track projects and employee time and productivity, and course-correct as needed.

Team building and collaboration

The power to implement tasks and projects lies with the team. The organizational vision comes alive within an effective team and in a workplace where collaboration thrives. Innovation becomes commonplace where team spirit is encouraged. Encouraging employees to adopt smart working means they will be people-oriented and consequently encourage other colleagues.

Performance management

Remote workers are not spared from the challenges that on-site employees face in performing their duties. A detailed report of the day’s activities and achievements with frequent monitoring of employee productivity is vital for the assessment of key performance indicators. Using the purpose-driven rapid planning method for effective planning will help them manage challenges and ensure the new ways of working become entrenched in the organisation.

How to work smarter, not harder


Working smarter, not harder, means devising clever ways to save money, energy and time at work, while increasing productivity and efficiency. To work smart while improving efficiency, you must help your professional teams devise strategies to prioritise work and identify the most important tasks.

Smart time tracking

One of the great ways to figure out what needs to be improved in your work is to improve the shift planning process. Here’s a smart opportunity to automate the system, with the TimeTrack Shift Planner. With this tool, employees are assigned to their work areas and you can even create plans according to their skill level – improving everyone’s time management!

 

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Shift Planner – TimeTrack

 

TimeTrack is a time tracking software that will help your organization record its use of working hours, giving management more insight on resource use and provides an excellent overview of company work processes, creating transparency in project implementation.

Set smart goals

If you set the wrong goals, you will struggle to achieve your objectives. Setting the right goals is a surefire way to increase productivity and boost efficiency. In setting your goals, follow the S.M.A.R.T. Principle, which translates to ensuring your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-relevant. Smart goals create structure for your work life and boost organizational objectives.

The 80/20 Rule


The 80/20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, states that 80% of results come from 20% of tasks. By implication, you will get only two quality results from every 10 tasks you perform. This also means there is a greater to focus on specific tasks that will yield greater productivity and profitability.

Avoid multitasking

Do you know you achieve less by doing many things at the same time? Multitasking causes you to simply scatter your focus and energy. However, you can achieve more by doing less. Avoid multitasking, which is known to lower focus, reduce productivity and keep you longer at work.

Time-block your day

Time-blocking is a time management strategy you can implement to divide your day into blocks of time, assigning a particular period for completing a specific task. Within this period, you focus solely on doing one thing at a time.

Establish an hourly routine

Establishing a routine throughout the day could help you recover lost time and invigorate your energy for greater achievement. Routine brings structure to your day and helps you to stay productive.

Conclusion


Working smart helps you understand that being busy does not mean you are being productive. It promotes worker autonomy and freedom with a higher capacity to organize time. It saves money, time and energy and also enhances collaboration and efficiency.