The right tools

Flickr - m kasahara

Today, in two separate meetings I participated in, it was clear the frustration that results from staff not having the right tools and applications that can make their jobs easier and themselves more productive. Whether it is a simple employee directory with all the necessary information to contact, locate, and identify staff; or a robust information sharing and knowledge managment system to improve productivity and access to information, the absence of the right tools is incredibly frustrating.  It is particularly troubling for new staff, who will immediately compare your tools and applications to the ones at their former employer.  On three separate occasions today, someone commented to me that the resources and tools they had at their last place of employment were far superior to what they have now.

So how do organizations (particularly internal support organizations like IT and HR) get into this predicament? One reason is a complete 'customer' focus.  How can a total customer focus be bad?  When support staff is required to spend 100% of their time and effort only on those projects and tasks that are directly linked to end customer objectives, then no time is spent identifying and deploying those internal tools and applications that the support organizations can leverage to improve their productivity. 

What to do if you find your organization in this unenviable position?

I would argue that these organizations should attempt to devote 10% of their time (at least initially) looking inward, and developing solutions to improve their own jobs and processes. Managers should take some time to gain a better understanding of the real workflow and the processes by which tasks are getting accomplished and get some insight as to what kinds of solutions are needed.

And spend more time talking to these new employees who claim to have had better tools in their last workplace.  They likely have much to offer as to specific technologies and solutions that they have first hand experience with, and that can potentially be deployed in your organization.

Easy access to information, resources, expertise - these are all critical components for employee success.  Ask yourself, are you making it easy for staff to find the needed information, resources and expertise?

Or do your staff spend way too much time and energy searching?

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