Integrating companies into the digital revolution that has been unfolding in recent decades remains a major challenge for many organizations, as it simultaneously involves adopting new business models, virtualization and redesign of all company information systems, implementation of innovative growth strategies, and, above all, the integration of all these variables with the enhancement of IT team productivity.
For this reason, in today’s post, we will present 6 strategies to improve the productivity of your information technology professionals. Check them out:
Set achievable goals and properly explain them to your team
Be careful not to get lost by imposing unrealistic goals on your IT team, which can contribute to demotivating them and reducing their productivity. Instead, break down the IT area’s objectives into small portions, communicating to each member the reason for carrying out that system restructuring, virtualizing servers, and adopting a new network topology in your organization. Goal setting can even be applied in the case of IT outsourcing.
A team only dives deeply into an objective when they feel part of the project and, in a way, the creator of the mission.
Know the benefits that outsourcing can bring to your company
The outsourcing of certain IT activities frees up workforce so the company can focus on its core business. The introduction of highly qualified information technology professionals through service provision demonstrably generates a reduction in the company’s total costs in the IT area (it is worth remembering that costs also become more predictable), optimization of the service quality provided, faster and more efficient maintenance, etc. Several successful companies have already adopted this strategy to increase their productivity in line with expense reduction.
Create a fair, efficient, and pre-established reward system to boost team productivity
Establish the reward systems to be adopted right from the initial goal-setting meetings. Bonus programs for excellence in performing activities and achieving common objectives are always stimulating for employees.
Develop a comprehensive training and development policy in partnership with the Human Resources area
It is worth noting at this point that training and development are distinct things. While the former relates to training and offering courses so professionals can understand various systems and apply them toward increasing their company’s productivity, development refers to the opportunities and motivation techniques to be provided so the internal IT team can implement, with excellence, the theories absorbed in previous phases (empowerment, job rotation, and job enrichment are some examples).
Encourage the development of projects involving multidisciplinary teams
The focus here is to dissipate the merely technical nature of the information technology area in favor of developing a new profile: teams with a business acumen, true agents of innovation, endowed with leadership and a macro vision of the organization.
However, to develop this complex profile, which will certainly lead to a significant increase in IT team productivity, it is highly recommended to invest in forming multidisciplinary teams. This system offers immediate benefits to the company, such as optimizing interdepartmental communication, developing a full view of business processes by each project member, and allowing greater decentralization in decision-making—peculiarities that are generally extremely useful for motivating your team and, as a consequence, usually accompanied by a relevant increase in productivity.
Streamline the workflow: redesign your processes to achieve objectivity and speed in decision-making
Constant delivery of status update reports, repetitive sending of emails to confirm task completion, excessive process segmentation, repetitive tasks.
How about considering a kind of downsizing in your IT processes? But one important point: meetings are relevant for sharing objectives and goals to be achieved; however, excessive meetings discredit the CIO and unnecessarily strain your relationship with the IT team.
Process flow agility and balance in goal communication are therefore true mantras for improving IT productivity.
