Happy holidays | Let collaboration and productivity technology support your team’s well-being

Collaboration and productivity technology has evolved in response to natural human requirements; the need to collaborate in an unstructured way, the importance of face-to-face communication (even when working remotely) and to minimise frustration felt in wasting time on unproductive tasks and meetings.  As our collective lives get busier, both personal and business can sometimes feel like merging with mobile technology at its heart, in the “always-on” culture.

Collaboration and productivity technology as an exception rather than habit during personal time

Whilst business managers can benefit from workers’ enthusiasm to continue to take actions outside of their working hours in the short term, it is a collective responsibility to avoid individual “burn-out”.

This habitual mobile use has prompted protective employment legislation in France this year, with a “right to disconnect” to help workers get certainty when they can switch off from their smartphones.  Whatever your personal thoughts on this controversial move, it’s certainly symptomatic of the ease of use and accessibility to our work from our personal environments.

In recent research published by Randstad, ‘almost half of those surveyed (49.5%) say that they look at work emails while on holiday. Among those who admit to this habit, half do it once or twice a day and as many as 9.3% check them “continually”.’

According to this HR magazine article; “It is important to respect this time away, both for yourself as an employee, or your employer or manager. Business expert and career confidence coach Sherry Bevan further explained the business benefits of good rest. “A ‘proper’ break boosts your productivity and your creativity,” she said. “It’s that opportunity to ‘declutter’ your brain and relax. You make more effective decisions when you’re back at work, which has got to be good for your career and for business.”

Technology and well-being in tandem

Collaboration and productivity technology from Microsoft such as Skype for Business and Teams provide instant and threaded messaging, voice call, video call, group meetings and scheduled meetings.

So, this summertime, ensure that whilst you have equipped your teams with the right tools that help boost productivity and efficiency; you proactively set boundaries between your employees in order to keep staff welfare as priority.