Smart businesses embrace technology to make their workforce more productive and streamline operations – when tasks such as admin and project management are automated, staff members can put their skills to better use in other areas of the business. Here are five apps your business needs to improve business productivity.
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1. CIPHR HR Software
Human resource is one area in which technology is helping to reduce the strain of excessive admin and improve employee engagement. CIPHR HR Software is one of the market leaders, offering an employee self-service portal for holiday and absence requests, as well as fast and secure access to their core employee data on a range of devices. Other features include payroll management, e-recruiting, and onboarding, and a learning management system, all of which are fully customizable to feel like part of your organization and help to enhance your employer brand. From leave management software to payroll software, all can ensure faster task management.
2. Ever-note
Ever-note is a note-taking app that has been a staple of productivity lists for years. Ideas can be generated in the most unlikely of places, and the Ever-note mobile app allows you to capture notes by writing, recording audio, taking photos, uploading PDFs, or sketching digitally
But it’s real standout feature is arguably its image lookup – search for a word or phrase and it’ll not only search your notes, messages, and text files but also in your images. If, for instance, you’ve taken pictures of cars as part of a project, simply searching for the keyword ‘cars’ will bring up all mentions and images of cars on your device. Every note puts an end to endless scrolling.
3. Rescue Time
Got a problem with procrastination? Does social media send your workday into a tailspin? Then it could be time for Rescue Time. Used during the working day, this time-tracking app makes a record of all your breaks, the apps you use, and the websites you browse to give you a breakdown of exactly how you’re whiling away the working hours.
One really great feature is that its categories each app and website you use and ranks them in one of five productivity ratings:
- very productive
- productive
- neutral
- distracting
- very distracting
The big question is, are you ready to find out how much time you really waste each day?
4. Buffer
If you work with social media, it helps to have a scheduling app so you can line up tweets and social posts for when your audience is online. This is especially useful if you’re looking after more than one brand account.
Buffer not only allows you to schedule posts across a range of social media platforms, but its free insights package will also let you know when most of your followers are online and the best times to post. It also comes with an add-on called Pablo, which allows you to make branded images to enhance your posts. You can upload your own photos to the brand and post captions on, or use its extensive library of stock photography.
5. Trello
Trello is a visual work-management app that encourages collaboration and allows users to visualize workflow and track productivity. It works by creating work boards to which you add sticky notes, each of which can be sorted into columns, such as: ‘To do’, ‘In progress’, and ‘Done’. Stakeholders can be tagged into each sticky note to help with workflow, reduce bottlenecks, and eliminate blockers.
A fun, free app to help with productivity.
How to choose your productivity apps
Productivity apps are designed to help make your work-life simpler, so the first thing to consider is what areas of your job create the most pain points, and then look for an app or software package that can help. It could be something to eliminate distractions or something to help keep on top of workflow and priorities – whatever you need, there’s probably an app to improve business productivity.