A New Approach to Work Productivity

Do you feel productive at work? Maybe you feel like you work really hard, or maybe you don't think you're doing enough. Productivity always matters at work. But in a world where people are nervously eyeing their budgets and headcounts, workplace productivity is more important than ever.

People can’t seem to decide if the massive shift to remote and hybrid work has been a boon for productivity or one of the worst things that could have ever happened. We know that many company leaders find the lack of oversight difficult and believe remote employees are less productive. A better, more efficient tech stack can help close that assumption gap.

The link between productivity and technology

Whether you want to improve productivity, invest in digital transformation, or just find ways to improve everyone’s workday, you don’t have to look any further than your everyday tech tools.

But tech stacks have gotten a bit bloated over the last few years, and financial officers have noticed. That’s why, after adding a ton of tools to help people transition from in-office work to hybrid and remote work, companies are taking a step back and casting a critical eye on what they actually need from their tech stacks.

It’s easy to get rid of tools that nobody remembers using, but most companies aren’t looking at a list of defunct tools. Many are looking at multiple tools that are useful but have too much functional overlap with each other. Others are dealing with different tool preferences across all teams and team members. So, how do you determine which tools contribute the most to your bottom line?

A new hierarchy of needs

If you flash back to high school sociology class, you may remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In theory, these needs drive human behavior, and reaching them helps humans achieve well-being and feelings of fulfillment. Maslow theorized that people couldn’t focus on needs higher up in the pyramid until they had mostly obtained needs in the lower levels first.

Menlo Ventures put together its own pyramid of needs in relation to SAAS tools and businesses, and they’re pretty spot on. Companies can use this hierarchy of needs as they go through their own unique digital transformation journeys and determine the right tools and technologies to invest in.

It’s hard not to see how well Guru ties into this SaaS hierarchy of needs. We designed Guru to be your all-in-one tool that can keep teams connected and store information in one handy (and trusted!) place because we know how crucial these things are for overall company improvement and growth. Having a tool that can learn and evolve along with your company can be what you need to foster true innovation and growth.

Whether you need to be more productive, pare down your tech stack, or just want to work more efficiently, take time to learn about each level of the SAAS hierarchy of needs.

Communication

Is there any goal a company wouldn’t reach without communication? Communication is the pillar of any workplace. Solid workplace communication can help ensure employees have the information they need to do their best work. Whether you’re focused on expansions, growing your employee count, or improving sales, everything will require seamless communication between people.

Your ideal communication tool should make work interactions feel seamless whether they’re taking place online or in the office. Guru can help streamline communication workflows and complement in the moment employee messaging with expert-verified information to help keep everyone connected and aligned.

Collaboration

Being able to talk to your teammates is one thing, but truly working together is another matter. Now that everyone has their basic communication needs met, it’s time to focus on collaboration. Proper collaboration can require sharing trusted information and working from a single source of truth. Any tool that gives people the information they need to work in their preferred work environment will be invaluable.

It’s worth noting that utilizing a tool that integrates with your favorite tools can make collaboration easy. A tool that syncs up with your calendar, messaging tools, and main workspaces makes working together and context-switching much easier.

Coordination

Once you have a solid foundation of communication and collaboration, let’s get everyone on the same page and focus on coordination. As workforces continue to be more dispersed than ever, it’s important to be able to connect the dots between individual and team contributions at work. That’ll make it much easier to monitor progress toward deliverables and see what everyone is contributing. Learn more about how to measure productivity the right way.

Coordination requires insight into what people are working on so managers and individual workers can make the right decisions. Being able to share project updates and find information will be crucial. We can’t depend on virtual meetings, email, and messaging apps to keep people on track. A solution that can offer visibility, traceability, and reporting can give managers the insight and support they need to make the best decisions.

Automation

You’re communicating and collaborating better than ever before, and work no longer feels like scheduled chaos. What’s the next step to being even more productive at work? Taking some of that work off of your plates with automation!

When automation is done right, it’s not used to reduce the number of humans you need at work. It’s to help employers feel empowered to do their best work by making their jobs even easier and more efficient. Automation can be what businesses need to generate efficiencies and speed up workflows across different teams, functions, and departments.

Alignment

You’ve reached the top of the pyramid, and if we were going by Maslow’s original version, you’d have officially achieved self-actualization/self-fulfillment. But what does it mean for a business entity to have “self-actualization”?

Businesses can reach this point only once the proper workflows are captured, employees have clarity around their work, and they feel empowered to do what they need to achieve business and professional goals. Everyone feels aligned, and since work is codified in the various tools people use, success is measurable, trackable, and easy to define.

Guru could be just what you need to finally climb to the top of that pyramid. Our mission is to give every team the trusted information they need so they can do their best work. Alignment is a big part of that, and we provide a solid foundation based in communication, collaboration, coordination, and automation.

Easier, better, faster, stronger 🤖

As companies reassess their tech stacks with a firmer focus on productivity, they need to keep the human at the center of everything they do. Efficient digital transformation and increased productivity won’t happen without the right empowered people behind it.

Your tech stack should change alongside your company, and finding tools to meet those core needs is the key to success. Luckily, we know where you should look if you need a tool that can combine the powers of communication, collaboration, coordination, automation, and alignment.