Many developed countries are currently facing a productivity crisis, with millions of employees rating themselves as unproductive at work*, and technology is cited as one of the key factors in workplace productivity. Jonathan Weech, Senior Product Line Manager at NASDAQ-listed tech company Micron SSD , said, “We all know the phrase ‘a good worker doesn’t blame their tools’. But for anyone who has ever worked in an office, the excuse of bad tech and IT is commonplace. Missing deadlines or submitting work late can be caused by an IT glitch or a program not running properly. For some, these excuses may be considered just that, an excuse, but poor-performing IT can lead to poor-performing employees.”
Recent research from IT systems performance specialists Crucial** revealed that many workers get distracted by their less tech-savvy colleagues and solving their IT problems takes up an average of 17 minutes per day. This, unsurprisingly, has a serious impact on office workers’ productivity, not to mention the cost to businesses having to divert precious time and resources to resolving these IT problems.
The most common IT issues employees are having to deal with include a PC or program freezing or running slowly and a PC or program crashing – all making employees much less efficient and productive.
Weech added, “There is no complete fix for solving the problem of productivity. Many different aspects of the workplace need to be addressed to optimise employees’ efficiency, such as the working environment and work processes, but you can easily solve the problem of employees wasting time waiting on an unresponsive computer.”
If your employee is constantly facing IT issues, there is no doubt that their computer is in serious need of a performance overhaul. Many believe the only solution is to just throw away the offending computer and buy a new one. Not only is this the expensive approach, it is also completely unnecessary.
Weech continued, “The (wrong) assumption is that these problems are down to the computer, but it isn’t the computer’s fault, it is the components inside that are to blame and these can be easily and cheaply fixed. You simply need to evaluate the problems, improve the computer system’s performance accordingly and as a result you will help boost your office employees’ efficiency.
If a PC is running hot, taking forever to turn on, failing to run multiple programmes or files are failing to open or load, it is because the computer can’t deliver the speed and active data your employee needs. Instead of buying an expensive new system, upgrade their PC and boost your employee’s productivity.”
So, how do you upgrade your employees’ PCs? A PC upgrade simply involves installing an SSD (Solid State Hard Drive) and increasing the amount of memory in the computer system.
Weech explained, “Most computers are shipped with a hard drive and a limited amount of storage, eventually leading to a slow computer and poor performance. The installation of an SSD will help to overcome those issues with storage, providing near-instant start-up times for your computer. Upgrading the amount of memory on your computer will instantly increase the computer’s responsiveness. More memory also helps you to operate and run multiple windows simultaneously and an SSD ensures that these applications will load almost instantly.”
Upgrading computer components may seem daunting but the process is actually very straightforward. It doesn’t require help from IT professionals or the IT department but can be carried out by anyone working in the office, no matter their level of technical knowledge. It also means no more painful waiting for files to load, the smooth operation of multiple programs for better multi-tasking, with no risk of a system crash, and all without the need for an expensive new computer.
Weech concluded, “This simple solution is an easy and cheap way to solve a multitude of IT issues. Improving computer efficiency can help improve your employees’ efficiency and boosting computer performance can aid productivity.
“Upgrading and improving a PC’s performance means that employees will no longer be able to ‘blame their tools’ and ensures that at least their computers won’t hinder their productivity. So, no more excuses – bad IT can no longer be blamed for poor productivity.”
