The pressure on CIOs to do more with less is pushing many organizations to seek ways to increase employee productivity. At the same time, employee morale often struggles as workers see themselves asked to do more work for the same pay. To find the right balance between these forces, there are many productivity technologies to consider, but old-fashioned leadership skills--such as communicating, decision-making, and motivating--can have a great impact on boosting employee efficiency, reports Don Reisinger at CIOInsight.

Mobile technologies are fairly obvious tools for boosting the productivity of the IT staff. Giving workers tools to solve problems remotely--particularly outside of regular business hours--can cut down on a lot of unnecessary travel to the office. "Being productive on the IT side means providing laptops, smartphones and even iPads," said Peter Graves, senior vice president and CIO for Independent Bank in Ionia, Mich.

IT workers often get bogged down with help desk calls, new project deployments, and hardware and software maintenance. One way some organizations are trying to reduce help desk demands is by integrating the service into Facebook. Miami-Dade College is launching a Facebook page where employees and students can troubleshoot problems before calling for IT support. "Our students are much more tech-savvy than they've ever been, and thanks to self-help...they'll find their own answers," said Karl Herleman, CIO at the college.

Collaboration tools abound these days, and organizations are discovering ways that they can help IT staff deploy new projects faster. At Procter & Gamble, video technologies are helping far-flung IT workers communicate and collaborate more efficiently, Reisinger reports.

For more:
- see Don Reisinger's article at CIOInsight

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