Our jobs are becoming more stressful than ever before: a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) stated that 40 percent of employees found their job “very or extremely stressful,” and around 25 percent see their jobs as “the number one stressor in their lives.” While a little stress in the workplace can be motivating, high levels of stress over time can lead to burnout, low productivity, and even chronic health problems.
How can you mitigate stress in the workplace for your team when the work still needs to get done? One way is to invest in a software solution to assist your team with workflow management and issue tracking.
Small, day-to-day problems can add up and grow into extreme stressors; the logistical issues of staying on top of problems when they arise, remembering important information offhand, and keeping processes flowing smoothly from point A to point B all contribute to an employee’s overall stress level. Implementing a solution that keeps track of details and catches mistakes lets employees refocus their efforts on accomplishing tasks and removes some of the pressure resting on their shoulders.
Read on to learn more about the ways a software solution can help remove some of the burden from your team:
Stay Organized
Organization is crucial for stress management, especially in the workplace. Clutter, both physical and digital, squelches productivity and distracts us from tasks at hand. And clutter abounds in the workplace -- just think about the number of emails you receive from co-workers or customers every day. Inboxes can quickly fill up and overflow, leading to lost messages and rabbit holes of information that can be time-consuming to sift through. And that’s not to mention the various loose, unorganized files on your computer or within your cloud drive.
A software solution like Issuetrak takes an active role in organizing information, such as correspondence, in a centralized and easily-accessible place. Customer complaints, comments, and concerns funnel into a single location that’s navigable and searchable by key terms. Each issue or ticket offers plenty of space for notes, attachments, and comments to make sure information stays exactly where it’s needed.
Automate Processes
The concept of automation can be a bit off-putting at first, but a little bit of automation in the workplace can work wonders in relieving stress. Automating aspects of your team’s workflow cuts down on human error, makes communication much more streamlined, and frees up employees’ brainspace to focus in on other tasks. It also removes the need for employees to complete certain repetitive tasks, enabling them to focus their attention on more pressing matters.
Issuetrak offers a suite of features called Automation (formerly called Business Rules), which allow for three distinct methods: Auto Assignment, Workflows (previously called Escalation Rules), and Substatus Rules. Through these features, users can automatically assign issues to the right people upon submission, automatically escalate issues when they sit idle for too long, and automatically update the substatus of an issue after certain conditions are met. Scheduled Issues (formerly called Recurring Issues) can also be set to occur regularly, removing the need to input certain issues that will always occur at a certain time.
Document Automatically
Keeping a well-documented log of who did what when is important regardless of your company’s industry, but can be especially essential for organizations that need to adhere to regulations or undergo audits regularly. Having to consciously document information can cause stress, especially with the ever-looming possibility of mistakes or omissions threatening your team. One slip-up in documentation could lead to more thorough investigations into your organization -- or worse.
Relieve the pressure on your team by letting software do the meticulous note-taking for you. Many software solutions, including Issuetrak, keep updated audit records that can be exported and used for personal records, compliance, and more. Issuetrak has two auditing tools that can be turned on by an administrator: Issue Auditing, which documents changes made to each issue record, and Admin Auditing, which keeps a log of changes made to the Issuetrak site itself. Issuetrak also keeps a record of comments and notes within each issue with date and time stamps for easy reference.
Don’t Forget!
Trying to remember too much can be stressful in and of itself. But stress also impacts our capacity for memory -- in fact, people tend to remember less under high-stress conditions, leading to memory lapses, accidental omissions, and more. The more we stress, the less we remember; the less we remember, the more we stress. It can easily become a vicious cycle
A software solution like Issuetrak helps ensure nothing slips through the cracks or goes by the wayside. Issuetrak’s Task Manager lets you create checklists and workflows that notify each team member when it’s their turn to participate in the process. The program sends automatic updates and notifications when help is needed, as well as when issues or tickets get updated or edited. It can even escalate issues and send mass notifications if the issues have been sitting unaddressed for too long.
Don’t let your team succumb to the pitfalls of workplace stress! A software solution like Issuetrak can be just the thing to ease that pressure, allowing your employees to focus their attention on important tasks and reach their full potential. Reach out to one of our product experts if you’re ready to see what Issuetrak has to offer!
Topics from this blog: Software Solutions
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