It happens in every office almost every day — someone’s computer freezes, a network printer is down, the fax machine is out of toner. It’s often out of your control. What isn’t:
The way many people mill about aimlessly waiting for the problem to be resolved.
Amazing how quickly a minor tech nuisance can morph into a colossal waste of time and money.
Of course, IT only can only handle so many things at once. So if you can get employees to be more proactive in their response to these day-to-day tech annoyances, you can get everybody back on the task at hand faster.
One great way to go about that is with a little brainstorming.
Throw down the gauntlet
Try challenging every department to come up with its own list of minor things that could go wrong with the equipment in their area on any given day.
Once you have that, see if those groups can compile a sort of “troubleshooting checklist,” including any backup parts or equipment they’d need.
That’s where you take the baton. Think about creating “troubleshooting kits,” based on the checklists. That should be enough to keep a small tech glitch from spiraling into a giant slowdown.
And while you may have to open your company piggy bank to buy some additional supplies, the gains in productivity should more than outweigh the initial outlay.
People will become less thrown by these little interruptions and get back to business.