Want to Reclaim Your Time During the Pandemic? It’s Time to Bring Back Phone Calls

The pandemic is changing how we think of work and performance. Past data shows the most successful companies are the ones focused on encouraging their employees to be open-minded. In a time where almost all interaction is happening online, going analog is new.

The pandemic pushed a world of workers to the likes of Zoom, shared documents and encrypted messaging — no matter their technical literacy. Fumbling around with these tools eats up time better spent on the actual work. Surviving the pandemic will require some age-old wisdom. Anybody picked up an actual phone lately?

The use of technology during the pandemic rose 20 percent to meet the demand of a virtual work environment. Employees were forced to adapt despite their level of proficiency or comfortability. A few seconds trying to troubleshoot a faulty Zoom connection or accessing a shared drive might not make a drastic difference in productivity. However, when this time is compounded over the course of an eight-hour work day, five days a week (if the line hasn’t blurred and leaked into the evenings and weekends — research shows it has during the pandemic), the time lost turns into minutes and hours.

This can leave employees feeling frustrated. When they focus solely on technical skills, they allocate their time and effort in keeping up with the technical knowledge. This keeps teams reactive instead of the more efficient proactive mode.

Focusing on new technology creates an environment where innovation is blocked because the team is not allowed to settle in and allow ideas to flow. Employees begin to prioritize the wrong thing like learning how to master the tool instead of the job it is supposed to help them with. Any disruption creates chaos because employees are siloed in an attempt to learn a new tech skill on their own, without the traditional support system.

This is a challenging time and without the ability to ask a peer or teacher in proximity to walk through a new technological tool, it can create silos and further isolate people in their attempt to meet a company standard. This has negative effects for both the employee and the employer.

A technology-first approach is problematic because technical skills do not promote innovation. Research shows the most successful organizations do not focus on technical skills. Instead, the most valuable skills include a transformative vision, being a forward thinker and having a change-oriented mindset. About 80% of companies, such as Adobe, Salesforce and Slack, which rely on digital technology to transform their business models and operational processes, encourage their employees to be more risk taking, agile and collaborative. These companies rely on digital technology but place a stronger emphasis on organizational skills such as leadership and communications instead of technical skills.

One way to offset the overemphasis on technical skills is to encourage employees to take a break from their screens and call their co-workers. Instead of fumbling around looking for a meeting link and password to join a virtual meeting, dialing a phone number for an instant connection might be an effective way to create a more collaborative and productive work environment and to expedite the flow of information. Without the challenge of digital literacy or technical difficulties it allows employees to be more innovative when meeting their job responsibilities.