If you’ve ever unlocked your smartphone and felt a sense of exhaustion, then you know what app fatigue feels like. It’s that feeling of overwhelm you get when you look at a smartphone cluttered with apps, many of which you may not even use.
When you have too many apps, fatigue sets in. They’re too exhausting to use, let alone learn how to use. At a certain point, you don’t even care anymore. You feel burned out and tired.
App fatigue is bad enough when you’re dealing with it on a personal level. But when it happens in the workplace, it can destroy productivity, lower employee morale, and even hurt your bottom line.
App fatigue in the workplace
The reality is we all need apps to do our jobs. Apps help us accomplish our work faster and more efficiently.
Apps, on their own, are a good thing.
It’s when you have too many — or worse, multiple that accomplish the same thing — that you veer into the dangerous territory of app fatigue.
If you fear your company has entered that territory, take comfort that you’re not alone. A majority of companies use more apps than they need, and the pandemic only accelerated this trend. As work moved from the office to the home, apps became even more essential to keep employees engaged and connected. As a result, many well-meaning companies doubled down, investing in even more apps to make WFH life easier.
But many companies went too far. According to a recent survey, the average workplace uses 88 different apps, and 10% use 200 apps or more!
Benefits of having fewer apps
Reducing your workplace app load has serious benefits. Take a look:
- Employees feel more energized. With fewer apps, your team is less exhausted. Wild goose chases from app to app (many of which were supposed to “make their job easier”) no longer happen. As a result, your team has more energy.
- Things are easier to find. When everyone’s using the same, shorter list of apps, it’s easier to stay organized. Things get filed in the right places, and people know where to find them.
- No more tribal knowledge. When things are easier to find, you reduce your risk of siloed information. Employees are also more inclined to collaborate, because they can trust that information will be easy to find.
- Increased productivity. Too many apps slow your employees down, plain and simple. Toggling between different apps to chat, collaborate, email, and video conference is called context switching. And it drives productivity down 80%.
- Improved teamwork. When you agree on a set of apps, things are more conducive to collaboration. You don’t have waves of people using different apps based on their hire date, just because that was the hot new thing when they were a new hire. Everyone uses the same technology.
- Less wasted money. App fatigue drains your employees, and it drains your budget, too. Abandoned, unused apps with no business owner eat into your budget without providing any value.
How to solve app fatigue in the workplace
Solve app fatigue, and your employees will feel more energized and more productive. Just follow these steps.
1. Review your app stack
Make a list of all the apps your company uses, and categorize them by function (communication, project management, HR, etc.). Note any apps with duplicate functionality. Odds are you probably have some. 83% of professionals report that their company uses at least two redundant applications, and 57% report at least three redundant apps.
2. Get rid of redundant apps
Apps with redundant functionality or that have fallen into disuse are easy choices to get rid of. Of the remaining apps, see where functionality overlaps. Also consider whether you are using all the functionality available. For example, there may be one app that offers the same features you currently get from two other apps. You can replace the two apps with the one app to rule them all.
3. Check in with your team
Regularly check in with your team to see how your current apps are serving them. Appoint an app ambassador from each department to report what’s working, and what isn’t. Work together to brainstorm solutions. It could be better training, upgrading for additional features, or something else.
4. Encourage off-screen time
With an unprecedented amount of virtual meetings, employees are staring at their computers more than ever before. Encourage employees to take breaks away from their screens and getting lost in the appscape. Also remind people of the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for about 20 seconds.
The answer to app fatigue: all-in-one communications
Often, communication and collaboration apps are the largest culprit of app fatigue. It’s typical for companies to select one payroll or benefits system, for instance, but they often communicate in multiple apps, none of which speak to each other. This leads to missed messages and lost information.
Think about it. How many apps does your company use for…
- Email (internal and external)
- Chat (internal and external)
- Text messaging
- Phone
- Video conferencing
Bringing these various apps into a single software can solve most, if not all, of your app fatigue woes. With Nextiva, it’s easy.
3 features of Nextiva’s business software that can help solve app fatigue:
Take a look at just a few of the features of our business software:
- All-in-one communication
Nextiva brings all communications — external and internal — into a single, unified app. That’s right, all communications. Customer comms and coworker comms. You can access your internal chat, calls, and video meetings in the same app you use to send texts, chat with, and answer customer calls.
- Threaded conversations
Speaking of customer communications, these often take place in separate channels, creating a disjointed customer experience. No more, with Nextiva. Threaded conversations pull in all interactions with a customer, wherever they happen. Every time someone on your team talks with a customer, they’ll be able to offer a seamless, unified experience — at last.
- Call pop
Nextiva’s call pop feature arms your phone agents with all the information they need, before they even pick up the phone. Call pop shows not only which customer is calling, but key details like their most recent customer sentiment score.
See how Nextiva works for yourself. Book your demo now.
