Is Your Team Ready for New Initiatives?

Nowadays, technical knowledge can be gained by nearly anyone if they’re dedicated enough. Getting your employees to master a new skill can be as simple as enrolling them in an online course. So what distinguishes successful renowned companies from cookie cutters is creativity and innovation.

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Gone are the days when all the ideas and decisions came only from the very top of the organization. Now, more often than not, employees are the ones who are expected to be proactive and creative in problem solving.

Having a proactive employee with lots of new ideas and readiness to take initiative can seem like a dream come true. And while you should certainly encourage and foster this attitude, it could be disastrous to try and entertain every single suggestion. In business, it’s all about time management, collaboration and goals.

So you need to consider these things before jumping into new projects and taking initiatives. And later we’ll see that employee time tracker app can offer a bit of help.

When Proactivity Goes Wrong

Almost nothing is ever black and white. Proactivity, as well, falls into this huge gray area. You claim to want this attribute in your employee but the truth is that this is the case only as long as it’s convenient. And that’s OK! After all, it’s the organization and functioning of the entire team that really counts towards the success of the company.

If the new initiative works, that’s awesome! But what if it doesn’t?

According to research, employee productivity affects not only the proactive employees themselves, but also other people on the team as well as broad organizational goals. And if the new initiative clashes with just one of these factors, it might be fatal both for that idea and for the regular workflow.

There are a couple of possible negative outcomes from taking new initiative without careful consideration. For instance, an employee might take on too much work which could lead to burnout. The idea might require effort from other employees on the team which they didn’t sign up for. Or the initiative could mess up the time management and overall organization, therefore going against some of the important company goals.

It’s clear that initiatives shouldn’t be taken lightly, but what are the steps you can take to ensure your team is actually ready for a change or additional projects?

Using an Employee Time Tracker App to Test the Waters

The fact that an employee of yours had a great new idea or is willing to take on some additional side-project is highly commendable. But before you enthusiastically give a green light, double-check if that initiative can fit into the schedule and if it even makes sense within your team.

The best way to gauge how much time you can allocate to new projects is by using time tracking software for employees.

If an employee is excited about an idea they have to the point of wanting to spend extra time on it, it might be smart to first consult your employee time tracker app to see if they really have that time on their hands. Spending every extra minute on a new project, regardless of how excited they might have been about it at the beginning, could result in burnout very quickly.

Another important thing is to check whether the proposed initiative involves other team members, and if it does, whether it can fit into their regular schedule. If your time tracking software app shows a lot of empty slots that could be put to good use, the idea might be worth considering. But if their time tracking software is filled with tasks and existing projects, maybe the proactivity should best be left for another time.

Finally, even when you decide to adopt the change or take on the new project, it’s important that you still keep an eye on the progress. Watch your time tracking software for projects closely to see that everything is going smoothly, nobody is overburdened and no other projects are suffering. Don’t forget to prioritize and don’t be afraid to pull the plug on an initiative that isn’t working.

Conclusion

Being proactive is a sought-after quality in employees because great ideas and readiness to take initiative can benefit the whole company. But every change requires careful planning. This is where employee time tracker app steps in. After all, time management and organization can be what separates forced exhausting time-wasting failures from great industry-changing innovation.

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