Being an inclusive company simply means not discriminating against a customer, vendor, employee or potential hire based on their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion or nationality. More so, it means that you support all your employees in whichever way they live their lives, and make sure your entire team does as well. When companies aren’t inclusive, it shows, and can easily be weaponized against them.
Do you know the cost of intolerance? It’s a high price.
Sign 1: Your employees begin taking more work calls on their personal cell phones
When company phones can’t be used on a regular basis because of poor connectivity, it makes the employee–and the company–look bad. Dropped calls, constant static and busy signals can all make customers frustrated, an emotion they don’t tolerate for long. Before you know it, dedicated customers are looking at other vendors who are more easily reached.
Traditional phone systems also have a cap on the maximum amount of lines they can service, so if your business is growing, you may need to think about upgrading to a Voice over IP (VoIP) system that allows for a much larger call capacity.
Sign 2: Opening up a browser takes several minutes
It’s an all too familiar situation: you click on your browser and stare at a blank screen for what seems like an eternity. Several minutes go by and you get more and more frustrated with how slowly your internet is loading. (Insert string of computer-related insults here.)
With business growth comes an increase in employees, which means more people using the internet on a single connection. This slows down the connection speed of every employee trying to get online, making you all grunt and roll your eyes. Having several applications open and sites open with ads running in the background will make the internet slow. Productivity comes to a grinding halt when the internet does.
Sign 3: You’re losing sales
If the internet is slow and calls are being dropped frequently, employees are unable to adequately meet the customers needs, which can turn hot leads into cold ones quickly. In this digital age, customers expect a quick and easy experience when they are engaging with your company. If they are met with difficulties, they’ll immediately write you off as outdated.
Not only that, but if you are a business to business operation and your customer isn’t able to work and interact with you easily because of outdated technology, they are likely to move on. Using outdated technology to run a B2B will make you look antiquated and turn off potential customers.
Sign 4: Working remotely isn’t an easy option
The Millennial workforce is coming on strong when it comes to working remotely, and as more and more companies jump on the bandwagon, the opportunity needs to be an option.
But if your company isn’t working from the cloud and asking employees (gasp!) to remotely log into the server, you’ll likely not maintain a high-quality staff. Expectations are high in terms of easy-to-use, fast technology, and when your company doesn’t have it, you’ll be judged quickly–and poorly.
Sign 5: Team morale is clearly taking a downward turn
Do you often hear the phrase, “I thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier!”?
When your employees are working hard on projects that are constantly stalled by outdated tech, their emotions will run high, as will errors and missteps. Sure, frustrations in the workplace are to be expected, but you don’t want it to be over something you can fix, but haven’t. When employees are forced to work well with outdated technology, it sends a signal about much you do–or don’t–value their efforts, time and talent.
If you’re reading this and are nodding your head in agreement, give 10X Consulting Group a call. We can take the headache out of the workday by helping you upgrade your systems, making for a happier, well-run organization.