As teams return from summer leave and working routines regain momentum, September brings a natural opportunity to refocus.
Priorities come back into view, projects pick up pace, and attention turns to what needs to be achieved in the months ahead. But before asking teams to do more, there is another question worth considering:
“How easy are we making it for people to get their work done”
Technology plays an important role in the answer, not simply by giving people more tools, but by removing unnecessary effort from everyday work.
That could mean automating repetitive tasks, making information easier to access, improving collaboration, connecting systems or simplifying processes that have become more complicated over time.
The starting point is not deciding what technology to add. It is understanding how people work today and where time, effort or opportunity is being lost.
More technology does not automatically mean better productivity
Most organisations already have a significant workplace technology estate. Microsoft 365, cloud platforms, business applications, meeting-room technology, devices, document solutions and automation may all form part of the working environment.
The challenge is not simply having the right tools. It is making sure they support a coherent working experience.
CIPD’s Flexible and hybrid working practices in 2025 found that 41% of employers believed increased home or hybrid working had increased organisational productivity or efficiency, compared with 16% who reported a decrease. Among organisations planning further measures or investments to support home or hybrid working, 45% identified greater investment in technology quality.
The important point is not that one working location is inherently more productive than another. It is that the quality of the working environment matters. Technology needs to support the way people communicate, collaborate, access information and complete everyday tasks.
When it does, people can concentrate on the work they are there to do. When it does not, small inefficiencies can accumulate across teams and working days.
Start with the working day
Before deciding which technology to add, consider what happens during a typical workday. Five areas provide a useful starting point:
- People: Can employees use the technology around them confidently and consistently?
- Processes: Where are repetitive tasks, manual steps or unnecessary approvals consuming time?
- Information: Can teams find, access and share what they need without delay?
- Collaboration: Can colleagues work together easily across offices, meeting rooms and remote locations?
- Technology: Are systems, applications and devices working together effectively?
Looking at these areas together can reveal issues that are difficult to see when individual technologies are reviewed in isolation.
Small improvements can make a measurable difference
One Pinnacle customer provides a good example.
A multi-site optical group found that its document workflow repeatedly took clinicians away from patients as they moved between devices to retrieve prescriptions, reports, and other paperwork.
Pinnacle reviewed how clinicians actually worked and redesigned the process around them, consolidating devices and introducing secure follow-me printing, one-touch release and integration with the organisation’s optical software.
The result was a saving of up to 10 minutes per patient interaction, equivalent to approximately three hours per day per site.
The lesson extends beyond print. Productivity improvement does not always require large-scale transformation. Sometimes the opportunity sits in an everyday process that has become accepted as the way things are done.
Pinnacle’s wider customer case studies show how organisations have approached different workplace challenges, including document workflows, cloud infrastructure, collaboration and automation.
Understand the need before adding more
Once an issue has been identified, the next step should be to understand its cause before deciding on the appropriate technology response.
Existing technology may already be capable of more. A process might need to be simplified or automated. Systems may need connecting. Employees may need a more consistent user experience. Infrastructure may have become unnecessarily complex over time.
Employees do not experience Microsoft 365, IT, cloud, AV, print, automation and business applications as separate technology categories. They experience the task they are trying to complete.
The objective should therefore be to make that experience as straightforward as possible.
Understand the need first. Optimise what you have, where it makes sense, and invest where it creates a clear business outcome.
Make technology work around your people
A more productive workplace is not about asking people to work faster. It is about removing unnecessary effort from the way work gets done.
That can mean making collaboration more straightforward, automating repetitive tasks, improving access to information, connecting previously separate systems or simplifying the technology employees use every day.
The right answer will be different for every organisation. The starting point should be the same:
Understand how people work. Identify what gets in the way. Then decide where technology can make a practical difference.
Take a closer look at your workplace
If this raises questions about where time or effort is being lost in your own organisation, our guide, The Productive Workplace, provides a practical next step.
The guide brings together real customer examples and practical questions to help identify where workplace technology and processes could work better for your people.