In the current financial climate, your company probably has fewer employees, but the same amount of work (or more) to accomplish. Factor in the early March Labor Department announcement that worker productivity is down and you have a potential mess on your hands.

Everywhere you turn, people are talking about worker productivity. Do more with less, maximize returns, utilize resources, leverage assets. Great buzzwords, sure, but how can you actually accomplish this?

According to CIO.com and other IT management publications, there are a few key approaches. The productivity-sparking ingredient common to almost every method is empowerment. Specifically, giving your workers the support and training they need to get their job(s) done. (In the spirit of full disclosure, yes, I work here, but I really believe in this company’s mission.)

Take, for example, a recent call that came in, from a woman who was new to her position, whose manager wanted her to create PowerPoint presentations her first week on the job.

She didn’t know placeholders from peanut butter, transitions from teapots.

“She didn’t know placeholders from peanut butter, transitions from teapots.”

A consultant went over her presentation with her – she described how she wanted it to look; the consultant showed her how to make it work. They reviewed slides, nudged text boxes, tried out transitions, and more questions came up.

By call’s end, she had a foundation. With more practice, she’ll get even better. She may ring back a few times, but that’s part of the process. The point is, she learned something new, something that makes her job easier to do, which makes her happier and more productive, which in turn makes you a happier manager.

Satisfied, empowered employees are great, but a tangible return on investment is even better. In the case of the new employee charged with creating PowerPoint presentations, this is what the numbers look like:

If she spent, on average, two and a half hours trying to find and use the PowerPoint features she needed for her presentation, at a rate of $25 per hour, her company would be spending $75 for just her time. Factor in the time a colleague spent helping her out — likely an hour — and that’s another $25. In all, the company spent $100 for one presentation.

Perhaps $100 doesn’t sound like much, but when you assume at least 5 to 10 percent of a company’s end users will run into the same problem at least once per year, it begins to sound like something. Based on a company with 2,500 corporate end users, assuming the 10 percent, these costs would equate to roughly $25,000 annually just for PowerPoint presentations. Something, indeed.

However, using a desktop application support service with trained, specialized techs, the employee can now finish a presentation in an hour or less, without having to pester a colleague or the office IT guru. She also gains a little more knowledge about PowerPoint.

Here’s what it translates to in dollars: For a company with 2,500 end users, of which 10 percent will likely have at least one presentation a year, that amounts to a cost of $6,250 per year (compared to $25,000 without desktop application support). The savings — $18,750 annually – are significant. (Jen Darr)

How is your company innovating during the economic downturn? Tell us in Comments.

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