The amount of time that is spent on projects could be drastically decreased by using digital tools to improve efficiency and productivity within your workforce. Manual labor hours that are spent making the paper form and keeping them in storage are not efficient and take a lot of time.
Concentrating on routine tasks like data entry could cause your staff to become exhausted and stressed. Whatever the number of employees in your company, improving inefficient processes with data collection can save you both time and money.
Here are the benefits of digital forms:
- Reducing costs and saving time;
- Extra capabilities;
- Accurate real-time data;
- Remote access;
- Sustainability for the environment.
Digital forms can improve processes in your company and quickly gain insights into the performance of your employees. The switch to paperless means enhanced communication between departments as well as substantial improvements in productivity.
Businesses are constantly seeking ways to improve their efficiency and boost it within teams. One method you might not have encountered until now is the use of online forms. They are easy to utilize and simplify many different business objectives: communication, data entry, and file sharing, to name a few.
What are Digital Forms?
Digital forms are the digital versions of paper used to collect information. It simplifies gathering data in the field by enabling field personnel to capture data quickly and accurately with their tablets or smartphones. With the help of a QR Code maker, these digital forms can be easily accessed and filled out by scanning a unique QR code assigned to each form.
As a secure and quick method of collecting data, digital forms remove paperwork in the field and reduce the need for manual entry by pre-populating the data. In turn, transforming a smartphone into an efficient instrument for collecting data in digital forms permits field workers to collect data using easy actions like marking checklists.
Digital forms, which are workflow-driven, can be customized to suit the tasks using checklists, questionnaires, and conditional logic. In addition, they give field personnel the ability to add annotations to photos on the site of work to provide evidence of their work or draw attention to a particular issue.
Digital forms are available in two varieties - Standard and Styled forms:
- Styled Forms: If you are using your own paper forms to perform services, maintenance, inspections, audits, etc., you can get them digitized and company-branded;
- Standard Forms: You construct your own questionnaire forms using various types of questions provided (multiple-choice, radio button, drop-down, text box, etc.) that cover necessary operations and guidelines applicable across a wide range of industries.
Why Use a Digital Form?
The rapid acceptance of mobile devices with smart features has been driven by technology advancements. But despite being in the modern age, we still use traditional forms of paper in our work. The transition from digital and paper ones could be the factor that can propel a company forward by inscribing mobile devices and applications into the corporate landscape. Digital forms assist in reducing the amount of paper used and cut down on the cost of storage and printing. They can be completed faster through programming that permits the quick recording of a broad range of data.
Feedback forms can be used both within the team and for customer service. For example, Shopify development company can build order or custom registration forms for your online store to facilitate interaction with users, taking advantage of the platform’s headless commerce capabilities.
You can also explore services for introducing forms within your company.
Working with forms may not be suitable for high-risk businesses, such as those dealing with healthcare data. For such companies, it is vital to consider a global solution such as FHIR Server - a server for healthcare data or similar ones. This way, you can boost team performance, provide an excellent user experience, and secure your customers' data collection and storage.
Examples of Digital Forms
Many companies change their processes by deploying digital forms. By formalizing marketing requests into forms with required fields, the Brazilian retail chain Magazine Luiza lessened the typical lack of information that led to reworking. The team reduced insufficient briefings from 47% to 31% when they switched to digital forms, making and supporting more than 3 thousand marketing assets per month.
Samsonite, a worldwide leader in excellent travel bags, luggage, and accessories, is another successful example of digital form execution. Samsonite Brazil began using Pipefy’s digital forms to manage purchase proposals and saved over 2,370 paid employee hours in just five months, reducing the time wasted managing emails and files manually.
Top 10 Ways to Use Digital Forms to Increase Your Team's Productivity
- Save Time with Templates;
- Integrate Everything;
- Schedule Meetings;
- Analyze Data in One Place;
- Survey at scale;
- Receive Notifications On-the-Go;
- Say Goodbye to paper;
- Speed Up Data Entry Approval;
- Grab Electronics Signatures;
- Send Fewer Emails.
1.Save Time with Templates
There is no need to spend long hours creating and designing custom forms. You can build one in moments using drag-and-drop functions and templates already designed through online form builders. It is possible to spice things up by making changes if you wish to, but usually, you don't need code to create a neat and functional form. In this matter, these forms will be a great solution for a digital marketing agency that is trying to save time and money.
2.Integrate Everything
The most effective online form options integrate with web-based tools like MailChimp, PayPal, and others to improve your workflow. Benefit from everything these integrations provide, and you'll become the most efficient person in the office.
3.Schedule Meetings
Are you fed up with scheduling meetings using an email chain? There are a lot of types of forms that work into calendar extensions and applications like Google Calendar, iCalendar, and Outlook, which means you can:
- Organize meetings;
- Communicate your availability;
- Add participants to events directly in your form.
It's time to get your form efficient!
4.Analyze Data in One Place
When you use online forms, you don't have to spend the entire day (or several days) filling and chugging response information into a spreadsheet. Many forms platforms provide robust data-crunching analytics that allows you to track and measure your form's performance each time you log in.
5.Survey at Scale
Instead of sending emails or interviewing your team members individually, it is possible to save time by mailing out an online form. For instance, HR departments can use online forms to complete PTO requests, employee satisfaction surveys, and even job applications.
6.Receive Notifications On-the-Go
If someone fills in an online form, you can modify your settings to send notifications straight from your phone or via email, instead of logging into the form platform to monitor responses in real-time.
7.Say Goodbye to Paper
Are you still using paper handouts for your performance review, a survey of employees, or even contracts? It's time to eliminate paper completely. Utilize online forms to simplify your workflow and help save trees on the way.
8.Speed Up Data Entry and Approval
Instead of sharing the most recent spreadsheet version via email, online forms gather information automatically. You can then give the information to all team members who require it and then export the data in Excel or Word. You can also create specific approvers for forms that will speed up the approval process for submissions.
9.Grab Electronic Signatures
Instead of printing documents and signing them manually before scanning the documents to your system to sign an agreement or contract, you can add the option of electronic signatures to the form. This will save your employees and you tons of time and paper.
10.Send Fewer Emails
A study indicates that email can take about 30% of the time of a worker's day. Reduce the time you spend in email with forms that can assist you in communicating. How often do you forget to add an attachment to an email? Utilizing a form to submit an idea, project, etc., you can keep all the information you require in one place, making it easy to transfer information effortlessly.
We hope this article enlightened you about the various purposes forms can be put to. Use these ten productivity hacks to help your team accomplish work more efficiently and with less effort.
Conclusion
There is power in setting goals, and standard digital form features are a simple way to stay immersed and productive. Record objectives and place reminders to keep them top of mind. Daily, weekly, and monthly reminders often force you to rethink the bigger picture. This proved to be the most manageable way to stay on track with goals, resulting in greater achievement and future success.
Also, team productivity is like baking a cake, where the necessary elements (digital forms) must be collected and put together—ensuring that your team is most productive results from a well-mixed batter of diverse elements.
There isn't one way to enable your team members to become more productive. Instead, you can build the foundation for an efficient workplace with just a few regular actions. You'll notice a significant increase in the efficiency meter when giving your employees constant assistance, feedback, and encouragement.
About the author:
Dmytro Sokhach is an entrepreneur and a 6-Figure Flipper Club member. Founded Admix Global (web agency) that builds websites, makes them profitable, and sells them as a business.
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