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Labor productivity, or real GDP per worker, is conventionally used to measure the material well-being of the average citizen in different countries, because output growth alone may be insufficient to raise the living standards of an expanding population. Labor productivity also correlates well with other welfare indicators, such as life expectancy and years of schooling. How technology is changing manufacturing. Estimates for labor cost savings in various countries through automation and robotics now are averaging around 16 percent in industrialized nations. But places such as South Korea have seen 33 percent cost savings, and Japan has seen a 25 percent savings.
- 1 Improve Business Communication Through Text Messages
- 2 The Best Ways to Use Google Calendar With a Small Business
- 3 Face-to-Face Communication and Technology
- 4 The Impact of Technological Change on Business Activity
Technological advances enable small businesses to work more efficiently in a number of different ways. Whether that means collaborating with remote colleagues using video-conferencing software or texting customers to request a Google review, technology allows businesses to more effectively reach their goals.
Collaborating with Teams
Team collaboration software and apps have changed the way many businesses operate. Companies no longer need to save multiple versions of documents and spreadsheets, and email them to each other in order to get feedback from their colleagues. With online authoring tools such as Google Docs, businesses can enable multiple team members to work on and review documents simultaneously, saving time.
Teams can collaborate using messaging solutions such as Slack, which allows businesses to separate conversations into channels for easier organization and reference. Project management solutions such as Basecamp and Teamwork let companies effectively organize their projects, assign tasks, track progress and maintain schedules.
Meeting Customer Needs
Customer service is paramount for both big and small businesses today, and the customer experience often begins when a prospect reaches a company website. Web chat software can help small businesses reach out to prospects in an automated but personal way. When businesses are able to offer help and answer questions through a chat solution, prospects may be able to make the purchasing decision sooner.
Many organizations use the power of social proof to captivate their audience by asking customers to post reviews online. This process can be automated through review-request software, which can be set up to automatically email or text customers, asking them to post a Google review of their experience. This gives prospects the ability to see what other customers think of the business, and enables the business to acquire new customers by building trust online.
Targeting Audience Segments Effectively
Businesses can use online search engines such as Google and social media channels such as Facebook to target various segments of their audience with highly tailored ads and content. For example, Google enables businesses to target by demographic and keywords, plus a number of other measures. Remarketing to users who have previously visited the business website and users who are searching for similar products is also possible.
This kind of targeting allows businesses to offer valuable information to their audience segments. Unlike TV advertising that reaches a large audience with a general message, online display and search advertising lets organizations cater specifically to what their audience is looking for.
Improving Work-Life Balance
While technology can cause employees to be overworked, it also enables many people to maintain a work-life balance. Improved network connectivity allows employees to work from home. Many organizations have full or partial remote offices, while others have policies where their teams can work remotely in cases of bad weather or outside appointments. This saves many employees from spending time commuting.
As most businesses are now paperless, employees are also able to work flexible hours outside of the office in cases where there is a work-life conflict. Collaboration, project-management software and video-conferencing tools ensure that colleagues can stay connected even when they are not physically in the same space.
Doing Business Online
For many small businesses, technology has opened up a new market online. While many companies still serve customers in person, many organizations have online stores. E-commerce allows small businesses to reach wider audiences that are outside of their geographical area, which can be particularly useful for small niche offerings.
Conducting business online isn’t limited to making sales. Technology enables businesses to give prospects the option to book business consultations and service appointments through calendar tools integrated with their websites. This gives website visitors the flexibility to book on their own schedule, rather than having to make a phone call during business hours.
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About the Author
Anam Ahmed is a Toronto-based writer and editor with over a decade of experience helping small businesses and entrepreneurs reach new heights. She has experience ghostwriting and editing business books, especially those in the 'For Dummies' series, in addition to writing and editing web content for the brand. Anam works as a marketing strategist and copywriter, collaborating with everyone from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, lifestyle bloggers to professional athletes. As a small business owner herself, she is well-versed in what it takes to run and market a small business. Anam earned an M.A. from the University of Toronto and a B.A.H. from Queen's University. Learn more at www.anamahmed.ca.
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By Mary Donovan, CLC Contributing Writer
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From mobile phones to big data analytics, technology can help in the fight against human trafficking. Access to a phone can enable a victim to call friends, family, or a hotline for help. Data trends enable us to study the patterns of trafficking and to know where to combat it. On the other hand, technology is definitely part of the problem of trafficking, as traffickers are quickly incorporating technology trends and social media in their recruitment of victims. This is why it is crucial to use technology as part of the solution.
While each incident of human trafficking differs in specifics, all have three clear steps, the acquisition step, the transportation step, and the final step of forced labor. Technology can help in each phase.
With access to technology, human trafficking can be avoided in the first place. Technology could directly connect a worker with a safe job, eliminating the need for a middleman, who may exploit the worker. Think of the impact of AirBnB and Uber on the hotel and taxi industries. What if workers could locate honest labor recruiters directly with technology? The supply side of human trafficking would diminish.
The Centro de los Derechos de Migrants launched a website, contratados.com, which allows temporary Mexican workers to share their experiences working in the United States. The website also accepts reviews by text message and telephone. Workers can warn other workers, so labor abuses are not perpetuated and new migrant workers do not unknowingly put themselves in positions to be trafficked.
Technology can be used to increase transparency and to disrupt the market of trafficking through uncovering traffickers’ attempts to transport victims. Forensic evidence, photographs, and identification of trafficking routes can help detect traffickers.
For example, DigitalGlobe, a company that provides high-resolution images of the earth, is able to spot slave ships in the seas. Using powerful satellites, seas that have long remained lawless can now be policed. DigitalGlobe also investigates brick kilns in India and fisheries on Lake Volta in Ghana, two major industries where child labor exists.
In this digital age, there is a record of anything that happens online. The rise of mobile money makes transactions and payments easier to track. Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency that allows users to transact money directly. It is completely transparent, with records of all exchanges, allowing investigation of suspicious payments. Financial data is important, because it is often where investigators discover the first signs of trafficking.
In the last phase of trafficking, forced labor, technology can lead to a way out. A new report from the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, Technology and Labor Trafficking in a Network Society, addressed the role of technology as a strategy for escape. The report describes the story of a woman from the Philippines who was stranded in Malaysia and deceived by traffickers. She was thrown in prison and interrogated, but the Philippine government was able to intervene and help her because she had hidden a phone in her jail cell.
Unfortunately many migrant workers do not have access to technology, and are both geographically and technologically isolated. We need to trace the crime in these situations. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is using Memex, a kind of technology that sees into the hidden corners of the Internet, to fight both sex and labor trafficking. Memex scans job advertisements on the ‘dark web’ that cannot be found or linked together with normal search engines.
Another way to fight trafficking is to increase quantitative data and analysis. Human trafficking thrives in environments without data. Complex supply chains allow forced labor to remain hidden. If we increase data collection and analysis, causes and trends can be examined so support can be mobilized and action can be taken. With increased investigation, data collection, and sharing of that data, we can know about the specifics in which this transnational crime operates. Quantifying data also signifies the importance of a problem. In other words, what can be counted, counts. Numbers can raise awareness and call attention to a hidden crime.
Another way technology can reduce trafficking is to raise consumer awareness. The ability to trace goods allows consumers to know if the products they buy are made with forced labor, and let businesses know if there is anything suspicious in their supply chains.
The US Department of Labor released an app called “Sweat and Toil,” which shares information about child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking around the world. It allows users to browse countries and products for forced labor, review laws and regulations in these countries, and find out what governments can do to reduce this worldwide problem. There are a number of apps such as GoodGuide allowing conscious consumers to be aware of the environmental and social impacts of their purchases. GoodGuide ranks a wide range of products and gives them health, environmental, and social scores. Red Light Traffic is an app that allows people to anonymously report suspected cases of human trafficking. It also informs people of the “red flags” of human trafficking, so it can be identified and reported.
Partnership for Freedom issued a three-part competitive technology challenge on innovative solutions to end human trafficking. Rethink Supply Chains is the second part.
The submission deadline for the Rethink Supply Chains challenge has passed, but stay tuned as finalists will be announced this month. Submissions focused on the areas of communication, improving transparency of the labor process, and creating tools to map and share information about labor conditions in supply chains. This challenge will hopefully add wonderful new initiatives to the few already mentioned above.
Modern technology can amaze us everyday, with rapid innovation and the creation of things we never imagined could be possible. Like all tools, technology can be and is used for both doing bad and doing good. Using the power of technology in the fight against human trafficking will bring new, exciting, and unprecedented results.