This is a guest blog post from Ray Wolf, CEO, A2K Partners.

The technology we’ve given our employees to help make them more productive is doing just the opposite, compounding stress, lowering engagement and productivity, and overwhelming our workforce. The evidence is clear: employees have only about 1.2 hours of uninterrupted time a day to focus on value-creating work.

Let’s consider Slack. In 2018, article after article touted its productivity benefits and how it would improve our work lives. Fast forward to today. Recent news headlines talk about how Slack and many other business apps can overwhelm, distract, and cause struggles for users.

But communications tools like Slack have become essential in the modern workplace. So, how can we use them effectively and avoid massive communication overload and productivity losses?

Understand, Support the Ways Employees Want to Work

Slack is just one example of the multitude of apps that can “help” you get your job done and be more productive. The reality is that, despite their potential, they become one more screen to flip back and forth from in an ever-expanding list of apps you must interact with every day — ticketing systems, CRM, content management, HR, portals, email, text, notifications, and more.

Even with most modern apps and UX at our fingertips (and the touted innovative and automated collaboration and productivity benefits that come with them), the sprawl of logins, communication, and data becomes greater every day and spans across all our devices. Workers spend the equivalent of a full workday each week searching systems and hunting down information, and they face a growing mountain of manual, repetitive tasks. Low-value work drains their time and energy, pulling them away from priorities and activities that drive growth and value.

The issue is no longer about having access to the “right” technology. It’s about understanding how employees want to or should use technology to maximize their time and focus on the most important work. Get that right and you could easily double your number of truly productive hours each day.

Countless studies have shown that a 1 percent increase in employee engagement can deliver up to an equal amount of growth in sales. That can mean tens of millions of dollars in operating income for mid-to-large-size companies and can be the winning differentiator for smaller companies. This type of revenue boost also demonstrates that your employees are your most valuable assets and your competitive advantage. Investing in transformational initiatives, software, and tools will boost employee engagement and can deliver a tremendous ROI, if done right.

Who wouldn’t want to scale their workforce and business like this?

The pressures and challenges of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic have suddenly made the future now for many companies. Employees expect, demand, and need better experiences to deliver value. Companies must be proactive, not reactive, and enable and empower employees to help them unleash their full potential. The work that distracts, frustrates, and overwhelms employees must be rethought and supported in smarter ways that sustain and build momentum, competitive advantages, and profitability.

Citrix Workspace and the Future of Work

Citrix Workspace was created to enable the future of work. It is the solution for future-proofing employee experience and engagement, and it helps companies and employees quickly pivot, so they can refocus and make the massive shift they need right now to thrive today and in the future.

Citrix Workspace unifies all your work tools into a single digital space that supports a better employee experience and greater productivity. Everything you need is delivered to you in a modern, personalized, consumer-like experience — just like the apps we use outside work. Access all your systems, apps, desktops, and files on any device, from any location, securely. Information, notifications and actions are delivered to you in an automated and guided way through a personalized, social media-like feed and experience.

The microapps in Citrix Workspace reinvent the way you use your work tools and make everything profoundly easier. They create the space to think clearly and free up time and energy so you can focus on the work that matters most. Microapps allow you to automate work within an app, across multiple apps, and even support manual work outside of apps. It helps you to eliminate the digital noise, distractions, and frustration that overwhelm your day so you can be more productive and engaged.

Regain Focus, Control with A2K Partners’ Slack Microapp

A Citrix Solution Advisor, a Citrix Service Provider, and a Citrix Ready partner, A2K Partners has developed a Slack microapp integration for Citrix Workspace. Now you can immediately cut out the noise from all the channels, notifications, pings, and messages. The microapp gives you the freedom to regain control and focus. It enables you to filter and use only what’s pertinent to you and automate the most common tasks with the push of a button to create a more peaceful and productive life in Slack.

The need to replace distraction with action and become more productive has never been greater. The way we use apps like Slack must evolve. No matter if it’s a business process, multiple apps, reports, approvals, notifications, email, or collaboration tools, Citrix Workspace delivers a productivity-multiplying and time-freeing solution that can be deployed in a matter of days. There is no better time than the present to make your transition to the future of work and thrive in the new normal.

A2K Partners’ Slack microapp is available today, and you can learn more on our Citrix Ready Marketplace product page. For more information about A2K Partners and how we can make your work life more positive, productive, and filled with purpose through Citrix Workspace and microapps, visit our website at https://a2kpartners.com/.