It’s something that should really go without saying: if a tool isn’t usable, then people won’t use it. Yet time and again, we hear stories of cumbersome, frustrating, or downright confusing business software. Time and again, we see usability take a backseat to cybersecurity, when it’s not ignored altogether.

This is a problem for a multitude of reasons.

Your Employees Demand Functionality – And Are Willing To Seek It Elsewhere

Between smartphones, consumer applications, and the Internet of Things, today’s workers have grown accustomed to a seamless and intuitive user experience. If software is too difficult to use, this at best means diminished productivity. At worst, it means a landscape of unapproved, insecure applications.

As reported by ZDNet, millennials are twice as likely to use unapproved collaboration apps in the workplace. Since they are currently the largest generation in the workforce, a huge chunk of your organization could end up using software into which you have neither visibility nor control. And given how many consumer apps leak data like a sieve or have glaring security bugs…you get the idea.

It’s a risk you can’t afford to take, especially if you’re a startup or work in a regulated market. The reputational damage of a security incident alone could be enough to kill any momentum you’ve built up. The associated costs, meanwhile – lawsuits, regulatory fines, lost intellectual property, replacing bricked equipment, to name just a few – could potentially wipe you out altogether.

Remote Work Makes Usability A Necessity

In forcing organizations to adjust to a distributed workforce, COVID-19 also drove home just how valuable it can be from a business perspective. Even once the novel coronavirus is a thing of the past, distributed work is here to stay. The software your organization uses is more important than ever, as it will be the only connection many employees have to their career and colleagues.

If that software is unintuitive, that translates to reduced productivity, which translates to a competitive disadvantage.

And to touch once more on the security angle, much has already been written about the risks a distributed workforce can pose to the unprepared. In the absence of the right business software, you potentially open yourself up to a laundry list of issues. For instance:

• How will you separate work and personal data, especially in regions where this is required by law?
• If you don’t know where your business’s data assets are located, how can you ensure they’re protected? How can you effectively back them up?
• What measures are there to protect your business from a compromised personal device?
• If your employees are discussing sensitive information over insecure third-party software, how do you know someone isn’t listening in?

If Your People Aren’t Happy, Your Business Suffers (And So Do They)

In its 2019 State of Software Happiness Report, G2 determined that more than half of all employees are dissatisfied or unhappy because of the software they’re using. At least a quarter said they’ve even considered quitting their job because of software issues. Another 62% indicated that they feel software is preventing them from reaching their full potential.

According to research published by Oxford University, happy workers are approximately 13% more productive. Conversely, if someone is unhappy with their job, they aren’t just less productive, but less engaged. They have a greater tendency to miss work, tend to do the bare minimum to scrape by, and then quit the moment the chance presents itself.

Productivity and revenue aren’t the only reason engagement matters, either. According to a study published on ResearchGate, someone who’s happy and fulfilled at work is less likely to suffer from health problems like burnout. And that research was carried out when there wasn’t a global pandemic hanging over our heads.

If low engagement can contribute to mental health issues in ordinary circumstances, what might it do in our current situation?

Keep Your Collaboration User-Friendly With Unio

Decision-makers operating on the assumption that user friendliness and security are inversely related. Organizations foisting cumbersome software on their users and creating a disparate patchwork of unmonitored, unmanaged, and unapproved third-party applications. These both happen far too often in the business world.

Unio can help with both problems.

A powerful Unified-Communication-as-a-Service application, it strikes the perfect balance between privacy, security, and usability. On the one hand, all data on the platform is protected by multi-layer encryption, and messages and files do not touch Unio’s servers. And on the other, it packs voice and video chat, instant messaging, file sharing, and an integrated newsfeed into a simple, streamlined interface.

In short, it’s the perfect tool to help you bring your people together whether they’re working from home, on the road, or in the office.