The model of work will change in the coming years as technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing become applicable across all sectors. With the combination of 5G and IOT, digital transformation¹ will change the way we work.
Companies according to a Gartner poll are developing digital workplaces more than ever as change beckons. Despite this, organizations have not managed to implement successful digital solutions that add value to employees and their operations.
Digital workplace initiatives typically require considerable change to internal processes, skills, culture and behaviors. Management must assess the new skills and competencies required for the digital workplace.
Challenges exist and in this article, I will explore best practices CEOs and the C-Suite can implement to achieve a successful digital workplace transformation.
The Enterprise Digital Workplace Model
Adigital workplace strategy is a business strategy aimed at boosting employee engagement and agility through consumerization of the work environment. This helps individuals and teams work more productively without compromising operations.
The C-Suite must establish a roadmap for coordinating digital workplace² initiatives across R&D, marketing, HR and IT. How can organizations create workspaces that increase employee creativity and enable ad hoc and opportunities for collaboration? Executives must do their homework, as this requires a clear understanding of how people work and what improvements are envisioned.
Agile Tools and Frameworks
Agile tools and development are a core component for a successful #digitalworkplace. An agile approach creates an environment that makes it easier for employees to do their jobs. Digital workplace provides the foundation to achieve these goals for individuals and teams. At the same time, individuals and teams need to make these specific changes to how they operate.
Understanding different agile methods and tools³ can make individuals and teams adapt to their specific needs and more. Also, this will increase flexibility and adaptability for individuals and teams in their respective competitive and complex industries.
Teams for the Digital Workplace
For hiring teams in the new digital workplace, individuals must be confident, competitive and most of all, competent. Competent means having the ability, knowledge or skill to do something successfully. When companies are looking to hire new prospective employees, especially in a new digital workplace strategy, hiring managers tend to look towards those who have the knowledge and skill within technology.
Human resource must identify the candidates with the right digital skills for each position and help them develop those skills accordingly. Talent acquisition in a new strategy, especially in a digital workplace strategy, must rely on the company leaders to help. This assures HR that the candidate hired will have the appropriate digital qualifications⁴ as these skills will be used for present and future human capital needs.
Just like having the right personnel for #artificialintelligence⁵, having the right employees for a digital workplace strategy is key. The understanding of such technology can be very challenging in any workplace. However, with the right help and teachings from companies, these employees can become very competent and work as cohesive teams. This will not only make the strategy go into full effect and work, but will also make their respective companies stronger and successful.
Feedback System for the Digital Workplace
Feedback is vital in any global organization, especially within its workforce. The feedback system is important to the organization because the C-Suite understands what their peers are experiencing in the workplace. This generates data on how others think an employee is performing, as well as how that employee views his own work. Accordingly, this generates data towards the digital workplace strategy on how others work efficiently with #technology.
Technology has the understanding to develop work-like relationships for a company to work more efficiently in a viable environment with technology. At the same time, this whole feedback system⁶ is a way for private data to be kept so that the employees within the company can comply with each other.
In our digital age, employees at their respective levels learn to hold video conferences for everything in the areas within their company, whether it be sales prospecting to exit interviews. Employers are still working out how to monitor and assess how this is affecting employee performance and how this will elevate what these workers are doing. Therefore, the #feedbacksystem within the organization is important for a digital workplace strategy.
Collaborative Digital Workplace Model
One of the critical components to generate the success of an organization is collaboration, which entails working with someone to create something. When looking at enterprises, 86% of business leaders believe that collaboration⁷ is critical to the success of their organization. A digital workplace makes it much easier for employees to work, communicate and get more accomplished with each other regardless of their location or device they are using.
Software for collaboration such as Slack⁹ and Discord¹⁰ will gauge user engagement to tracking daily active users as well as tracking employees engaged within their respective collaboration teams. Many technological collaboration software can be used within a digital workplace strategy.
As mentioned earlier, software chat rooms such as Slack and Discord can engage employees and users to stay up to date with the latest news within the company. At the same time, collaboration software and tools can change a whole organization and turn it into a workplace where employees from different departments can work together to achieve goals.
With collaboration, integration can occur within the workplace which makes it easier for a company to successfully come together. A digital workplace is a unified platform that integrates all the core business applications⁸and in turn, enables employees to communicate and collaborate effectively. Technologies in a digital workplace can integrate workflows and set rules, such as technology standards, usage guidelines, information governance and best practices.
Integrating Digital Workplace Solutions
These technologies are integrated into many aspects of life and work, while addressing challenges faced by an organization, #employer and employee. Integration is something that companies strive to look, offering opportunities all the time for different departments to work together.
It makes a company unique with integration so that a company can get more done in a short amount of time. Technology is a huge part of integration as communication can be easy and sharing the content to edit and finalized can be done with a click of a button.
The Future is Digital Workplace Enterprise
Overall, a digital workplace strategy will bring success to a company. Enterprises are more than ever ready to change their strategy to work in a digital world. Agile tools help companies to create content that will not be compared to the competition. Further, this enables competent teams with experience to work together.
As highlighted in this discussion, a feedback system enables an organization to gain insights about how employees work. Collaboration, which is key for any organization comes in because of integrating the workplace so that different departments can work together. A workplace digital strategy is the right move for enterprises and leads to success.
Works Cited
¹Digital Transformation, ²Digital Workplace, ³Agile Methods and Tools, ⁴Digital Qualifications, ⁵Artificial Intelligence, ⁶Feedback System, ⁷Collaboration, ⁸Core Business Applications
Companies Cited