Digital workplace is a cloud-based platform encompassing all the digital tools that enable workforces to interact, collaborate, and process the workflow efficiently using agile ecosystems. One can even say it’s a virtual version of the traditional in-person workplace model where people meet, ideate, and process as per the set agenda to deliver products and services in the industry.
Importance of digital workplace
Digital workplace solutions are changing the landscape of workplace solutions and bringing offices and workforces closer, irrespective of geographical locations or timezone barriers. The smart prompts of a touchpoint-like employee messaging system will let a team member know the timezone of a global collaborator. In this manner, there is better coordination between people located in offices across different regions or countries not sharing the same time zones.
An all-hands-meet of global heads of various departments operating from regional offices of different countries is no longer a travel-oriented time-consuming affair. It can be facilitated through virtual meeting rooms while integrating several devices, software, and hardware.
An efficient digital workplace- The need of any business
A digital workplace consists of all the essential gear required by teams to deliver their work in time without mistakes. Every entity sets a service level agreement (SLA) that needs to be adhered to ensure that both the enabler and customer are on the same page in terms of standards and experience. Customer experience is important not just for the first time but for every business interaction. It not just builds goodwill and brand equity but also acts like a self-advertising mechanism to boost growth and sales.
In a workplace, if tools are outdated, cumbersome, inefficient, or create backlogs, it will affect the SLA. Sub-standard delivery of services will damage the reputation and take extra time and effort to rebuild the brand image. Therefore digital workplaces should aim at agile solutions that can integrate the tools, data, and workforces to deliver first-time resolutions to avoid repetitive processes. This does not necessarily mean that the digital ecosystem has to be an expensive one.
It is observed that lack of proper training and compromising on the right talent in the hiring process leads to a lack of optimum utilization of existing resources like CRM by all the members of the team. Identifying such lags will increase the potential of a digital workplace to enhance the agility, flexibility, and productivity of an entity at all levels.
Three pillars of the digital workplace framework
- Technology
A digital workplace technology entails simple applications like email to complex enterprise solutions that integrate the latest AI and machine learning tools to automate workflow processes for repetitive work that is essential but time-consuming. It also entails HR software, social media tools, virtual meeting rooms, and every other touchpoint used by an employee of an organization to execute their work in an orderly and timely manner.
With extensive use of remote and hybrid workplaces, team members often get siloed, and predicting unplanned impacts inadvertently becomes difficult because of the stop gaps in perception and communication.
Keeping in view the changing dynamics of work culture, businesses must create an intelligent, scalable, and adaptable digital workplace that empowers workforces to collaborate, increase their productivity and achieve business goals while fostering a healthy workplace ecosystem. To comprehend the ideal experience the technology should be precise in reading the insights that are limited to the generic powers of the employee. The right kind of technology will help leaders nurture their workforce talent to perform diligently and outdo themselves.
- Data
Big data is useless if not applied for the right reasons. Using data analytics to increase the customer and employee experience will generate sales and retain a happy workforce for an organization. These two parameters are paramount for the growth of any entity.
- People
Digital workplaces create the framework for an excellent employee experience platform that focuses on de-stressing employees from repetitive routine jobs through automation of the process with AI and ML tools. With time at hand, employees can elevate their roles and concentrate on areas like customer engagement to create an unrivaled presence for the business among competitors.
How to build a digital workplace?
A digital workplace comprises all the solutions that employees use to deliver their work efficiently. Every business has to create a digital ecosystem that suits its organizational structure. Depending on their team sizes, location, workplace model requirements like remote or agile, their growth, and focussed goals, a digital workplace platform can be created based on these two parameters
- Relevance
The relevance of a digital workplace solution addresses its usefulness. Identifying the gaps that employees are facing in using the tools efficiently will determine the relevance of the existing digital tools and will let us know if a technology that was meant to ease the operations is complicating or smoothening matters.
When digital workplaces are designed to address the usefulness of their applications, resources are tuned to give the workforce everything they need and nothing they don’t. Irrespective of their location, team size, and the number of collaborators, teams should be able to efficiently use the digital tools. For instance, an organization mandated employees to sign into a digital register for their login times. This step was practically useless as many touch points will capture the effective login times for workforces. A digital register is practically redundant and should be done away with.
- Connection
A digital workplace should help in enhancing the employee experience by engaging them and making them feel valued in a team. This is possible only when talent is nurtured through the efficacy of leadership. The right leader will aim to ease the workflow for team members to bolster output and will value the role of each member. This act of easing the workflow is possible through the selection of the right digital tools that are backtested and will integrate with existing systems. The right training to handle the tools is imperative so that people are not facing tech titans without comprehending their abilities.
Summing it up
Digital workplaces with efficient tools should perceive the organizational goals and teams’ core requirements to help businesses tide seamlessly into a trending hybrid workplace ecosystem.
