How the digital workplace boosts your productivity

“The future of work is really about people deciding to live and work in the way they want.”

This statement by the CEO of TaskRabbit, Stacey Brown Philpot, sums up very aptly which role work will take on in the coming years.

We live in a world in which countless pieces of information are freely accessible, in which communication happens around half the globe in seconds, and in which there are several solution paths for seemingly every need. Modern technology has given us a new understanding of freedom, flexibility and mobility. It's exactly these values we increasingly seek in working life too.

One way to deliver these conditions to your employees while the organization benefits from maximum productivity and agility at the same time is the digital workplace.

Working world 4.0 and the digital workplace

Modern workplace, digital workplace, workplace of the future – the digital workplace has many names, but basically always describes the same thing. By it we mean a concept that enables employees to handle their daily tasks efficiently in an adequate environment.

That inevitably raises the question: what's new about that? After all, a workplace has always had the purpose of making working as easy as possible. That's as self-evident as the amen in church.

The actual novelty is indeed not the workplace itself. It's in the word digital. This buzzword has met us almost everywhere in recent years. Whether purchases, services or advisory services, more and more processes can be realized virtually. The advancing digital transformation has the economy and public administration firmly in its grip and is far from complete.

But that isn't the only development leading to a profound change in the working world:

• Generation management – With the entry of Generation Z, there are currently five different generations on the labor market at once. Each has its own ideas and needs of a work environment.
• Social and cultural change – Ever faster upheavals trigger in many people the wish for more awareness, sustainability, a sense of purpose and freedom in professional life.
• Globalization – Increasing internationalization continues. More and more companies cooperate with partners worldwide or maintain branches abroad themselves.
• Growing world markets and competition – Thanks to a stable economic and financial order, more and more companies take part in the market, which intensifies competition and the struggle for influence.
• Skills shortage – The effects of demographic change are slowly becoming noticeable. With the increasing age of a large part of the population, more and more young and skilled workers, an important economic factor for companies, are missing.

The sum of all these influences inevitably leads to an important debate: what does the work of the future look like and how do companies manage to do justice to all these challenges?

What is a digital workplace?

The answer to this question is a profound paradigm shift. To satisfy employees and customers lastingly, it's no longer enough to look at work in isolation.

Rather, companies need a kind of balanced ecosystem that unites strategy, management, technical tools, communication, working models and corresponding values.

With digitalization and the introduction of New Work concepts like working from the home office or desk sharing, many smart companies are already trying to transform their business processes accordingly. Those who had begun this switch only hesitantly became aware at the latest through the corona crisis that the change of the working world is unstoppable and already lived reality.

The goal is the same for everyone: to create an innovative work environment that does justice to the demands of a digital society, fulfills the wishes of employees and customers alike, and thus allows organizations to benefit from the best possible results.

One of the biggest cornerstones of this work environment is the digital workplace.

The digital workplace is the modern, virtual further development of the traditional workplace. But even if that's probably your first association, a digital workspace isn't a purely physical place. It's much more an interplay of haptic, technical and digital aids meant to offer employees ideal working conditions.

The most important properties of a digital workplace

A universal platform

Your employees can access any software, communication channels and integrations they need through a single digital access point. All information and accounts are linked, so a smart and dynamic system for collaboration arises. The user interface should be as simple to operate as possible, so it can be used intuitively by employees of different generations.

Location independence

To use the digital workplace, all it takes is an adequate device and an internet connection. Once these things are in place, your employees can work at any time and from any place. That makes working models like home office, remote work, desk sharing and coworking easier.

The digital workplace enables employees to choose a workplace individually.

Innovation

Programs that adapt to recurring processes; applications that can be individually tailored to needs; virtual assistance and other AI technologies that provide support – the digital workplace is easily optimizable and can be seamlessly extended by upcoming IT innovations.

Collaboration

With a digital workspace, your employees get, at the infrastructure level, all the resources they need to handle their tasks. The exchange with colleagues and customers can happen directly and in real time via various channels like email, calls, video conferences and messengers. This flexibility helps employees deploy their potential and knowledge in a targeted and efficient way.

Advantages of the digital workplace

A digital workplace offers diverse advantages.

 

• Greater flexibility and mobility – Modern New Work concepts like remote work or hybrid models of home office and on-site presence can be implemented easily with a digital workplace. That applies both nationally and internationally.
• Higher productivity – Once set up adequately, the workspace offers everything an employee needs to work efficiently, quickly and as well as possible.
• Cost savings – With the digitalization of projects comes an optimization of workflows that saves valuable resources. In addition, models like desk sharing or remote work can be pursued better, which lowers the operating costs for office space.
• Attractiveness for applicants – In the ever-tougher struggle for skilled and young workers, the digital workplace can be an important argument for winning candidates.
• Greater employee satisfaction – The workplace of the future offers employees not only an ideal environment to pursue their tasks with motivation. The freedom gained in shaping their own work environment also helps them feel more comfortable.
• Increased competitiveness – An innovative and pleasant work environment for employees is essential to last as a company in times of fast-paced digitalization.

How is a digital workplace set up?

At this point it should be said that no universally valid one-size-fits-all solution exists. Setting up a digital workspace is a very individual matter that every organization should shape according to its own conditions, needs and competencies.

Besides a fundamentally digital mindset in the company, the probably most important component here is a suitable IT infrastructure that enables your employees to exchange ideas, access data in sync and use necessary integrations. The trend here is strongly toward cloud-based solutions, since these offer the necessary scalability and flexibility while at the same time relieving your in-house IT department.

One option suited, for example, for use as a work platform of a digital workplace is Microsoft 365. It unites the most diverse applications in one user interface, through which you can benefit from various functions and services at the same time. These include data storage and management, communication, collaboration, editing documents and managing company processes.

Besides IT applications that enable collaboration, your employees need modern devices to be able to work with the applications. The usual basic equipment usually includes a notebook with a camera, and a headset. But they can also access their digital workplace via tablets or smartphones. The basic prerequisite is, in any case, a stable internet connection.

But with that, introducing a digital workplace is far from complete. As already hinted, the process comes with a complete change of your company culture, management and communication.

This transformation process toward efficient digital working can be a major challenge without prior experience and, above all, during ongoing day-to-day business. So if necessary, draw on the expertise of experts during the switch to ensure you pursue the right strategy and use the infrastructure that's optimal for you.

The grandega transformation approach

As a management and technology consultancy, we've been able to support numerous organizations on their way to the digital workplace. Our experience showed that the switch to the modern and intelligent workspace isn't just a pure technology question, but needs a holistic concept.

Our transformation approach therefore builds on four important pillars:

• Human transformation -> Onboarding employees to new systems in waves, as well as optimizing the team landscape
• Business process transformation -> Introducing new workflows and functions
• Organizational transformation -> Establishing visions and models for agile collaboration
• Technology transformation -> Setting up a suitable IT infrastructure

If we may support you too with our know-how on your transformation process toward the digital workplace, feel free to contact us.