You may think your workplace has already gone digital, but these days staff email and Microsoft Office just doesn’t cut it.
Read on to find out how you can go digital, and reap the rewards of an integrated digitalised office set up.
Astounding Effects of Digitisation in the Workplace
How would you define a ‘digital workplace’? A staff email system and Microsoft office? I’m afraid not. Upon looking into a recent Digital Workplace Global Study (Avanade), we are able to:
- define a digital workplace
- confirm the benefits of going digital
- understand the concerns faced by not being digital
- show what workplaces can do to get on track for full digitisation
The traditional office setting would consist of filing cabinets, notepads and led pencils; but is now on its way out the door. These days, the most efficient and effective tools to increase workplace productivity are digital in nature. We are swimming in applications that make our lives easier; time organising apps like Harvest, productivity software such as Evernote and mass cloud storage like Dropbox. With all that’s available, who needs a personal assistant?
A digital workplace needs to both empower employees and increase bottom line performance. Information needs to be made available for fast and simple retrieval that is accessible. Whether in the office, at home or on the go, digital has the power to cut down time inefficiencies. However, emerging barriers include the risk of distraction, which can counteract this benefit. In addition, analytical tools are redefining the process of measuring, analysing and evaluating data. A lot of the guesswork has been eliminated.
The results speak for themselves:
- 67% of respondents in the study cited increased productivity
- 53% saw increased employee engagement
- 43% experienced revenue growth as a direct result
Ready to go Digital?
Congratulations! Now keep in mind, some important investments are essential in moving forward. Try to focus on;
- Social collaboration
- Business insight information
and, of course, the glue that holds it all together:
- IT infrastructure
These investments are essential in becoming a successful digital workplace. Yes, there’s a cost in adopting this new concept, but as always, the end result will be a more cost effective business.
Take a Leaf From Our Book
We use a variety of applications and software to remain organised. We have also perfected a streamlined process for internal and external communications.
- Slack. A group chat-like application, designed for teams both within and outside the office. It brings all communications together in one place. Slack offers real-time messaging, archiving and search for your modern digitised workplace.
- Harvest. Have trouble managing your time? Harvest means simple time-tracking, a powerful reporting software and fast online invoicing.
- Google Drive. You can’t go wrong with good old Google Drive, for file organisation. With secure cloud storage, all your documents are in one place and can be edited by anyone who has access to the folders. It’s all about the store, sync and share.
- Asana. Email just doesn’t offer enough these days for daily tasking organisation within a team. Effective team communication within your internal business environment is so vital to success on a larger scale.
There’s some similarity you may have noticed already amongst the best digital applications available at the moment; which includes mass and secure cloud storage, accessibility – anywhere at any time, and the ability to track whatever you’re doing and have done in the past for simple retrieval.
Are your staff ready for the shift?
Change is a way of life, and in business so is up-skilling. Make sure your employees have the skills necessary to keep up with this advancement. Perhaps an even more crucial asset is the ability to pre-empt future business restructures. With technology advancing at the rate it is, make sure all current and future employees are agile, resilient and crave the challenge of growth into new areas. A resistance to change will be detrimental to future successes.
Don’t let your efforts go to waste
Finally, a well thought out strategy and sufficient planning will be the difference between a failure and a success. Have you had a look around at the software tools available for the digital workplace? If so, what does your organisation use? Don’t forget to leave some helpful suggestions below in the comments section!
And remember, creating a collaborative workspace where your employees actually want to be will help boost morale and productivity – with the added bonus of minimising absenteeism.
