The Transition to a Digital Workplace

Most businesses today struggle to keep up with the rapid creation of information and the use of technology. Traditional workplace models are no longer sufficient for the way businesses operate in this digital age.A digital workplace emerges as employees desire a work environment that parallels their personal lives. It’s time to reassess our mental model of what a workplace is. 

Our beliefs stem from not only our experiences but also how we have organized these experiences into our mental models. Mental models can be thought of as job descriptions; for example, “What is a workplace?” When attempting to answer such questions, our minds conjure images, assumptions, and narratives that define what a workplace means to us. Gartner emphasizes that a successful digital workplace cannot be created in isolation; it must be part of a broader business strategy aimed at enhancing employee agility and engagement by developing a more consumer-like work setting. Reasons to adopt a digital workplace strategy:

1. Employee Engagement: Gallup’s ongoing survey indicates that engagement currently stands at only 30 percent.
2. Talent Attraction: Most employees would prefer lower-paying jobs if they could work remotely.
3. Business Impact: The digital workplace serves as an enabler and lies at the heart of a complex digital ecosystem.
4. Growth: By taking responsibility for the digital workplace, executives become catalysts for digital transformation.
5. Stewardship: An estimated 60 percent of all corporate real estate remains unused at any given moment.

The starting point of the digital workplace The first step in transforming your business into a digital workplace is assessing your company’s current maturity regarding best practices in this area. This assessment should evaluate:

• Company culture: The organization’s stance on technology as either strategic asset or simply cost center
• Historical and present company insights: How well the company uses customer and business data to measure success and inform strategy
• Current usage and perception of technology: Utilization and adoption of cutting-edge technology
• Company alignment: The degree to which a company is aligned with supporting digital strategy, governance, and execution

Key steps in your digital transformation journey:

1. Develop a digital workplace strategy: Craft a robust collaboration strategy that places the digital workplace at the center of the end-user experience.
2. Develop a common organizational language: Establish an information governance strategy encompassing people, processes, technology, and standards to facilitate, protect and boost cooperation and data sharing.
3. Drive operational excellence into digital execution: Be prepared to be agile and adaptable as an organization to adjust to change, enabling growth and evolution as required by your business.

In essence, the digital workplace is about maintaining relevance to two crucial aspects of any organization: employees and clientele. As more executives take charge of their company’s digital transformation process, they notice that their efforts directly impact innovation—subsequently affecting people, processes, and technology on a broad scale.A digitally transformed organization features:

• Agility with better speed to act: Empowering employees to work anywhere, anytime, on any device
• Leveraging information and technology: Utilize information and technology to enhance work experiences while shifting IT from being just about IT into a strategic asset
• Digital dexterity: This multifaceted endeavor encompasses various spheres aimed at making employees more collaborative, analytical, mobile-savvy, innovative, and creative.