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Life is too short to work in a dull environment. And we are approaching a day and age where people can choose whether to stay home or come into the office.
So, what if you could get your employees excited about the opportunity to have more in-office workdays?
If you’re not sure where to start, these emerging digital workplace trends might be what you’re looking for. Learn about the smart technologies that can help improve how people work in the office by giving them more control over their workday and allowing them to interact with the environment on their own terms.
What could be worse than disliking your office? If your employees are lying awake at night because they are dreading having to go into the office, or they feel like they have been working for 48 hours straight by the time they leave the office, you’ve got a big problem on your hands. Especially when you consider just how much of our lives we spend working — which, according to the World Economic Forum, is an average of 1,783 hours at work for U.S. workers.
The way people think about the workplace has started to change significantly in response to major digital and cultural shifts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees expect a lot more from their employers — and rightfully so. They are also much more eager about adopting new technologies because they place more value on things like flexibility and freedom.
That is why, if they haven’t already done so, it’s time for leaders to get with the times and adapt for the next era of work. Fortunately, you can establish your company as a great place to work by paying attention to these changes. You just need to understand the current state of the workplace and explore the digital workplace trends that are going to have a positive impact on the future of your workplace.
With that goal in mind, let’s take a look at the most important digital workplace trends for an agile work environment.
In the future, the advancements that your organization has made to automate your work processes, work-from-home capabilities, and digital connectivity will continue influencing the workplace even after the pandemic has come to an end.
Modern workplaces will need to strike a balance between two equally important aspects of a great employee experience: streamlining the work employees do and driving employee engagement. Tomorrow’s workplace is going to be designed for your workforce. Look at this as a chance to offer your employees a place where they can really excel. To provide real value to your organization, deliver more opportunities for deep work and collaboration.
So, how do you keep up the momentum? The fast pace of change means you’ll need to keep an eye on what people need so you can equip them with the resources and spaces that make a great workday possible.
As a trend, automation isn’t new to the scene. But over the course of the past few years, it’s become a heavy hitter in terms of the most important digital workplace trends. In the next few years, digital advancements will enable companies to automate their offices in even more exciting and transformative ways.
Automation got its foot in the door when organizations were looking for ways to streamline repetitive and simplistic tasks. It was seen as a brilliant way to save time, boost efficiency, and cut costs. Having proved its worth in that realm, automation is now poised to accomplish all that and so much more. That means it will have an even greater impact than previously thought.
In the list of top digital workplace trends included below, you will find great ideas for improving, automating, and modernizing the workplace experience.
More and more, working remotely is being embraced as a viable working arrangement by employees and employers alike. According to GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com, 56% of the U.S. workforce held a job compatible with remote work in 2020. For reference, in 2011 that number was estimated at 40%. And even before the pandemic, their surveys repeatedly showed that approximately 80% of employees wanted to work from home at least part-time.
Traditionally, to help workers stay flexible, companies incorporate mobile devices, collaborative software, and other technologies to assist teleworkers with uniformity and staying connected. Space booking software is another tool that can be utilized to strengthen this culture.
Repetitive tasks that interfere with productivity, such as transferring information from an email to a calendar, or copying and pasting information onto a spreadsheet, can be mitigated through an automation service. When simple tasks are automated, more time becomes available for tasks that require critical thinking and personal expertise. Zapier is a remarkable example of automation services that benefit off-site workers.
One of the biggest factors contributing to the success of any business is whether its employees perform well together as a team. By sharing their ideas, knowledge, and skills, groups of people are able to work together to achieve common goals. The resulting synergy paves the way for higher levels of innovation and creativity.
The implications of that can be made reverberate throughout the organization, having a positive impact that can be made even more powerful by utilizing a workflow system that incorporates the employee experience.
A high-performance workplace platform will provide such features as notifications, role-based access content control, dashboards and visibility, and the capability of integrating with existing business systems. You’ve heard the saying “a lid for every pot?” And so it is with collaboration.
Project management tools can have a remarkable effect on collaborative tasks. And depending on specific needs, you can find one that is ideal for your role. For instance, GitHub would be a great recommendation for software development, and Help Scout would be most helpful for customer support. Whatever your focus, there is a collaborative system to support your team.
A vital part of the best digital workplace systems is the facility of electronically exchanging data. Electronic transferring of data actually means the ability to share data, information, graphics, texts, audios, videos, and more, to more than one person at a time. It’s efficient and cost-effective.
Advancements in these data exchange systems also feature the instantaneous electronic sharing of information, simultaneously, between individuals or teams — whether they are in the same building, or on opposite ends of the globe.
This kind of collaboration software is essentially an electronic meeting system, allowing participants to spread throughout the building, city, or world, to instantaneously exchange information in real-time. Currently, the market demands that these exchanges take place without conflicts or technical difficulties. As a result, companies like Teem who offer meeting tools to support groupware are being lauded by companies who value data exchange.
And in today’s world, the electronic transferring of data is simple and user-friendly. The demand for this capability illustrates the collaborative nature of many businesses and the level to which they value the exchange of information.
The trend with CRM automation is this: what was once desirable is now considered mandatory.
Automated CRM platforms are invaluable tools for informing both when and how to reach out to your customers. Essentially, they track interactions with current and potential clients and allow for customized communication with customers. Depending on the platform, some functions may include sending automated messages, streamlining workflows, and providing data to assist with strategic decisions in allocating resources.
Tuned in to automation and what should be included in CRM software, Salesforce is a knowledgeable leader in the game of managing your company’s relationships and interactions with current and prospective customers. The result is a more powerful, heightened level of intelligent customer engagement across such areas as sales, service, marketing, commerce, and more.
From here to eternity, as we live and conduct business online, internet security is only going to be of greater and more significant priority. What do your favorite apps, access to various SaaS, both consumer and business spending have in common? They are similar in that they are all password protected. Managing numerous passwords can be time-consuming, even overwhelming at times. Watch for companies who serve as a one-stop password shop, allowing you to remember just the one password, which then automates the app to generate the rest and safely stores all passwords for swift retrieval.
For leaders, this crisis has signaled the importance of workplace transformation trends and investing in digital workplace solutions that have a measurable impact on how we operate and manage the workplace. This is why leading companies are relying on digital tools that help them achieve a new and improve workplace with all the convenience and accessibility of modern technology.
The best digital workplace trends are the ones that help your organization prepare for an increasingly distributed and digital workplace.
When you remove friction and create a reliable way for employees to accomplish their daily tasks, it’s not just about saving time. Although, being able to reallocate time on more high-level tasks is a benefit, too. For employees, it’s about having the tools in hand that make spending time in the workplace more enjoyable.
Oftentimes, we overlook how long it takes to complete small tasks, such as finding a workspace or booking a space for a meeting. The digital workplace trends today emphasize the importance of a convenient, intuitive experience. And by giving them access to user-friendly tools that make their life easier, they will have more time to spend on accomplishing their work goals. It can free them up to collaborate with their teams without having to deal with clunky scheduling systems and it opens the door for higher levels of engagement and job satisfaction.
With opportunities like those, it’s no wonder workplace leaders are keeping a close eye on new digital workplace trends such as these that promise to make employees’ lives better. As we said earlier, if your employees have the option between working in the office or from home, it will be critical to create a workplace experience that feels worth coming into the office for.
Once you know how your organization plans to use your workplace, it’s time to set new goals. Break this down by the various phases of the employee journey, beginning with the first steps of choosing to come into the office. Make sure to consider how your workplace technology will impact your employees’ workday, from staying productive and engaged to finding the right desk and reserving the perfect spot for their next meeting.
While the ability to organize their work schedule in advance may seem like a small win, the little things — like planning where they will sit on their in-office days or being able to coordinate with their colleagues thanks to room booking software that syncs with their work calendars — make a big impact when you add them all up.
Learn how to scope out the right solutions to prepare for the next era of the digital workplace. Download The Ultimate Workplace Technology Buyer’s Guide.
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