ARCHITECT YOUR DIGITAL WORKPLACE
The Future of Workforce Is Here, and It's Digital
This world of automation has created new opportunities for companies. Data science, collaboration tools and cutting-edge technology enable better decision making and a higher productivity. Unfortunately, few companies have a vision of how their employees will experience a new digital workplace of the future, how to engage the employees, what the employee experience will be and how to create right balance of
AI-powered tools and human oversight.
A 2019 survey of directors, CEOs, and senior executives found that digital transformation risk is their #1 concern. Yet 70% of all digital transformation initiative do not reach their goals. Of the $1.3 trillion that was spent on digital transformation in 2018, it was estimated that $900 billion went to waste. Source: Harvard Business Review
Digital Transformation Done Right
Companies that view digital transformation as a matter of technology, and proceed to architect their digital workplace through the introduction of new systems, will rarely be successful. Technology provides possibilities for creating a digital workplace, but as any experienced manager knows, “culture eats strategy (and in this case, technology) for breakfast”. Successful digital transformation involves the entire organization, and it starts with culture, people and strategy.
1. Culture
Culture and mind-set shifts need to be addressed to ensure that the entire organization is successfully engaged. Employees anticipate that the new digital workplace will result in reshaped jobs, new ways of working remotely, redesigned organizational structure, and new ways of tracking deliverables and evaluating performance.
Creating a culture where data-driven decisions are valued is also challenging. This means listening to and involving employees in a decision-making process to help them develop new skills and explore new opportunities for themselves as well as their business units.
Each individual company’s culture will be open to change to some degree. It is important to understand how much resistance to digital transformation exists, whether a change in mindset is possible, and if so, how long it would take for the culture to change. Digital transformation can be accomplished gradually or at a fast pace. However, neither technology nor competition will wait while companies decide at what speed they need to move.
2. People and Capabilities
Company management needs to identify new leadership capabilities, name stakeholders who will be championing these changes internally, and initiate workforce development plans to ensure a smooth transition. When new or improved technology is introduced, employees need to be offered a clear new way of operating.
3. Strategy
Digital transformation is a part of corporate or department strategy. This strategy needs to be defined and presented to the entire organization.
4. Systems
The right way to select systems is to ensure that they fit with the target operating model of the company.
5. Processes
Well-designed processes will support the selected systems and enable employees to deliver value more efficiently.
Although digital transformation is technology driven, mindset and culture are the driving forces behind the workplace of the future and companies that don’t just survive, but thrive.
The new digital world that we find ourselves living in has come with challenges, but it also brings great opportunities of tapping into new markets and geographies. As the post-pandemic world is shaping up, companies adjust to it by looking outside of their geographic locations to find talent that otherwise may be too expensive or difficult to find locally. Training existing workforce, hiring remote consultants as team extension, hiring a team for a project, or setting up a skilled team in an offshore center of excellence are all ways in which companies face the looming digital change and navigate the new post-pandemic reality. For businesses that are looking to save cost and increase productivity, the direction is clear - unite the human experience, strategy, technology, process and culture.