‘Digital workplace’ is the concept that there is a virtual equivalent to the physical workplace, and that this needs to be planned and managed coherently because it is fundamental to people’s productivity, engagement and working health.

This is not a precise definition; just as the notion of ‘workplace’ itself has ill-defined boundaries, so the shape of a digital workplace will vary between organizations. However, at its heart it is about:

• Putting people first – the impact on employees is what makes the digital workplace important.

• A technology layer – advances in technology are driving changes in the digital workplace, and this is what makes it a current issue.

• Management and design – proactively developing a digital workplace means addressing it as a whole and coordinating between technology, process and people aspects.

The digital workplace provides an organization with five services or capabilities:

• Communication and employee engagement

• Collaboration

• Finding and sharing of information and knowledge

• Business applications (process specific tools and employee self-service)

• Agile working – the ability to be productive any time and place

To work well, these need the be supported by five management activities:

• Strategic planning

• Governance and operational management

• Proactive support for adoption

• High quality user experience

• Robust, secure and flexible technology

An effective digital workplace decouples work from a physical location for much of the time. This freeing up of work has several important implications not just about where people work, but how teams are formed and how people come together to solve ad-hoc problems. Potentially, it can also close the arbitrary gap between white and blue collar workers by giving both equal digital access.

Let’s take a look at two of the challenges that organizations would face while digital workplace initiatives.

1. Aligning Business and IT Challenge

No project should begin until the goals of both IT and business have been aligned. One of the biggest obstacles companies face is the lack of connectivity between business and technology the two are now indistinguishable. Businesses need to understand that it’s no longer a question of if businesses are going to use technology to transform for their customers, but rather how and when and how quickly can they do it at scale.

Another issue that plagues businesses is the fear factor of the transformation process. Companies need leadership who will embrace the risk-taking required to transform their operations and adopt an ongoing culture of innovation.

While companies are making progress on evolving their customer/employee experience, they are struggling to transform their back-end operations. It’s imperative that organizations gain alignment between IT and the business. It is no longer possible for the CIO and the IT organization to operate separately from other C-Suite leaders.

In addition to alignment at the top, companies also need to include and engage their employees every step of the way in the transformation agenda. Companies will achieve digital leadership if they succeed in balancing the technology with retraining their workforce to realize new skills.

2. Technology Integration Challenge

Culturally, organizations have been built around certain technologies, with specific policies and procedures developed to support them. The integration process for new technologies causes delays as employees face acceptance, training and getting accustomed to new data management techniques.

Having multiple data silos may result in redundancy of work and confusion between disparate groups with regards to effective collaboration. Different approaches to data storage make cohesive blending laborious.

3. People, Process and Culture

Research shows that employees are not engaged in the culture change journey. This disengagement is often due to generic organizational vision-and-mission statements that make little sense to employees focused on day-to-day objectives.

Leadership and management need to translate the broader digital vision into compelling and tangible business outcomes to which employees can relate, for which they feel accountable, and that they can internalize in their current roles. Employees also need to feel like they understand the rationale for change.

Here are nine reasons why you should build a digital workplace.

1. Increase flexibility and improved employee experience

Digital workplaces will also unify internal communications by enabling employees to stay connected through the channels of their choice (including mobile). This allows for the employee experience to exist outside the typical company firewall. When used correctly, digital workplaces can provide flexibility and personalization. That’s because digital workplaces allow for the integration of different apps and software, which facilitates easier workflows for employees.

Virtual work environments allows borderless communications between employees located in different places across the world, allowing them to remain connected while still maintaining a balance between customer privacy and operational risk. This, in turn, minimizes spending and allows for a better employee experience through enhancing productivity, because employees are equipped with the right tools and information anytime, anywhere.

2. Optimize costs

Building a digital workplace allows an organization to nurture collaboration while limiting costs. It bolsters productivity by implementing self-help and self-heal tools (such as conversational ai, workflow automation) that empower users to resolve their own issues. And it eliminates the risk of over reliance on individual employees’ knowledge by implementing deskside support models with standardized processes and procedures.

A digital workplace also can improve efficiency by ensuring business units align with each other and by removing barriers that prevent them from fully sharing resources. Because a digital workplace allows easier access to virtual meetings and removes the barriers of time, location, devices and network connections, it provides employees greater work-life balance while increasing productivity and agility for the organization.

3. Increase Operational Agility

In today’s world, organizations face some unprecedented operational challenges. With steadily increasing customer/employee expectations, global competition, and shortened product development lifecycles, organizations responding first faster to change will enjoy the benefits of sales and market share improvement. Operational agility is now central to achieving a competitive edge.

Improving operational agility in an organization leads to the reduction of cost and errors, while improving productivity and raising revenue. Agility, and the responsiveness and flexibility it enables, is now seen as mission critical particularly in a business. A new level of agility is required across the business, as market conditions continue to change. Many enterprises’ current operational models are not agile enough to handle huge fluctuations such as the recent COVID19 impact.

Embracing digital channels over traditional activities is evidently going to have to take priority. Embracing a digital strategy across the entire enterprise can significantly enhance an organization’s ability to change quickly to new market conditions and needs.

4. Creates a more collaborative culture

By providing your employees with all the tools that they need to communicate and coordinate with their team members, you are able to create a collaborative culture in your organization. Smart and reliable communication tools also cut down meeting times and give your staff more room for ideation and innovation.How remote workers communicate and collaborate with each other is the most important aspect of any successful remote working strategy and solution.

This applies equally to both internal employees and customers. A seamless collaboration experience is the ability of a user to join a virtual meeting from anywhere and any device with one touch and with the best quality of audio and video.Users should be able to access these meetings from their laptops, smartphones, tablets or room based Video Conferencing units in office, and even take calls on their home landlines or mobile phones with the same ease.

Users should also be able to solve simple IT issues like password resets, account unlocks as well as apply for PTOs and check salary details with ease on the collaboration tool they’re using like Slack or Microsoft Teams via a Conversational AI self-service with IT and HR workflow automation.

This is internal employee Digitalization and is not just a part of a BCP strategy but eventually becomes a way of life which allows organizations to unlock enormous productivity benefits and long term value.

None of the above are possible if organizations don’t embrace this as a cultural change. Culture is a reflection of the true identity of any organization and it is always driven top down from the CEOs and CXOs. The technology element is a manifestation of the cultural element, however once a certain critical mass is achieved, these 2 elements will start feeding off each other and lead to the evolution of a truly democratized organizational culture.

Trust will also play a crucial role, as managers will have to trust their subordinates working from home and the employees will have to live up to that trust.

5. More time for new ideas

By using the right technological tools and automating repetitive tasks through a digital workplace, you are able to make the work-life for your employees easier, which automatically leads to more productivity. That is because employees are able to use their freed up time for problem-solving and coming up with innovative ideas.

6. Allows employees to work remotely

When all the company data and applications can be accessed online from any device and from any location, it gives your employees more opportunity to work remotely. While over 99 percent of the workers want to work remotely at least once their careers, 90% of them actually want to work remotely for the rest of their careers.For organizations, that means, implementing digital workplace strategies will not only increase employee satisfaction but also help retain and attract talent.

7. Save costs and invest elsewhere

By choosing a cost-effective digital workplace that allows your employees to work remotely, you can save costs, which frees up funds for you to invest elsewhere like launching a new service or product to expand your business as well as revenue.

There are lots of ways remote working offers cost savings. Many established businesses have already enjoyed savings due to telecommuting.

According to Global Workplace Analytics, almost 6 out of 10 employers identify cost savings as a major benefit of telecommuting.

Rent and utilities:If most of your team is working from home, you won’t need to pay for larger premises, saving money on rent and utilities.

Cleaning services : With minimal staff onsite, your cleaning services bill is likely to significantly decline.

Food : Whether it is providing a cafeteria service or serving refreshments during meetings, if you have remote employees, you will eliminate this cost.

Taxes : There are three factors that determine a company’s tax burden: payroll, sales and property. Making changes to accommodate remote workers could also impact your tax burden.

8. Increase productivity

In a Digital Workplace where the working hours are flexible and the staff works remotely from different locations, effective collaboration and communication within an organization is really important which is supported by Business Communication Tools.

With these, employees can build meaningful connections and have real-time communication with their peers to get the support required to solve problems at work. Hence, organizations with strong Instant messaging applications are usually more productive and have more employee satisfaction than those without.

In fact, a report by Software Advice found that around 21% of respondents have seen a “moderate” or “significant” increase in productivity from using IM.

9. Talent attraction

Companies using digital workplaces are able to win the war on talent by showcasing their progressive and unique working environment, where top candidates are learning to expect from employers.

Businesses that will be successful in the future will be those who break down the barriers between people, workplaces and technologies and empower their employees to be productive and creative wherever they are. IT is a catalyst for new ways of working, but competitive advantage increasingly comes from letting employees use technology in the way they want to. This requires a business culture that puts people first

Here are some ways companies are moving towards digital workplace.

1. Conversational AI – IT Helpdesk chatbot and HR Chatbot

What if your IT/HR team had a tool to converge every part of their workflow? The reality is, conversational AI, or chatbots, can do much more than automate paper-driven tasks. In fact, it’s one of the fastest growing and easiest means to not only streamlining all your workflows but in helping you meet your IT/HR goals.

Across the board, businesses continue to research the most effective ways to approach automating IT/HR workflows.

Conversational AI doesn’t only provide workflow automation, it also includes a conversational interface. It offers a simple chat interface that requires a low learning curve for anyone on your team. Under the hood, it provides customizable processes and data gathering that can be controlled from one point.

2. Workflow automation to transform workplace support

To adapt to changes in technology, as well as balance increasing workloads, employees need a surefire way to streamline duties, collaborate, automate, and add transparency to everyday tasks. Workflow automation simplifies the path that documents take, creating transparency while simultaneously automating notifications/escalations and allowing users to segment information by permissions. Smart workflow automation uses AI technology to eliminate bottlenecks, foster collaboration, encourage accountability, and improve processes by creating efficiency and accuracy where there was once chaos.

One of the biggest benefits of workflow automation is that it improves internal communication. This reduces the rate of employee turnover because one of the biggest reasons employees leave an organization is a lack of communication with management. Because you are automating workflow you also automate communication, because no one has to remember to tell the next person it’s their turn to do something.

Workflow automation also reduces errors because it keeps necessary tasks from going unnoticed. Because every person involved in the process is held accountable for their specific role, no one can make the excuse that “no one told me!” Workflow automation also saves companies from costly expenses associated with employee errors and it can cut costs on administrative labor as well.

You can also seamlessly integrate your existing apps with a workflow automation software like Workativ to streamline and automate repetitive employee requests like unlock account, password resets, user provisioning, and workplace processes like user onboarding, offboarding, etc. This increases the productivity of your IT agents, HR as well as other employees in the organization, letting them focus on the more important tasks that require human intervention.

3. Proliferation of Slack and Microsoft Teams combined with Conversational AI

One of the most problematic areas in IT/HR, as well as in any organization, is how systems work together for cohesion. Per one report, most businesses use, on average have 30 different systems.

IT software solutions, third-party or contracted HR groups and roles are one solution to help your team track onboarding, new-hire orientation, payroll, taxes, employee benefits and expense tracking.

But conversational AI can play a supportive role in connecting these facets so that this information is easy to access, all in one space, by a simple request.

With a Conversational AI like Workativ, there’s a new way that employees can use Microsoft Teams/Slack by bringing AI into conversations to interact with services such as productivity tools, user management, access management, and more. Employees would be able to collaborate with teams as well as engage with an AI chatbot for IT and HR support. Using Workativ, your employees won’t have to wait in queue for the help desk and instead can autonomously complete their requests and resolve workplace issues on their own.

With Workativ, you can effortlessly send approvals and notifications or resolve issues right from Slack with Workativ and Slack integration. Workativ’s chatbot platform integrates with popular applications like Zendesk, Jira, ServiceNow, Azure, Auth0, Box, and can connect them all to enable teams to create automated workflows to reduce the amount of manual work required on routine tasks and repetitive issues.

Workativ’s no-code Conversational AI + workplace Automation platform allows you to integrate with your ITSM and HRMS tools and create the desired workflows to give your employees the IT/HR support they need, instantly. Try Workativ today by signing up for a FREE trial.