Strategy In Motion: How To Successfully Create Productivity In A Digital Workplace

By Muhammad-Tayyab Bin Akram, Ciklum

Without empowering your employees with the knowledge for success, your strategy for implementation of a digital workplace is destined for failure. Here are five steps to creating productivity by empowering your employees for success.

Installing the newest technology and enhancing systems is key to developing the finest of digital workplaces; however, it is only as good as the employees that are utilizing this new technology. For any company to provide the best possible experience for its customers, it must have a digital workplace backed by employees who are prepared to utilize the technology.

Before implementing a digital workplace, one must first understand the concept and what it means. A digital workplace is a combination of technology, employees, and a business plan to create an ideal environment to empower employees. Those employees are armed with the information and answers they need to provide customers with the optimal experience. By combining these aspects of a company, each person within the company will have the necessary tools to collaborate with the rest of their team to achieve the highest level of success.

Digital workplaces include computers, virtual assistants, mobile devices, applications, and many other technological advances that provide each team member with access to the necessary information, wherever they may be, to carry out the goals of the company.

So, how do you design the ideal digital workplace? Here is an outline of some of the necessities for implementing and running a digital workplace.

1. Game Plan

Companies must have a sound game plan to implement the enhancements needed to create a successful digital workplace. Included in this plan should be your employees. Providing applications and software enhancements that employees are comfortable using will increase the productivity provided toward the end goal.

Your planning should include the voice of your employees; after all, they are the ones you will be counting on to utilize this new plan to achieve the company’s goal. Giving employees a say in what technology and applications they prefer will empower them toward success.

Each of your digital workplace enhancements must include coordination with the pertinent departments; including marketing, customer support, sales, HR, manufacturing, and IT. Each department needs to be able to collaborate with the other departments on any given process they are working on at any given time. Allowing for employees’ input will ensure that the technology added will be accepted and utilized in a productive way. Showing employees that their voice is being heard will raise morale, productivity, and the overall success rate of the company.

By empowering employees with a voice, you will increase their creativity and engagement, which leads to better service levels as well as enhancement ideas in the future — all for the betterment of the company. Providing the technology employees have voiced approval of also serves to help them embrace new technology without fear of using it.

2. Analytics

Analytics play a critical factor in calculating the impact and effectiveness of your digital workplace. Utilizing a company’s digital scorecard will show what is working in collaborative efforts and what is not. Use the information provided from the scorecard to track daily users on different collaboration software. This information will provide insight into employee agility, satisfaction, and overall workforce effectiveness. The data also will act as a roadmap of what changes will be necessary in future technological investments. Allow for the elimination or revamping of what is not working productively and enhancement to those programs that are.

3. Employee Satisfaction

While providing the best customer service experience is the ultimate goal of any company, achieving this goal is only possible when employees are satisfied with their working environment and the tools they have available to complete their daily tasks.

Providing employees with adequate space for independent thinking and the technology and environment for collaborative efforts is vital to the success of any digital workplace. Include technology that allows supervisors to see and recognize individual contributions and employee engagement and utilize these tools to make any necessary improvements in the future.

In providing technology that allows each employee to communicate and find the information needed to complete their job, companies will see a rise in productive hours and employee satisfaction rates. These higher rates will translate into higher success for the company.

Another study shows that employees who feel they have the proper tools to complete their job are 70 percent more likely to be happy in their working environment and thereby included in the more productive percentage.

4. Adequate Training

Nothing puts stress on employees like new technology and having to implement it into their daily routine. This stress can be reduced with proper training before the utilization of the latest technology begins.

In-depth training will allow employees to hit the office floor running. When they understand the applications and databases they are using, they will be able to reap the substantial benefits provided by the new technology instead of feeling overwhelmed by it. When onboarding new technology, bringing in outside help to train employees is ideal and will give workers an added layer of confidence in their performance.

5. Technology

While most of the above steps discuss implementing technology into your digital office, it is vital that you understand how to tie all of this newfound technology into your current office situation. Taking a look at success stories like that of Exceed IT Services shows how creating the right programs and developing a coordinated plan of action can produce effective results. The proper technique for each aspect of the company needs to be available, and each employee needs to understand how to utilize this technology to enhance their performance. Tying each piece of the technological puzzle together in a seamless digital workplace is key to achieving success.

The End Goal

While new technology and advancements are necessary for success in this digital age, reaching your company’s end goal is not possible unless your employees are empowered to achieve the most from this new digital workplace. Achieve this empowerment by giving employees a voice, adequate training, and technology that works fluidly together in each specific department and beyond. Giving your employees these necessary tools for success will translate into higher levels of employee satisfaction — and ultimately into a better customer experience.

About the Author

Muhammad Tayyab has over 14 years of professional experience in software architecture design and implementation on different platforms including Windows, Linux, and OS X.