An Executive Guide to the Digital Workplace

You’ve heard the buzzword “digital workplace” thrown about, and you’ve heard all the hype: an always-on workforce where people can connect and collaborate from anywhere, at any time. But what are the true benefits of a digital workplace for your business?

 
Not having a clear picture of the expected results is one of the biggest reasons that digital transformation initiatives fail. As a key decision-maker for your organization, it behooves you to understand exactly what you’re getting into before you embark on a lengthy, time-intensive project.

To help you along the way, we’ve assembled this list of 5 ways that a digital workplace can help make your business run more smoothly and increase your top-line growth.

1. Increased collaboration and engagement

Many businesses have already marked employee engagement as one of their most important internal KPIs. According to IT research and advisory firm Gartner: “In 2020, 20 percent of organizations will include employee engagement improvement as a shared performance objective of HR and IT.”

Digital workplaces boost collaboration and engagement by facilitating communication between everyone in the organization. A well-designed intranet, for example, enables your employees to connect across different locations and time zones, with a rich feature set that includes document sharing, direct chat, and project management.

2. Higher employee productivity

When you make it easier for employees to communicate and do their jobs, higher productivity is a natural consequence. According to the Harvard Business Review, organizations with strong online social networks are 7 percent more productive than those without.

For example, automating many of your business workflows can dramatically slash the time required for a certain administrative procedure, from hours to a matter of minutes. When you tally up the time-saving benefits of a digital workplace, you’ll be astounded at just how many lost hours in productivity you had before making the switch.

3. More talented workforce

Digital workplaces don’t just improve your current employees’ productivity; they also attract higher-quality people to your business in the first place.

By upgrading your enterprise IT and enabling flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting, digital workplaces help with employee hiring and retention. One study by Deloitte found that 64 percent of workers would opt for a lower-paying job if they could work away from the office. Meanwhile, employees are 450 percent more likely to think about quitting their jobs if their company’s technology is out-of-date.

4. Improved agility and reliability

Aging legacy systems are alienating your employees, but they also put the stability of your business operations in jeopardy. Failing to invest in the right digital technologies can be a disaster for your organization—whether it’s a cyber attack due to security vulnerabilities, or simply being outcompeted by your newer, more tech-savvy rivals.

Modern digital workplaces enhance your workers’ capacity for innovation, while making the entire organization more agile and flexible.

5. Enhanced customer experience

Digital workplaces help people find the information they need more quickly, which is particularly important for customer-facing employees. Sales, marketing, and customer support teams can offer better service, which results in happier customers and better top-line sales.

If your business is focused on improving metrics such as CLV (customer lifetime value), investing in a digital workplace could be worth its weight in gold.