In real estate, we hear about it being a “buyer’s” or “seller’s” market. Well, right now in employment, it is more of an “employee’s” market. Unemployment is low. There are skills shortages in many industries. Plus, the next generation entering the workforce expects to be engaged and appreciated at higher levels than ever before. Developing a digital workplace strategy brings many benefits in this environment.
Current Context at Work
Employees and potential hires are the ones with leverage in the current job market. Low unemployment rates in many countries have given global workers greater confidence. In December 2017, more U.S. workers quit their jobs than at any time in the past 16 years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 3.259 million workers voluntarily quit their jobs. The last time that many workers quit was in January 2001, during the dot-com bubble.
These empowered employees have greater expectations of their work life. Plentiful research driving retention efforts suggest that these individuals expect to be:
- Valued by their organization
- Recognized for their contributions
- Provided flexibility for work-life balance
- Given plentiful opportunities for development and advancement
- Asked for their feedback and opinions
- Involved in change initiatives.
For companies competing to recruit or retain for top talent, an effective digital workplace strategy can help to address many of these expectations.
Benefits of a Digital Workplace Strategy
Companies taking the bold step to develop digital workplace strategies “are increasing their organization’s overall performance—and competitive differentiation,” according to a Forbes Insight survey of 2,000+ CIOs and frontline employees.
The research suggested “boosting individual access to the business apps employees need, when they need them,” helped:
- ease experimentation and drive faster innovation
- leverage self-service as the progressive engagement model for employees
- deliver outstanding consumer-like experiences.
Digitally-empowered employees report increased team collaboration and quicker decision-making. — Forbes Insights
Suggesting that three types of companies are emerging — the traditional (29%), the transitional (59%), and the digital (18%) — the researchers suggested the digital-driven organizations were empowering employees to use emerging technologies to innovate, improve productivity, and identify performance improvements to enhance agility and drive revenues higher.
Digitally-empowered employees report spending 17 percent less time on manual processes. — Forbes Insights
Employees in the digital workplaces, compared to employees at traditional organizations, were:
- 5x more likely to report increased personal productivity
- Almost 4x more likely to say their companies are more desirable places to work
- Nearly 2x more likely to report that apps are very important in accelerating decision-making.
The digital workspace improves employee experience by providing simple, secure access to a unified, consistent experience. Technology centralizes apps, services, data, and interactions across devices, networks, locations, and operating systems seamlessly for employees, to meet workers’ needs wherever they are, whenever they are working.
Enabling a digital workplace strategy can also cut on-boarding time (as employees can choose to use apps and devices they are already familiar with) and can help reduce risk and data loss.
Additionally, the digitally empowered employee can offer better customer experience as they have ready access to account details in integrated applications that they can access in the office, on the road, or wherever they may be working.
Evolve IP Powers Digital Workplaces
Provide a secure setting for collaboration, experimentation, innovation and streamline workplace processes. Develop a digital workplace strategy with the experts at Evolve IP. We work with clients on their unique requirements, developing custom integrations and understanding and deploying flawless solutions in unique situations.