Digital workplace: what it is and what it should be

It does not matter if they are pushing for the return to the office, compromising on hybrid models or (re)forming for a fully distributed workforce: the digital workplace is at the heart of today’s organisations.

However, despite all the investment, most organisations are not satisfied with their current digital workplace.

At Social Now 2024 we will go through how to optimise digital platforms and the digital experience to finally realise the value of the digital workplace, improving internal communication, collaboration and organisational learning.

Until then, let’s look at what a digital workplace is; why digital workplaces are failing to fulfil their promise; and the big opportunities ahead.

Our work habits and practices have gradually been shifting, pushed by contextual demands and enabled by the appearance of versatile and powerful digital tools. Today, any conversation about the workplace has to consider the digital component as it is key in today’s organisations.

What is a digital workplace?

Our new friend (or foe) ChatGPT defines digital workplace as the “virtual equivalent of the physical workplace, leveraging digital technology to create a more flexible, engaging, and productive work environment (…) regardless of location”.

This very much aligns with my view of a digital workplace as the ecosystem of digital technologies which come together for people to securely work from anywhere:

• being productive;
• remaining engaged and informed;
• communicating and collaborating;
• accessing and sharing knowledge;
• learning;
• innovating;
• performing administrative tasks; and,
• accessing personal management and benefits.

What technologies comprise the digital workplace?

Productivity tools, intranets, whiteboarding applications, direct messaging apps… Pinpointing the most accurate terminology for digital technologies in the digital workplace is increasingly challenging. The difficulty arises both from the market’s constant introduction of new buzzwords to carve new markets (remember the terms “enterprise 2.0” or “enterprise social networks”?) and from the evolutionary nature of these tools, which often expand their functionalities to address a broader range of use cases. In fact, this underscores the importance of comprehend where each tool excels and has been at the heart of Social Now since it started in 2012.

The best approach is than to look at it from the perspective of the use cases the digital workplace should respond to.

What are the most common use cases for the digital workplace?

Team Collaboration & Communication

• Team / project alignment
• Communicating and collaborating synchronously – moments when “being together” is key:for important messages which need to be conveyed simultaneously to many;for making important decisions with too many arguments to consider, where consequences are high, or when heavy debate is expected;for strengthening the bond between people or injecting a dose of high-energy
• Real-time co-editing of documents (with version control)
• Working asynchronously – allowing time to reflect and contribute with purpose and relevance; favouring quality over immediacy; Working In the Narrative (WINning) using micro-narratives
• Brainstorming, in real time or not

Knowledge Management & Learning

• Sharing and searching documents – having single copies, properly classified with clever metadata, and robust permission settings
• Community building and networking – enabling people to find each other based on shared interests or practices, giving them space to interact, discuss and learn together
• Sharing knowledge – allowing people to ask for help, ask questions, respond to colleagues, volunteer knowledge, information or resources believed to be of interest to others (now or in the future)
• Learning, formally – through access to resources for self-paced learning, registering to training – or informally – by having access to colleagues and resources (as per the some of the use cases above)

Operational Efficiency & Corporate Engagement

• Communicating to the whole organisation – making sure all staff stays informed about corporate life, obligations and rights, and engaged and aligned with the organisation, its strategy and values
• Crowdsourcing and crowdsensing – offering ways to canvas employees for ideas to address known challenges, for perspectives which highlight opportunities and risks, and to be the eyes and the ears of the organisation – inside and outside
• Leading and inspiring – creating space for leaders to strengthen their leadership and for others to emerge as leaders; for leaders to inspire and become closer to their teams
• Finding and contacting colleagues, based on role, team, geography, etc.
• Executing business functions, e.g. CRM, ERP, HR
• Accessing corporate information and resources – offering a single point of entry to all policies, templates, guidelines, corporate information, contacts
• Communicating or informing employees around formal / contractual matters (one of the few use cases where email can still play a role).

In addition to all these use cases, the organisation needs to ensure that the digital workplace:

• is secure, controlling access to internal resources, protecting data integrity and safeguarding personal data – inside and outside;
• offers a good user experience from desktop and mobile devices, inside and outside the organisation’s walls;
• is equipped with analytics to help monitor and improve the efficiency of workflows and productivity.

This is the first of 3 posts. In the next two, I will look at: the promise vs. reality of the digital workplace, and strategies for bridging the gap.

If you are really curious, you can access the full article here.

And, by the way, at Social Now 2024, Simon Scullion will show how to evolve your traditional intranet to a successful modern digital workplace.