How To Build the Digital Workplace of Tomorrow

Written in collaboration with Max Hart , Michael Rodriguez, PhD , and Rosario Tafur ?

Rapidly advancing technology, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, has changed the way today’s employees interact with their workplaces—and those changes are here to stay. Rigid organizational structures and mandated in-person attendance, while still present in some work environments, are phasing out in favor of flexibility and hybrid work.?

However, employee engagement in 2022 is at an all time low: Only 32% of employees are engaged at work, and as much as 17% of the workforce is actively disengaged.?

Causes of this disengagement can vary, but top contributors include siloed departments, outdated technology, and poor leadership. Employees also report feeling a lack of recognition for their accomplishments and mistargeted communications that don’t reach them where they are.?

Using a unifying experience platform to build an interactive, community-focused digital workplace can help encourage an engaged, connected environment—whether your organization is hybrid or fully remote. And while these platforms offer significant benefits for your employees, they can also be advantageous to your partners and customers.?

Continue reading to learn three key concepts about building a digital workplace.

Key Functions of a Digital Workplace

In a digital workplace, key functions, processes, and tools of the in-person office environment—namely those related to collaboration and productivity—are digitized with technologies like cloud computing .?

Digitizing these aspects of work enables employees to:

• Customize work regimens. Allowing employees to work in the ways that work best for them—rather than asking them to adhere to strict company processes— yield better outcomes.
• Streamline communication and collaboration. Eliminating silos across an organization means employees can work without barriers and communicate with the most centralized tools.??
• Access information with ease. Employees who have access to important information and relevant data in one accessible, shared location spend less time looking for resources and more time leveraging them.?
• Cultivate leadership skills. Enabling employees to lead projects and presentations together will naturally encourage their leadership abilities to grow.?
• Recognize individual accomplishments. A community-first mindset encourages? employees to share shout-outs and reward the contributions of coworkers.?
• Work on a flexible schedule. A strict 9-5 schedule may not work best for every employee, but when they are given the opportunity to choose, individuals can thrive.?
• Share valuable insights. Especially with larger remote organizations, a central digital platform can give leaders the opportunity to track valuable employee feedback and insights.?

6 Benefits of a Community-First Approach

The community-first approach encouraged by digital workplaces creates the following benefits for your employees, customers, and partners.?

1. Reduced cost of serving customers, created by better self-service support and more options for customers to collaborate in the problem-solving process.
2. Increased customer satisfaction generated by employee engagement with feedback and more customer advocacy options.
3. Increased product and service effectiveness for partners, sparked by comprehensive channel program management and actionable analytics dashboards.
4. Increased productivity and engagement of employees, fostered by greater collaboration, increased access to resources, and more meaningful changes enabled by feedback.
5. Increased employee retention driven by more thorough, standardized onboarding processes and stronger support teams.
6. Increased revenue achieved through customer acquisition and retention, as well as cross-selling, lead management, and partner enablement.?

3 Strategies to Build a Digital Community in Your Workplace?

Use these strategies to address the pain points of employees and help increase engagement in your organization.?

1. Increase self-service and collaboration.

Organizations should have intuitive processes for employees to share knowledge internally, whether it’s through long form articles or short presentations. Leaders also have the opportunity to increase collaboration through mentorship programs, where employees can learn from the passions and successes of their coworkers and executives.?

2. Increase employee productivity.

Creating internal systems to organize content ensures that employees can quickly locate the information or resources they need. Task checklists and thoroughly outlined processes for different roles within the organization can also help ensure employees are aware of their responsibilities.

3. Improve communication.

Onboarding and offboarding processes should be documented in detail, allowing for clear expectations and easy transitions between employees. It’s also important for leaders to streamline communications where possible; for example, recognizing where they can send an email instead of holding a meeting. Leadership should also promote a clear understanding of key KPIs and how success is measured within the organization.

Promoting a community-first digital workplace is a key task for organizations that want to succeed in a post-pandemic business landscape. With the right strategies in place, it’s possible to foster an engaged workforce that will thrive regardless of its location.?

Drive Engagement with the Right Mindset?

For more information on how digital workplaces and a community-first mindset can benefit your organization, reach out! Leave a comment below or send me a message on LinkedIn.