We would never design work the way it is now if we started again.

The digital workplace has been around for decades—and it's only growing. You may think it’s a new phenomenon, but rest assured, that it ain't.

When once there was email and calendar, we have seen an explosion of technology take over our working lives. We have developed norms for things like E-mail and calendar, but as software got cheaper and cheaper we just got more of it.

Now the question is how best to use these tools effectively. We've implemented them happily in our everyday lives and workflows. We have also gotten used to working being borderless meaning it takes place from anywhere and at any time. Our norms need to catch up as the options to communicate and connect grow. It used to be that IT would choose and deploy software whereas now it's far more democratic.

A company may choose to transition from a physical office to a virtual office because it saves money on real estate costs and reduces commuting time for employees. But if those same employees are spending more time interacting with each other over Email, video calls or instant messages than they would in person, then big benefits from the change in location are not seen—in fact, they could be detrimental.

If you want to increase efficiency and unlock the full benefits across multiple locations and international borders, you need to look at how your teams are collaborating together remotely through various collaboration methods (like Email, and Slack channels)

What this technology has unlocked for us is the ability to communicate quickly and share information across the company in seconds. But we’re doing more and more of it. Last week Bloomberg published a piece that we flit across our digital workplace 1200 times a day.

But let’s take a step back, what is information? Information is an abstraction of experience that we use to make decisions. When you share something with someone else, it becomes a part of their life as well—it's no longer just yours. The technologies we use today have evolved from the traditional email inbox. That is just one point of view which is unique to everyone in the organisation. Slack is based on channels which allow that view to be the same for everyone involved in a project or client. They allow information to be transparent.

Or at least that’s what they promise. We have built our digital workplace on the promise it will make us more connected, save us time and allow us to share information easier. They promise better alignment and time-saving across tasks. But are they? how do we quantify that impact?

We haven’t, historically, given enough attention to these critical systems, despite their importance to organizational performance and even well-being. It’s time to start.

They have gone from workplace tools to the digital workplace. That’s the evolution we have seen since March 2020. From a physical-first working environment to a digital-first.

Having a mixture of email and Slack with no intention will make things messy. It will create information silos and ensure you’re not getting the true benefit of a borderless work environment.

How bad is it? Companies deployed 89 different apps on average last year, up from 58 in 2015, according to Okta. At large employers, that figure is now 187. Of those apps, close to 30% are duplicative or add no value

This is what I help companies with every single day at Temporall. It's about understanding where and how you can consolidate systems and workflows to make a more intentional digital workplace.

Given the current economic climate and the overriding sense that budgets need to be reduced the opportunity is now to ensure your investments are working as hard as they can for you.

It's not a luxury. It's not a fad. It is a necessity for every organization that wants to attract and retain the best employees, provide services or products that customers love, build an employee culture that reflects the core values of the organization, and keep up with competitors who have already adopted it.

The need for internal communication and collaboration won’t disappear. The Digital Workplace is a collection of tools that you can use in any situation to improve performance with the right culture, infrastructure and tools.

With so many organizations adopting this new form of the workplace, it’s important to understand how we can use tools to create a better experience.

The truth is that the digital workplace is only going to get better. You may think that this is a daunting prospect—but it doesn't have to be!