Are you ready for the digital future of work?

Are you ready for the technical and behavioral shift in the corporate workplace? As the Covid-19 vaccine is available to more and more people across the US, hopes mount that offices will reopen by the third or fourth quarter of 2021. Surveys show that about half of employees will work remotely some or all the time post-COVID-19.

Will we return to pre-COVID levels of working from the office?

While it seems highly likely that offices will reopen in a few months, but, from the Gartner analysts to the regular office workers, the consensus seems to be that we will not return to the pre-COVID levels of working from offices. Not at least in foreseeable future.

We have companies that realize the potential cost savings if employees work from home. We have a lot of employees who want to avoid commuting. Then we have people who might refuse to wear a mask or to get vaccinated.

That said, we still hope to get back to somewhat close to pre-COVID levels of working. Way less work from home compared to March 2021. This means that companies will need to be up to date with developments and plan for a higher number of people working remotely.

So, what are the trends that companies/management need to keep in mind while planning the new digital workplace?

1. Automation, automation, automation!

Any processes that can be automated should be automated. Gartner analysts expect that 69% of managerial functions will be automated by 2024.

From smart homes to auto-driving cars, users are already abuzz with the magic that is about to happen. The senior leadership of companies should encourage automation possibilities. Some of the examples can include:

1.1 - Data cleaning scripts

Imagine a system that cleans the data and removes the haystack from the needle. Isn’t that big? Data science has grown in the last few years like never before. Talk to your technical team about what are the opportunities here.

1.2 - Automating customer feedback

Unless you like to burn your money, there is no excuse to not have this. Several customers feel too shy to share a bad experience when asked by a human. Have a robot ask about their experience and they are more likely to offer honest feedback. As a bonus, you save on costs and get analytical reports in real-time. Talk to your technical team and find out if there are any opportunities here.

1.3 - IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system and chatbots for customer support

“When is my next payment due?”, “What is my current balance”, and several other common customer requests can be handled much faster and better with an IVR and a chatbot assuming you train these tools right. Talk to your technical team or hire a consultant to find out if you have any opportunities here.

2. New age of consultants or the gig-economy

You do not always need to bring in an independent contractor for a few months. In fact, several smaller tasks can be achieved by hiring a remote worker for just a few hours or days, instead of months.

Did you hear about Fiverr? If your programmer is stuck cracking a certain technical barrier, then hire someone on Fiverr to do just that piece without sharing any other details like data.

You may like to encourage your tech folks to use Fiverr when they need a quick fix like a regular expression or an overly complicated piece of code to implement an algorithm. Often times it may save you precious days. 

3. Do your employees know IFTTT and Power Automate? If not, they should, to make their lives easier!

There was a time when computers were used by only techies. And, there was a time when automating needed technical skills.

You know what - welcome to the new world. Your teams should be trained to use certain automation tools.

IFTTT (If This Then That) is an established tool for non-tech users to automate things like if I post a video on YouTube then tell my Facebook followers. Your corporate communications can use this.

And then, your O-365 license includes Power Automate. It can automate things like if a client uploads or changes a document in a Dropbox folder, then email me and my manager.

The above tools are easy to use for any Internet-savvy person. Talk to your technical team if these can help your users work and collaborate better, automate some tasks, and help your team spend less time on repetitive tasks, and have more time being creative.