Are you looking for ways to improve your digital workplace?
In this article, we’ll cover seven tips that can help you upgrade your workplace, boost employee productivity, improve the work climate, and more.
7 Ways to Make the Digital Workplace Even Better
A digital workplace embeds technology throughout the work environment, makes the most of cutting-edge tools, and closes the gap between employees and their tools.
There are always ways to become even more digital, however, which is why it’s important to keep learning and growing.
Here are seven ways you can continue digitizing your workplace and improving the employee experience:
1. Identify and deploy tools that can help you improve
Today’s workplace is built upon technology, and though tools aren’t everything, they are essential to success in the modern era.
The right tools can offer a competitive advantage, improve efficiency, accelerate digital transformation, and more.
It is a good idea to be aware of digital complexity, however, since too much complexity in the workplace can complicate workflows and hinder productivity.
Therefore, change should begin with change readiness assessments that address areas such as:
- Business needs
- Existing IT tools and infrastructure
- Employees’ digital skills and openness to change
By assessing such factors beforehand, change managers and leaders can streamline adoption, reduce resistance to change, and maximize time-to-competency.
2. Promote a culture of learning
Another way to simplify and accelerate the adoption of new digital tools is by cultivating the right corporate culture.
Organizational cultures come in many shapes and sizes – and there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all culture that suits every organization.
That being said, there are traits that can be beneficial in a digital workplace.
A few of these include:
- Openness to change
- Digital savviness
- Self-reliance
- A pro-learning attitude
These types of attributes can significantly boost employees’ ability to adapt and stay innovative in today’s digital-first economy.
3. Create an employee training plan
The main benefit of employee training is that it can improve employees’ productivity.
After all, the more that employees know about their jobs, the better they’ll be able to do them, which means they’ll be able to do their jobs more quickly and efficiently.
Training can also help you retain qualified employees, since today’s workers are interested in employers that can help them build their careers.
When creating a training program, it’s essential to use data-driven methods that are based on clear goals and measurable objectives.
As the saying goes, “You can’t improve what you can’t measure,” so training managers should always be evaluating and improving the results they’re getting from your training program.
4. Involve employees in the adoption process
To improve employee engagement, it’s important to make sure that employees are involved in decision-making processes, so that they feel that they have a voice and that their opinion matters.
Listening is just the first step, though.
It is a good idea to offer a certain degree of autonomy, independence, and decision-making power – within reason, of course. Not only do employees appreciate the freedom, but it also shows that you trust them and that you believe in their ability to make good decisions.
On top of that, a collaborative approach to workplace design can:
- Improve innovation
- Boost teamwork and the workplace climate
- Increase employee engagement
- Support a culture of self-reliance
Participative decision making (PDM) can, in short, both accelerate workplace digitization, while also enhancing the workplace itself.
5. Hire and retain a digitally savvy workforce
Since the workplace is built upon the workforce, it is crucial to have digitally skilled teams.
As mentioned above, employee training can significantly boost digital skill levels, as well as key metrics such as employee retention and performance.
Another way to retain top talent, though, is by hiring the best people in the first place.
This dual approach can fuel the digitization of the workplace, as well as the digital transformation of the entire enterprise, as research from MIT has found – that same research demonstrated, however, that digitally savvy workers have expectations of their own, which can revolve around compensation, flexibility, and integrity from their leaders.
While this may require rethinking one’s own approach to employer branding, it is well worth the investment.
6. Embrace new work models
New operating models and business models are transforming the workplace.
A truly digital workplace, for example, must not only implement new tools, it must adopt new digital workflows, processes, and strategies.
Examples include business approaches that are:
- Data-driven
- Agile
- Lean
In today’s fast-paced market, these types of approaches are mandatory for staying successful and competitive – and it is important to create a workplace that supports these approaches.
7. Design a workplace that supports digital business strategy
The workplace is the foundation of workflows and business processes, which, in turn, support business operations and business strategy.
As we have seen, this often means rethinking the workplace from the ground up. At the same time, it is necessary to tie that workplace structure to business strategy and business outcomes.
To do that:
- Start with the organization’s strategy and business goals
- Assess how the current workplace does – or does not – contribute to those goals
- Redesign the people, processes, and systems to support those business goals
Ultimately, all of the points covered above should serve the aim of driving business outcomes, so this last point should act as a principle that guides all of your efforts.
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WalkMe Team
WalkMe spearheaded the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) for associations to use the maximum capacity of their advanced resources. Utilizing man-made consciousness, AI, and context-oriented direction, WalkMe adds a powerful UI layer to raise the computerized proficiency, everything being equal.