The Intelligent Workplace: Understanding the Digital Work Revolution
Technology and digital transformation have always propelled the evolution of the workforce forward. Now that digital work is growing faster than ever before, the evolution of the intelligent workplace is even more important. For many companies and workers, the pivot to more digital work has been permanent; whether that’s a form of flexible schedules, hybrid, or remote work. Where once face-to-face meetings, in-person collaboration, and spending all working hours in the office were the norm, now virtual meetings, Slack collaborations, and hybrid, remote, or co-working spaces are turning into the new workplace normal.
It may seem like with all the fast-paced digital growth in the workplace that’s transpired in recent years that we would start to experience a stagnant period before the next phase of growth. However, with evolving new workplace demands, working standards and preferences, and continued technology and digital improvements, it doesn’t look like the growth will stop or slow down anytime soon.
As the new work norms continue to shift towards more hybrid and remote work, the continued evolution of digital technology and its adoption in the workplace is crucial for companies to maintain productivity, performance, quality management, and culture. Let’s dive into essential technologies for organizations that want to continue to evolve their intelligent workplace.
Technologies for a Connected Intelligent Workplace
Modern-day employees are more and more technology literate, especially as more workers who grew up in the digital age continue to enter the workforce. Since technology also heavily impacts people’s personal lives, and most people don’t go anywhere without a mini-computer known as a cell phone in their hand, employees expect and possibly even work best with the same level of technology on the job. Nowadays, we’re used to instant access and connection to information, people, solutions, and everything in between.
With hybrid work becoming increasingly common, the demand for digital technology that provides instant access and connection within the workplace is higher than ever before. As hybrid work started to grow, concern about if employees would be as productive out of the office was the main focus. However, many technological applications that ease those concerns have proven to help facilitate the same levels of productivity, effectiveness, and performance as in the office with many companies experiencing even higher performance.
Even though many of these software and applications existed before the increase in hybrid work and the need for more digital productivity, in the past few years, they’ve been proven to be essential for more organizations and employees for their day-to-day tasks and meeting company objectives.
Project management software, such as Monday.com, helps individuals and teams keep track of various projects, tasks, deadlines, and deliverables to stay on track, accomplish projects, and keep productivity levels high. Other applications, like Slack and Microsoft Teams, provide companies and employees with an instant communication and collaboration hub to hold virtual meetings, individual conversations, ask questions and collaborate without being in the office.
These are just small examples of the technology available to companies and employees in the digital workspace and only the beginning of how it will continue to evolve. Organizations and employee productivity and performance will continue to benefit from the increased digitalization of the workplace.
The Bottom Line: What Lies Ahead for the Digital Work Evolution
The intelligent workplace is expected to increase with the physical equipment, software, and cloud-based applications that evolve and come onto the market for companies and employees. However, for companies to stay focused on sustainability and long-term objectives, it’s important to create strategizes around the technology that will best suit the individual needs of a company and its work environment. In addition, ensuring that all employees are adequately trained using digital tools within the workplace is equally important.
Companies can only benefit from the evolution of the intelligent workplace when they have their own, strong digital transformation strategy in place. With aligned digital adoption, transformation, and application, your organization and teams can thrive in the growing digitalized workforce.
Chris Dyer is a company culture expert and CMO of PeopleG2, which has continuously been ranked as one of the best places to work. If you’re interested in learning about how Chris can help you prioritize and navigate the digital workforce in a hybrid environment, reach out to get in contact today.
