Want a motivated team? Empower them with the right digital workplace tools
Enhancing the employee experience with connected workforce solutions that work seamlessly in the background
There’s no shortage of ‘expert’ opinion pieces out there telling organizations the one thing they should do to help a multi-generational workforce thrive, or what is the key to catering for specific groups in the workplace.
The focus is often on making sure devices are always on to allow people to work anywhere, but in today’s world this should be a given, and according to our this doesn’t always make people more productive.
These articles miss one simple fact: regardless of age, gender or background, every employee you have is a unique individual. And if you want them to be as productive as possible you need to empower them with the right digital workplace tools for their job and ensure they are supported in ways that make them want to work, not feel obliged to.
The simple truth is this: it’s no longer enough for devices to simply work or be up to date. The real value comes from providing connected workforce services that empower and motivate people by truly understanding their needs and how to meet those needs at the right moment. Our research shows that without this, people often feel less productive despite devices being more available.
Easier said than done, of course. Catering for every individual when you’re a five-person start-up is one thing. But when you’re a multinational organization with tens of thousands of employees it becomes something of a monumental task.
But that’s where technology can make the impossible achievable.
Targeting individuals through modern workplace technology
Conversations about catering for different types of people in the workforce often seem to default to discussing the four generations: how they differ from each other or how senior they are in the business.
But someone’s working style, motivation or preference is determined by many more factors than simply how long they’ve been on this Earth.
One great example of this is an app we developed for autistic employees called Buddy Connect. Because people with autism tend to struggle when interacting with people in certain ways and scenarios, we wanted to give them a way of feeling more comfortable and in control at work. We’ve already seen some really positive impact from the app, but the next stage will be to provide a view on where their colleagues are within a building, to help them find those colleagues in a stress-free way.
This is just one example, but it shows how a relatively simple app can have a profoundly positive impact on the way an individual feels and performs at work. And the more we use technology in this way the happier and more productive our workforce will be as a result.
Joining everything up
As our Buddy Connect app illustrates, making a diverse group of people happy at work requires much more than a one-size-fits-all approach, and that’s where the right technology in the workplace can really start to make a difference.
This isn’t about trying to think of one service that could make everyone happy – it’s about targeting each individual with services that specifically add value to their working day and in the context of what they’re trying to do. What are their likes and dislikes? How do they like to work? And what devices or apps could help support that?
It’s all about finding the answers to these questions and understanding how people spend their time between various tools already, which means moving from simple people data to complex, real-time information sets. Then you can provide the workplace technology they need and reduce the amount of time they waste on irrelevant or unproductive tasks.
And importantly: those tools and services need to be connected seamlessly in the background, to the point where employees don’t know when they’re moving from one software provider or operating system to another. This is achievable through simple, single interfaces.
The days when people were prepared to spend hours trawling through intranet sites and different applications for the services they need are long gone. If things are not simple, easy to find and intuitive, people simply won’t use them.
How AI could soon change everything in the digital workspace
As I said above, all of this is easier said than done. And it relies on processing a huge amount of information to create these personalized experiences – a massive task, particularly in a larger organization, and especially with the security that needs to be wrapped around these areas.
Thankfully, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and automation are beginning to reach the point where they can add huge amounts of value to workplace IT services by providing that contextual and personalized approach.
In short: we’re moving towards a truly intelligent workplace. One that knows what each employee needs and gives it to them without any prompting. And when that intelligent workplace arrives it will change everything. Why? Because everything I’ve talked about in this blog post – learning the ins and outs of every individual employee and serving them what they need when they need it – will only be truly achievable once we master the use of AI in workplace technology.
Conclusion: take the lead from consumer brands
When you break it down, the digital workplace technology expectations of individual employees are no different to what they’ve come to expect when using technology or online services in their private lives. They want things to work smoothly. They expect everything to be joined up. They won’t tolerate any downtime at all. And they want everything to be secure enough to ensure their data is safe. This is fast becoming “the given”, therefore providing targeted workplace technology solutions that empower and motivate employees to be happy at work and hence more productive will be key.
And if companies across the world have managed to deliver on those expectations for their customers, there’s no reason they can’t do the same for their employees.
For more insight into how you can change your organization to meet the needs of your employees download our Workplace 2025 research report.
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