11 unexpected benefits of smart workplaces

The right technology helps you do business better

Your digital workplace is all of the technology that forms the working environment for your staff. From email, messaging and video conferencing to mobile devices, the digital workplace is everything you use to get the job done. But the benefits a smart digital workplace brings aren’t confined to technology.

How do you support a digital workplace?

Creating a digital workplace involves committing to smart strategies to give staff the tools to connect and collaborate. Your digital workplace strategy should balance business objectives with risk management, compliance and employee productivity and satisfaction.

1. Attracts and retain staff

   Staff want new technologies that make their work life easier. You can up your game and attract the best talent by building a reputation as a business that values technology and innovation.

2. Creates a collaborative culture

   Providing the tools for collaboration within and across offices is the start – but you need to back it up with training and support to use the systems. And make sure they’re reliable systems that won’t let staff down for important meetings or waste time when the connection drops out. Smart, reliable conferencing builds a culture where ideas and innovation are valued, and seamless collaboration means issues are resolved quickly.

3. Better customer service

   A more efficient, productive and engaged workforce means your customers get the best your people and your technology has to offer. Smarter tech solutions internally flow on to your end users and boost your brand even if the tech isn’t about them directly.

4. Unites your workforce

   Creating an environment where the workforce has access to useable technology that makes a difference to their day unites your workforce. By using the same systems and processes wherever they are, staff feel like they’re on the same page and focus on shared organisational and business goals.

5. Time to spark ideas

   The right technology tools and information at the right time makes work life easier and more productive. Less time spent on the phone to IT support, waiting for a video conference or trying to collaborate on a document via email is time better spent on pushing projects through, big ideas and innovative collaborations. Automated workflows aren’t here to replace the human element – but to make our lives easier so our time is better spent.

6. Trade offs for remote options

   Research shows many staff would take a lower salary if it meant more flexibility to work away from the office.

7. Powerful social networks

   Setting up social networks as part of your digital workplace can do more than promote communication. Research shows organisations with strong online social media tools are more productive and employees are more satisfied.

8. Captures business IP

   As the workforce ages, the baby boomers are taking key knowledge with them as they retire because there’s no means of capturing it. By making policy and procedure documentation part of the digital workflow, your business can record their knowledge and keep the IP they’ve built up.

9. Boosts customer privacy

   Even technology focussed internally rather than on your customer experience can have flow on benefits for your customers. By providing a secure internal network and educating staff on compliance, anyone dealing with your business gets a boost to their security.

10. Cuts costs to invest elsewhere

    When you choose cost-effective digital solutions, you free up funds to invest elsewhere in the business. This could be the difference that enables you to launch a new product or service that grows your business.

11. Breaks down silos

    The right tech encourages relationship building and collaboration. It’s no longer enough to communicate within your own team and let management take care of any projects that crossover. Employees want to build connections beyond work groups based on matching skills and sharing knowledge.

    The best digital workplaces ensure coordinated technology rollouts so all staff are working on the same platforms and share ownership.

Source: The Digital Workplace (Deloitte)