The transition to a fully remote workforce has been complicated for many companies - especially as they juggle multiple digital workplace bumps, such as managing their remote workers, recalling them to the office and keeping people safe in the transition process.
To overcome these bumps, your digital workplace solution should help streamline your operations, empower your remote workers and ensure productivity. But how do you pick the right solution?
How do you measure the impact of a digital workplace?
Measuring the impact of adopting a digital workplace is difficult, and most firms aren't doing it. In fact, they throw so many technologies into the mixing pot that most digital projects fail. It’s no surprise then that many employee communities do not have measurable and operational strategies. They continue along with crossed fingers, hoping that everything works. However, when technology is implemented to empower and improve the experience of remote workers, they can overcome several challenges.
To begin, enlist feedback from your entire organisation on what goals your business is trying to achieve. Common key performance indicators (KPIs) for this stage include:
- Overhead cost reductions
- Revenue generation
- Customer service improvements
- Employee retention and attraction
- Employee experience
- Brand reputation
- Innovation
Once key stakeholders agree on the specific areas for improvement, you can begin to measure whether your current digital workplace is a success - or if it needs significant improvement. Retention of information, collaboration availability, cost savings, and feelings of positivity, productivity, and empowerment are all lead indicators of how your digital workplace is performing.
Here are six strategies to measure your digital workplace’s impact:
- Identify your top business goal
- Rethink your ROI
- Create a baseline for where you are now
- Pick the best data points for your unique workplace
- Consider a variety of personas
- Track and highlight insights - both good and bad
After determining your measurements of success, the full list of benefits of a single digital workplace will become more apparent.
What are the benefits of a digital workplace?
A digital workplace is a deliberate, constantly updating approach to empowering your employees to work remotely. However, there can be too much of a good thing. Companies around the world report they use an average of 16 SaaS applications, but a more simple solution is necessary to maximise communication, productivity and collaboration. There are tangible and quantifiable benefits to implementing a single digital workplace solution rather than relying on a variety of technology systems.
To empower your remote workers, you need to centralise the information they use. Your digital workplace solution can give your remote workers the tools they need to collaborate, connect and excel in their responsibilities. If you have various systems, pooling information becomes exceedingly difficult, and your employees have to juggle multiple applications just to complete one task.
A single digital workplace can also reduce manual processes, bridging the gap to enablement and access.
Digital Workplaces Connect and Engage Employees
Organisations that have implemented intranets and internal social media have seen an increase in employee satisfaction, an 87 percent increase in employee retention, and an increase in access to the 64 percent of employees who would take a lower-paying job if it meant they could work remotely.
Additionally, unexpected benefits that some businesses have seen include broader project knowledge and a new employee perspective of how they view the company. After the implementation of a digital workplace, employees often have more empathy and understanding of what other teams are doing because they witness more closely the intricacies of and connections with other teams. Thanks to the increased collaboration, they also celebrate the success of other groups more, share knowledge about little-known topics and solicit feedback from employees across the entire corporation.
