A digital workplace is a modern, virtual version of a traditional workplace that serves as a centralized hub for employees to collaborate, securely access or share data and execute business functions from anywhere, on any device, at any time, while driving competitive advantage, innovation, and sustainable business growth. 

IN THIS GUIDE

• What is a digital workplace?
• What are the key factors to consider in a digital workplace?
• What are the essential components of a digital workplace?
• Debunking 3 common myths about the digital workplace
• What are the benefits of a digital workplace?
• How does a digital workplace transform your employee experience?
• Why choose Infince over other digital workplaces?
• Conclusion

What is a Digital Workplace?

Any discussion on the future of work is incomplete without mentioning digital workplace technologies. The modern workplace is no longer a physical space we need to go to. The rapid transition to remote work driven by COVID-19 and the increasing popularity of hybrid work models have spurred the evolution of digital workplaces. 

Digital workplace software features the entire portfolio of applications, IT infrastructure, workplace technologies, and enabling services that power new ways of working and contribute to employee experience and engagement. 

Digital workplace software equips employees to take full advantage of existing and emerging technologies for driving business outcomes, including digital transformation.    

Simply put, a digital workplace is a virtual work environment in which your employees, scattered across diverse geographies, teams, and departments, can stay connected, access data, and do their work at any time of the day, using any device of their choice. You can enjoy the benefits of a digital workplace if you have a stable internet connection and a computing device (such as a laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone). 

What are the Key Factors to Consider in a Digital Workplace?

Digital workplace success primarily relies on three important factors. They are:

1. People

A digital workplace is designed to meet the changing needs of the modern workforce. Millennials and Gen Z, who make up the world’s largest working population, desire more flexibility in their work preferences (eg: remote or hybrid work models). The productivity and satisfaction of people should always take a front seat when planning digital workplace initiatives. 

2. Technology

Robust technology is the backbone of digital workplace software. The growth of the internet, along with the technologies that stem from it, has decentralized work. Physical space is no longer required for employees to communicate or store, access, and share information in real time. A digital workplace should incorporate technologies that help bridge the gap between people and productivity, such as cloud and mobility.  

3. Management

Strong and helpful management facilitates meaningful coordination between people and technology by driving a positive company culture. Management should make workplace technology more accessible for everyone and motivate employees to take full advantage of virtual collaboration solutions. This can go a long way in improving workplace transparency, accountability, and employee engagement.

What are the Essential Components of a Digital Workplace?

A typical digital workplace is an assembly of six basic components: 

Broadly speaking, a digital workplace should offer all the essential features to navigate a specific workday. 

1. Communication

Communication requirements in a workplace can be both synchronous and asynchronous. Collaborating with your team members in real-time or near real-time from a single location or multiple locations is critical for the success of your digital workplace. Synchronous or real-time collaboration is enabled through one-on-one voice and video calls, meetings with multiple participants, and live chat. Asynchronous communication that doesn’t require instant action, allowing people to respond or update according to their availability, is also an important component of the digital workplace. The best example of this type of communication is email. 

2. Mobility

The most striking feature of a digital workplace is anywhere, anytime accessibility which makes mobility an inevitable component of remote and hybrid work cultures. Your digital workplace should be accessible via authorized mobile devices (in the form of a mobile app or mobile website), especially when you are coordinating employees from multiple locations. Use stringent access controls to ensure that only the right users are logging into your digital workplace through authorized devices and login credentials. 

3. Productivity 

Popular productivity tools that help employees work efficiently, such as word processors, spreadsheets, presentation software, task management tools, calendar, etc., are a must-have digital workplace component. Productivity tools enable your team to easily manage their day-to-day activities and raise their efficiency.    

4. Security 

Digital workplace adoption implies shifting to a cloud-first, mobile-first workplace, where employees use many devices to accomplish tasks. This can expose organizations to potential cyber threats and security vulnerabilities. Digital workplaces offering virtual private servers (VPS) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) help retain absolute rights over your data by employing advanced access controls, user permissions, and firewalls. 

5. Storage

Sufficient storage is a must to handle both expected and unexpected workloads, whether your data is stored onsite in physical servers or uploaded to virtual cloud servers. There should also be a provision to scale storage on demand with ease as your organization grows.     

6. Integrations

Work becomes more convenient and smart when all your productivity tools and collaboration apps can be accessed and managed from a centralized platform through a single sign-on. Handling multiple subscription renewals, maintaining separate login credentials for each software, and spending money on unused tools can be easily eliminated with centralized IT management. Through seamless third-party software integration, a digital workplace brings all the tools you need in one place to perform your tasks without any interventions and challenges. 

Debunking 3 Common Myths About the Digital Workplace

Though digital workplaces are designed to make life easier and more productive for employees, only a few are aware of the benefits. Outdated views about workplace technologies prevent IT leaders and key stakeholders from providing their buy-in. Three common false assumptions standing in the way of digital workplace adoption are dispelled here:    

Myth #1: Digital workplace adoption can happen without culture change

The pandemic expedited the adoption of digital workplace technologies, which made remote work mainstream. However, most organizations use digital workplace tools such as video meeting solutions and visual collaboration applications to emulate their existing communication and collaboration experiences instead of enabling new ways of working. This affects the productivity of employees. 

Here’s what you can do to address this challenge:

• Nominate peer advocates and champions at the team level who can coach team members and support the cultural and process changes needed in a digital workplace.    
• Identify employees who need more encouragement or motivation. Demonstrate how the digital workplace is linked to their career advancement. 
• Develop a “our way of working” statement that helps employees select the applications they need for each scenario. This encourages them to use all of the functionalities you’ve implemented. 

Myth #2: Workplace collaboration is always synchronous

Several business leaders still believe that true workplace collaboration occurs only when their employees are in the same place, working on a common task. In a hybrid world with frequently overlapping work schedules, asynchronous modes of collaboration equally impact team innovation. Employees forced to spend more time in meetings have proven that they can be as productive and innovative using modern asynchronous collaboration methods. For example, video meeting recordings and transcriptions are great time savers, as they reduce the need for meetings and allow employees to catch up on missed discussions.

Ways to promote asynchronous collaboration methods:

• Use internal networking collaboration tools like employee intranet solutions to experiment with new collaboration styles, grow communities, and strengthen employee interactions.
• Collaborative work management applications, such as online office tools, file collaboration, and simultaneous editing, drive the adoption of new collaboration practices, improve workplace transparency and accountability, and boost employee engagement.

Myth #3: Digital workplace and digital transformations are the same

The digital workplace is often used interchangeably with digital transformation. Both aren’t the same. A digital workplace provides an engaging and intuitive environment for employees to collaborate virtually through a horde of workplace applications. It allows teams to leverage existing and emerging technologies to drive business outcomes. A digital transformation model exploits the latest digital technologies to create new business models. 

A digital workplace is a key step in accomplishing the digital transformation. Prioritizing employee-centric workplace digital initiatives will augment your digital transformation agenda.

• Understand what could enhance your employee experience and help them operate in a more engaging and intuitive workplace.
• Choose a digital workplace software that’s easy for your employees and managers to optimize when, where, and how the work gets done. 

What are the Benefits of a Digital Workplace?

A digital workplace improves employee engagement in your organization by giving your teams the tools they require to connect, collaborate, and perform their core responsibilities at work. Here is why you should implement digital workplace software.

1. Flexibility to work remotely

The third edition of McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey reveals that 87% of people prefer to work remotely one or more days per week if given a choice. Remote work gives employees the flexibility and freedom to manage their core job responsibilities without being physically in their office workspace. 

A digital workplace platform features all the collaboration tools you need to connect virtually with your colleagues and access your company data and applications online from any device, any location, at any time of the day. This will enhance your employees’ job satisfaction, productivity, and work-life balance. Flexible work environments and schedules help employees get the most out of their workdays, as they can time-shift to perform work when they are most prepared.      

2. More room for ideation and innovation

Smart and reliable virtual collaboration tools cut down meeting times, reduce delays in peer-to-peer communication, strengthen employee-management relationships, and give teams more room for ideation and innovation. Better workplace coordination infuses a collaborative culture in your organization that helps churn ideas that may not otherwise have been heard. 

Instant feedback shared laterally between team members and vertically between the management and employees will improve your team’s workplace morale and satisfaction.  Employees ardently use their freed-up time for problem-solving and ideation when work becomes easier.  

3. Lower operational expenses

There is no better choice than a cost-effective digital workplace to manage globally distributed teams. When you are spared from the need to pay multiple subscription costs and license renewal charges, your operating expenses decrease considerably. For example, a cloud-based digital workplace platform eliminates the need for costly on-premise servers and storage and the physical office space and IT resources needed to operate and maintain them. 

4. Better data security, storage, and access

Digital workplace software leverages the power of the cloud and mobility. Cloud technology ensures secure storage and easy access/ sharing of data files from anywhere, at any time. The virtual work environment allows employees to access the right information they need and share their knowledge with a few clicks or taps. 

Most digital workplaces are designed with built-in security measures. To protect your employees’ personal identity and save your data from cyber attacks, you can implement additional security measures, such as strong password encryption and multi-factor authentication.   

5. Transparent work environment

A digital workplace combines multiple components into a single suite, so your employees can perform their best with as few obstacles as possible. When everyone in your team is on the same page, you will get more time to focus on business and organizational goals. Sharing company news, success stories, culture posts, accolades, and recognition via the digital workplace platform improves team bonding, promotes a “family-like” environment in your workplace, and ensures all employees are aligned with your organizational culture.     

How Does a Digital Workplace Transform Your Employee Experience?

Digital workplaces follow a bottom-up approach that considers all the daily challenges of employees and provides all the tools to boost the overall employee experience.

1. Facilitates modern workstyle

A digital workplace platform allows employees to work remotely with optimum productivity. Easy access to all information in one place, sharing the right information to the right people at the right time, collaboration tools, productivity applications, and all the necessary tools and technology for your remote employees ensure that their productivity isn’t compromised.

2. Bring your own device (BYOD)

Millennials, who presently comprise the largest portion (38%) of the American workforce, prefer to work from their own devices because they feel more engaged, motivated, and comfortable. As long as your employees are connected to the internet, they can access their work-related data anywhere, on any device. The freedom to use any device they prefer improves your organization’s employee experience. 

3. Communication and Collaboration

Effective workplace collaboration is the key to business success and innovation. Ideas developed by a team of three or more people have a greater appeal than those developed by just one or two individuals. However, desk-side collaborations and conversations over lunch are practically impossible when you have a highly distributed workforce. A digital workplace platform is the best way to make collaboration and coordination an important part of your company culture. Using digital workplace software, you can set up internal communication channels for every team or department, making it easy for members to communicate with each other. It gives your team more time for innovation and ideation by reducing the duration and number of meetings they attend.     

Why Choose Infince Over Other Digital Workplaces?

No digital workplace platform is 100% one-size-fits-all. Therefore, it’s crucial to find a digital workplace solution that can be customized according to your company’s needs and integrated with your existing workflows and third-party software tools, if any. To keep it simple and short, a digital workplace should augment your employee experience and work culture without disrupting your existing workflows and give you better results and ROI. This is where Infince makes a difference.  

Whatever your use case may be – team communication, project management, document creation and sharing, managing information assets, video meeting, virtual collaboration, and more, Infince has everything you need to handle all aspects of your business. Here is a summary of the top Infince features. 

Watch more: How Infince Digital Workplace makes work smart, efficient, and productive!

1. Built-in collaboration apps and productivity tools

• Collaboration apps for employees to coordinate at work more efficiently, including employee directory, live chat, one-on-one voice and video calls, video conferencing, and private email.
• A comprehensive suite of productivity tools that help perform your day-to-day organizational activities like task management, document creation, and sharing. 
• Ready-to-access online office tools: Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Calendars raise your employees’ productivity. Employees can easily share and collaborate on documents and get the work done quickly.
• Secure file sharing: Files can be securely shared between employees, but also between employees and non-employees using options like upload-only folders and password-protected files.

2. Custom dashboards to track insights and make decisions

• Infince lets users create custom dashboards to help them keep track of what’s happening in their project or team. It brings an effective way to communicate key business information in real-time and simplifies team collaboration.
• Infince dashboards can be restricted to and contain just the information appropriate for the expected viewers. However, those viewers may be classified: as Organization, Department, or Team. An individual can create private dashboards for their sole use. 
• Unique standard tiles on the Infince dashboards allow sharing of different types of information, including news feeds, announcements, bookmarks, videos, notes, and more, in one view.
• The dashboards consolidate data from various sources (such as other internal software apps) and display insights in charts, graphs, tables, and other formats.  

3. Infince Mobile App

• Download the Infince employee engagement mobile app on your iOS or Android device and stay on top of your work.
• View dashboard updates, access work files, find contacts, join video meetings, and do a lot more with the intuitive Infince mobile app.
• Customize the app’s interface to reflect your branding and deliver a highly engaging experience to your workforce.
• The mobile app is envisioned to help you perform all the functions that are available on your Infince Web, from anywhere, at any time.

Watch more: How the Infince Mobile App seamlessly enables a connected workplace!

4. Private and secure IT infrastructure

• Private cloud infrastructure guarantees enterprise-grade security for your organization. It provides unmatched data security and powerful performance that your IT team can manage and monitor easily. 
• We offer dedicated virtual servers, so you don’t have to manage your cloud platform separately. Infince private enterprise cloud gets renewed along with your subscription. 
• Virtual private servers improve corporate privacy because there is no sharing of your company data with third-party software vendors. Infince’s secure digital infrastructure achieves this added protection through its inbuilt firewalls and encryption/password-based user access controls.

5. Custom brand your digital workplace 

• You can elevate your brand presence from your workspace to your customer front with Infince’s extensive custom branding options. 
• Showcase your brand logo and colors at every touchpoint – internally and externally – such as your private email, website, digital workplace, company mobile app, and video meeting rooms.
• Carve a unique brand identity that’s both consistent and catchy through custom business email, white-labeled web and mobile apps, personalized smart workspaces, and branded video meeting rooms. 
• Reflect on your brand’s purpose, values, strategy, and communication codes with Infince. 

6. Curated application marketplace

• Infince features a growing library of commercial and open-source business applications from several software vendors on its platform. Available applications come in categories suited to different business functions, such as CRM, ERP, project management, HRM, etc. 
• Subscribe and readily access all your essential enterprise applications with a single sign-on through the marketplace. Suggest any compatible software that can be added to the marketplace. Our developers also help you build special-purpose custom software. 
• Easily integrate all your business processes, reduce expenses, manage resources optimally, and engage with clients better to stimulate growth. 
• Stay on top of your software costs by avoiding multiple subscriptions and unused software tools.  

7. Business phone system

• Infince offers a complete cloud-based phone system for all your business communications.
• Enjoy lower call costs per minute based on the time spent on calls. No cancellation fees are required.
• An intelligent IVR system helps improve customer service efficiency, manage incoming call spikes, and increase customer satisfaction with auto callbacks.
• Automated call distribution minimizes call waiting times by customizing call flow paths and diverting callers to the right agents.

Conclusion

A robust digital workplace drives real cultural change. It breaks down communication barriers, transforms employee experience, and fosters innovation and growth. From integrating email and instant messaging to virtual meeting software and custom business dashboards, Infince offers all the tools you need to implement an entirely new working environment that replicates your employees’ changing work experience.

Connect with us today or request a quick 30 minutes demo now!

Productivity leakage is a concern when it comes to remote work.

There’s still a debate on whether to work from home or the office. And to settle this debate, we focus on the productivity levels in each working environment. Productivity can only be measured with the amount of outcome generated by the employee.

It’s a common notion that employees are distracted or less productive when working remotely. A leader constantly worries about deadlines, deliverables, team relationships, employee creative levels, and upscaling employee skills that contribute to the company’s goals. However, a survey conducted by Work Trends Study states 87% of employees say they’re more productive when working remotely or in a hybrid setup. 

But employees, on the other hand, might feel a communication gap and lack motivation when working remotely. Employers must ensure a connected workplace with effective and regular communication, feedback, and employee training. Focusing on these factors alone can help companies tackle the challenges of shifting work culture.

With remote work culture growing, particularly given recent trends with companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and SalesForce all announcing new policies for unlimited working from home, it is crucial to stop and see how this change in dynamics might impact the culture at your company. These nearly invisible changes directly impact employees’ happiness, yet data and analytics are lacking to see how remote and hybrid working impacts things.

Regarding productivity, managers who track it down on baseless metrics like working hours, putting a tracker system, and following up every hour, jinx the work culture. In this blog, let’s try to understand how remote work culture directly impacts productivity, internal relationships, creativity, and collaboration and if it is the future of work!

How is remote work culture impacting work productivity?

While working remotely may increase productivity, decrease stress, eliminate real-estate costs, and lower greenhouse emissions, it may cause several workplace problems. Remote work can hurt a company’s culture in several ways; a lack of social interaction may cause workplace relationships to suffer. For those individuals who strongly prefer working in-person, remote work culture’s de-engagement effects can be as severe as 17% lower productivity to 24% higher turnover.

We covered quite a bit of ground on building good communications and developing a positive corporate culture while working with distributed or remote teams. Developing company culture is not simply done for its own sake; it significantly impacts employee retention, satisfaction, and performance.

You need to understand that long-lasting remote working culture impacts how you are perceived by employees and customers, which will eventually define the success or development of the company. But considering the upside of having a remote work culture, especially the cost advantages, it is not smart to completely turn down this culture shift. The only way to still embrace this shift is by ensuring healthy employer-employee or company-staff relationships. And with technological advances today, nothing is impossible!

Read more: How to Keep Your Remote Teams Connected

How can a digital workplace platform help maintain productivity in remote work culture?

There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to rethink the way they operate. For many, this has meant implementing remote work policies for the first time.
While working remotely has many benefits, some challenges also need to be addressed to ensure that productivity levels are maintained.

One way to do this is by using a digital workplace platform. This platform can help facilitate communication and collaboration between team members and help set and track goals.

It can be tough to cultivate a remote work team culture, but it’s worth it. Here are a few tips to help get you started.

1. Defining team culture in a remote work setting

The best way to create a team culture in a remote work setting is to start with the team’s goals and values. Define what the team wants to achieve and how they want to work together. Once these are established, everyone on the team should be on the same page and understand the culture that is being created. It’s important to be clear about what is and isn’t acceptable behavior and have a set of guidelines that everyone can refer to. This will help ensure that the team culture is maintained and everyone is working towards the same goal.

No one can work in a vacuum. To be productive, people need to feel part of a team. A remote work setting can be a challenge when it comes to creating a team culture.

Here are a few tips to help you get started.

• Define your team’s values and culture: What are the things that are important to your team? What are your core values? Defining your values and culture will help you to create a common understanding among your team members. It will also help you to make decisions when it comes to things like hiring and firing.
• Establish rules and guidelines: To ensure everyone is on the same page, it’s important to establish some rules and guidelines. These can include how often team members should communicate, what type of communication is acceptable, and how to handle conflict.
• Encourage team bonding: Even though team members may be working remotely, it’s important to find ways to encourage team bonding. This can be done through team-building exercises, social media groups, or video chats.
• Celebrate successes: When your team achieves something great, take the time to celebrate! This can be done through team emails, social media posts, or even a team video call.
• Be transparent: When things go wrong, it’s important to be transparent with your team. This includes being honest about why something went wrong, what is being done to fix it, and what the consequences will be. Creating a strong team culture in a remote work setting can be challenging, but it’s definitely worth the effort. By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to creating a team that is productive and happy.

2. Managing conflict in a remote work team culture

To manage conflict in a remote work team culture, it is important to understand the dynamics of the team and the culture in which it operates. Effective conflict management involves understanding the triggers for conflict, the communication channels available, and the team’s culture.

In a remote team, there may be a higher chance of misunderstandings due to the lack of communication or facial expressions. This can be exacerbated when team members are from different cultures. It is important to be aware of the potential triggers for conflict and to have effective communication channels in place.

When managing conflict in a remote team culture, it is important to be aware of cultural norms and expectations. In some cultures, it is acceptable to be more direct in communication, while in others, it is considered rude. It is important to be aware of these differences and to adjust communication styles as needed.

By understanding the dynamics of the team and the culture in which it operates, you can better manage conflict in a remote work team.

3. Encouraging team productivity in a remote work setting

To encourage productivity in a remote work setting, setting up some ground rules and expectations for team members is important. This includes clearly defined working hours, communication methods, and expectations for quality and output. It is also important to foster a positive team environment where team members are supportive of one another and are willing to help out when needed. By establishing a productive remote work environment, team members are more likely to be productive and meet deadlines.

Read more: Modernize and Simplify Your HR processes with a Digital Workplace Platform

How Infince makes an apt Digital workplace platform

Infince allows you to feel more in control of your data and your work-giving you a greater sense of mastery and purpose. It also helps you feel more connected to your team and organization, fostering a sense of community and collaboration matters.

Infince: Interactive, Data-Rich Dashboards to Boost Engagement

As an HR professional, you know that employee engagement is essential to organizational success. But what’s the best way to promote engagement within your organization?

One effective way is to use modern dashboard software to create custom dashboards for employees. By doing so, you can ensure that employees have the information they need to stay aligned with organizational goals.

Not only will this help to promote employee engagement, but it will also help to improve communication and collaboration within your organization. So if you’re looking for a way to boost employee engagement, consider using modern dashboard software to create custom dashboards for employees.

A Comprehensive Employee Directory

Looking for the contact information for your entire employee base? Look no further than the Infince comprehensive employee directory. This easy-to-use tool provides all the information you need to connect with your employees, no matter where they work. With multiple modes of collaboration available – live chat, one-on-one video calls, and meetings – your employees will stay connected and productive, even when working remotely.

More Productivity tools with Infince

Enhance your organization’s credibility with business emails. Store captured business data on documents, presentations, or spreadsheets in a private drive and ensured selective access through permissions and controls. Create events on Infince’s calendar, track tasks, and enhance your workforce efficiency easily!

Conclusion 

Various stats have proved that remote work culture has contributed to productivity but, at the same time, has also increased work stress for employees. However, the advent of remote working tools has helped embrace the work culture shifts and continues to enable the company to empower the upside of remote work culture! 

Infince, a powerful digital workplace platform, can help your company improve communication and collaboration and maintain transparency to embrace the remote work culture. It’s easy to use and can be customized to meet your needs. Start a free 30-day trial today and see how it helps your company!

With organizations worldwide adapting to either a hybrid or a remote work structure, the shift to a new work order is difficult if there is no digital workplace platform to streamline operations, especially if the company has a mix of on-site and online employees. Companies need digital solutions to ensure that all employees and stakeholders are on the same page.  

During the pandemic, many companies managed to pivot to remote work, but many of them used existing technology overlays to adapt to a hybrid or online work structure. These piecemeal solutions are inadequate and do not have the intuitive design of a digital workplace solution built especially for digital workplaces and put workers at the center of their design. Companies should choose solutions that digitally transform tasks, unify data, drive productivity, and provide intelligent collaboration apps.

What is a digital workplace? 

A digital workplace is a virtual office space designed to help employees work efficiently and carry out their tasks in remote or hybrid settings. Digital workplaces give employees instant access to resources and help them collaborate better. They streamline company workflows, increase productivity, and boost team morale. Digital workplace solutions also enable an always-connected work environment and a seamless employee experience.

There is a misconception that a digital workplace is simply a group of remote workers. Digital workplaces are all about how you work and are not restricted to location.  

According to Deloitte, a digital workplace can manage tasks from your HR applications and your core business applications to emails, instant chats, enterprise social media tools, and virtual meeting tools.

Deloitte points to one of the key requirements of a good digital workplace solution – one that aligns with the company’s business value and connects worker experience to business outcomes.

Read more: Deliver Engaging Experiences with the Infince Digital Workplace

https://vimeo.com/766361452

Digital workplaces are gaining traction in the remote work culture – here’s why

With digital workplaces, workplace efficiency has increased, and so has flexibility. Digital workplace solutions also equip companies with exciting new technologies that automate mundane tasks and increase the speed that it takes to complete time-sensitive projects.

With digital tools giving employees all the information they need, including troubleshooting guides and company manuals, customer care reps can service customers better. 

We live in a hyperconnected world where the right digital work experience drives workplace productivity. In its roundup of technology trends, Deloitte states that digital workplaces are gaining popularity because organizations need to use technology to optimize team productivity and collaboration to stay ahead of the curve. In particular, companies can derive incredible benefits from the actionable data generated by these tools and the AI-driven people analytics solutions that can drive superior workflow management solutions. 

A Gartner survey backs this up by reporting that 56% of CEOs attribute increased revenue to digital improvements. Many companies invest in digital workplace solutions because they know that these tools promise measurable returns, which accounts for their growing importance in business.

How Digital Workplace Solutions Make Remote Work Easy And Profitable 

Digital workplace solutions are built to make it easy to work virtually and remotely. They provide powerful enterprise productivity tools that help companies optimize workflows and create an agile workforce. Their tools work in sync with employee workflows, and they help companies adapt to the complexities of the new workforce.  

Digital workplace platforms help remote team members to collaborate easily. Employees can share files, manage cases, track project statuses, and enjoy a single integrated view of multiple workflows. This ensures that all employees and departments are not working in silos and that there is a more transparent, integrated working environment where team members can track project statuses, leads, define tasks, and set deadlines.

Digital workplace platforms provide collaboration tools that employees can use to work across locations and time zones. Digital workplace solutions also automate repetitive tasks, provide an integrated work experience, and increase employee engagement. They have also re-engineered organizational structures and cultures, with workers being more connected with leadership and employees having access to company data. 

Read more: Ensuring Digital Wellbeing With The Right Digital Workplace Platform!

Here’s How You Can Identify The Right Digital Workplace Solution 

When looking for the right digital workplace solution for your company, look for a complete digital workplace toolkit. While many piecemeal digital solutions offer communication tools, it’s the collaboration tools that truly make digital workplace solutions very useful. There is more to digital workplace productivity than ad-hoc digital solutions. Instead, look for a digital workplace orchestration platform that transforms how people work and collaborate. Unlike generic digital workplace tools, digital orchestration platforms are designed to help companies boost efficiency, scale operations, work on continuous innovation, and deliver proactive and intelligent people analytics.

Here are some aspects to consider when choosing the right digital workplace solution for your company.

• Go for personalized and intuitive solutions: Every company is different, so it is important to go with a customizable digital workplace solution that allows you to choose off-the-shelf software or SaaS per your requirements.  
• Look for collaboration tools: Choose a digital workplace platform that provides workgroup chats, group meetings, audio and video conferences, and other collaborative tools. Also, favor a platform with a unified dashboard to manage daily operations seamlessly. 
• Prioritize productivity tools: Go for platforms with important productivity tools like smart email management, simplified multi-app management, calendar management, time tracking, and collaboration channels. Look for tools that can monitor the progress of projects and employee performance. 
• Choose a people-focused digital workplace platform: With remote work, employees and teams need to be constantly engaged and motivated to work and collaborate efficiently. Choose platforms with intra-organizational tools that foster a sense of community and engagement.  

With an orchestration platform like Infince, you can simplify your processes and choose only the features you need, thereby controlling infrastructure costs. Infince’s modern tools unify data and give you a competitive edge over other companies. Want to increase your profits and drive great business outcomes? Infince helped a company like Fingent improve productivity by 20% due to its incredible digital workplace orchestration platform.

Fix a demo session today or talk to our experts to know more about Infince.

Remote work is here to stay, and companies that transition to a remote or hybrid work culture will be the ones that will adapt to the digital revolution that lies ahead. A survey by Upwork states that by 2025, 22% of North Americans will be working remotely.

To stay one step ahead of their competitors, companies must choose the right digital workplace platform to build their digital workplace ecosystem effectively and set up their digital businesses for success.

Digital workplace software offers the tools and technologies to make the best of remote work and to help remote teams double their productivity. These tools include apps to communicate, collaborate, and work productively from any part of the world, with unified access to business data and automation. 

Here are some factors to keep in mind when choosing the best digital workplace platform. 

• Opt for an integrated, cloud-based, one-stop digital workplace solution with robust data security features.
• Look for platforms that have superior project communication and automation tools  
• Choose user-friendly software with excellent dashboard systems and analytics.

Here are the top 10 digital workplace solutions in the market today.

Read more: The Definitive Guide to Perfect Digital Workplace Solution

 1. Infince

One of the best ultra-modern digital workplace platforms on the market, Infince offers a remarkable range of digital productivity tools and collaboration features. Infince is a cloud-based, all-in-one digital workplace platform that allows you to manage multiple workflows with its no-code workflow management. Its groundbreaking digital workplace orchestration platform helped US-based company Fingent launch its digital collaborations and remote workforce with incredible success.  

As soon as Fingent switched to Infince’s Digital Workplace, its productivity increased by 20%. Infince’s flawless data security system protected the company from serious data breaches.

Read more: How Fingent Achieved Breakthroughs in Collaboration with Infince Digital Workplace Orchestration Platform!

Key features of Infince

• Data-powered, custom dashboards: Infince offers tiled dashboards with a unified view of data and real-time insight, with graphs and charts adding to the visual element.
• Productivity tools: Infince’s productivity apps include calendar management tools, smart email management, and collaboration channels.
• Collaboration tools: Infince offers presentation and collaboration tools, including time management apps, calendars, spreadsheets, and task managers.
• Communication tools: Instant messaging, comprehensive workplace chat apps, video conferencing, and business apps help your company stay connected and communicate effectively online. 
• Dedicated servers and security: With private servers used primarily for a single business, there are very few data security risks.  
• Other features: A host of add-ons, including virtual desktops, instant access to contact databases, and integration with CRM and CMS systems.  

You may come across a digital workplace solution that stands out for one feature over the other. Some offer exceptional project management capabilities. Some are user-friendly and perfect as remote work platforms. Others are good for complex projects. Infince is one of the few digital workplace platforms that offers all features under one roof.

Set up a demo today!

Read more: Why is Infince a Perfect Mate for Your Enterprise Cloud Journey

2. Asana

Asana is a well-known app for managing tasks and workflows. Despite not being a full-fledged project management platform, it offers many benefits. It automates repetitive tasks, is focused on collaboration, and helps team members break down their tasks and improve work management significantly. It also offers many integrations, time-tracking tools, custom fields, workloads, Kanban boards, portfolios, and templates. 

3. MangoApps

Also known as MangoSuite, this user-friendly, flexible digital work portal unifies communication, teamwork, intranet, and engagement into a single system instead of relying on separate tools. MangoApps has effective employee engagement tools and a customized dashboard experience, making it easy for companies to offer streamlined communication and collaboration services. With MangoApps, you can centralize your company’s content, create searchable team workspaces, and digitize repetitive workflows. 

4. Zoho

A platform primarily known for its customer relationship management feature, Zoho is a very useful project and task management software that also offers a good user interface. It helps businesses communicate, collaborate, manage projects, and extrapolate intuitive reports. It offers some impressive real-time chats, invoice applications, inventory management capabilities, and communication tools. 

5. Kissflow  

Kissflow is another multifaceted and easy-to-use platform that offers diverse project management capabilities and comprehensive tracking tools. It helps teams manage complex workflows and offers facilities like contextual chats that help companies coordinate better. Kissflow offers reliable reporting tools and an intuitive workflow design, besides numerous integrations and efficient collaboration tools.  

6. Microsoft Teams 

A prevalent digital workplace solution in the market today, Microsoft Teams enables teams and employees to collaborate on multiple tasks and projects. It also helps employees share content. Its video conferencing and online meeting facilities are awe-inspiring. It also offers integrations with all Office 365 software apps. Microsoft Teams allows you to create your team channels, sign up to other data sources, add files, and customize your workspace.

7. Monday.com

Monday.com has many advantages, including an intuitive and visually appealing user interface with many display options. Its project visualizing tools are excellent, and it offers third-party integrations, task management tools, and data-driven dashboard analytics. Monday.com gives you multiple project views and customizable templates to track project portfolios and campaigns.

8. Trello

Another popular task and project management software is Trello. A leading workplace solutions and project management software with boards, visual cards, and lists to help teams stay organized. Trello does not have very advanced tracking and reporting capabilities, but it is still very popular among companies undertaking simple projects.

9. Wrike

Wrike is a digital workplace solution with many features, including performance tracking, integration capabilities, diverse workflows, analytics, and performance reports. Wrike has a customizable approvals process and gives a good overview of multiple projects and where each team member is in the cycle. It takes employees a while to break into the platform, but it does pack in multiple features. 

10. ClickUp

ClickUp is a cloud-based, customizable platform that offers collaboration and project management tools to boost productivity, apart from other features like task allocation and goal tracking. It has good dashboard visibility and offers great scheduling, team collaboration, and document management tools. ClickUp helps remote teams streamline their workforce, structure their processes more productively, and coordinate multiple tasks efficiently. 

Want more clarifications on how to choose the right digital workplace platform for your business? Connect with our experts today! We can help you identify apt workplace technologies to drive success with a streamlined workflow!

 

Remote work is taking a front seat, and companies need to shift from traditional workplace norms to an on-demand workforce that is changing the business world completely. To make this shift, companies need a digital workplace solution. These integrated and intelligent remote work platforms provide exciting new ways to increase employee engagement, optimize costs, and create an agile workforce. 

What is a digital workplace? On the face of it, a digital workplace may seem like a virtualized proxy of the in-person office space, but in today’s competitive and technology-enabled world, it needs to do so much more.

A digital workplace platform offers cloud-native technologies that improve the company’s bottom line and lead to better team collaboration. It also leverages digital tools that help companies achieve scale while reducing costs. 

Deloitte describes the digital workplace as encompassing “all the tools and technologies people need to get their work done in today’s workplace – both in operation and the ones to be implemented.” Deloitte’s report outlines one characteristic that makes a great digital workplace solution. A good digital workplace platform connects the employee experience with business outcomes.  

Read more: Why Does Employee Well-being Matter in a Hybrid Work Model?

Why Your Company Needs a Digital Workplace Solution

Digital workplace solutions give companies a competitive advantage by making them agile, flexible, and providing them with a centralized management view. In the shift to a remote work culture that is now the new normal, companies need to go beyond generic tools for remote work. Instead, they need to look at a digital workplace solution that integrates processes and leverages digital technologies to help companies improve their profits. There are many reasons why your company must rely on a digital workplace solution.

• Provides real-time collaboration and productivity tools: Productivity and collaboration tools are crucial for remote and hybrid work. Productivity tools like smart email management tools, collaboration channels, and task management apps can help companies complete more work in less time and strategically plan their workloads and business strategies.   
• Improves employee experience: Digital workplace solutions put employees at the center of their design, making team members feel engaged even though they work remotely.  
• Offers unified custom dashboards: A good digital workplace solution provides tools like interactive, data-rich dashboards that give a unified view of all the end-to-end processes. 
• Reduces costs and drives profitability: Digital workplace solutions reduce organizational and management costs. They can increase productivity, which impacts the bottom line. This survey by Gartner reveals a 44% rise in employee productivity. Thanks to collaboration tools. 
• Promises transparency and data security: With their business dashboards that provide an additional layer of data security, digital workplaces offer better transparency and prevent data theft.  
• Drives innovation and scalability: Digital workplace technologies will drive innovation by enabling companies to hire from around the world. They will also help companies scale and increase productivity due to their feature-rich collaboration tools. 

Read more: How to Keep Your Remote Teams Connected

The Best Ways to Improve Your Digital Workplace Management

In the aftermath of the pandemic, remote work is the new reality of an on-demand workforce. A company can have many productivity and collaboration apps but without a digital workplace management strategy and platform to unify them all, there can be information and collaboration overload.  

Here’s how you can improve your digital workplace management.

• Prioritize a single pane of glass view: Digital workplace management brings this unified view of the entire company’s workflows. A central point of control is important. With it, you can leverage advanced levels of automation to make collaboration better and faster. Unified dashboards lead to faster workflows and greater scale.
• Aim for seamless integration: Digital workplace solutions are invaluable only if they are completely integrated into the company’s overall business processes. Digital workplace management helps companies achieve this single point of integration.
• Choose smarter data analytics: To improve your digital workplace management, focus on actionable data and people analytics. Intelligent collaboration tools can give you real-time updates about projects and employee performance. It is not just important to have data but to mine and utilize it immediately. Use custom dashboards to track performances and processes. These dashboards can also give you immediate access to company-wide data from APIs, apps, and CSV files.
• Look for personalized digital solutions: Choose digital workplace solutions that suit your company and its specific requirements. This is where digital orchestration platforms come in. They blend into your company’s existing workflow and optimize it instead of disrupting processes. A digital orchestration platform helps you integrate software and solutions from various SaaS vendors to manage and scale your digital workplace.
• Pick the right tools: Choose digital workplace tools that drive higher rates of automation and collaboration. Digital workplace solutions should be designed to drive end-user adoption, leading to an agile digital workplace. Look for rich interactive collaboration tools like live chats, multiple screen sharing, breakout rooms, and shareable meeting links. Go with productivity apps with excellent project management capabilities and tools to track performance and tasks. 
• Give importance to the employee experience: Employee experience is central to the success of your digital platform. Opt for voice and video calls to build stronger workplace connections so that employees don’t miss face-to-face interactions. Employees value flexibility in remote work and tools like live chats, collaboration channels, and intranet platforms that keep social interactions alive. 
• Choose a centralized IT management: When your company runs multiple applications and has to juggle between many sign-on, work becomes tedious and difficult to manage. With a single sign-on and an efficient third-party tool integration, centralized IT management unifies all of the enterprise’s applications and workflows. It also increases business transparency. 

With the rise of remote work, sustaining a distributed workforce and empowering it with a solid digital workplace management solution is important. Infince integrates online and offline communications by providing all-time access from anywhere in the world. While most digital workplace tools offer a variety of tools, some of them like Infince, are purpose-built to provide unified reporting of company workflows and targets. Infince also provides companies with excellent data accessibility and multiple modes of effective collaboration. Its features include customizable dashboards built to mine data and generate metrics. Want to create powerful and profitable digital workplaces that help you race ahead of the competition?

Schedule an Infince demo today or talk to our experts!

The necessities of Covid-19 made companies rethink their priorities regarding managing their workforce. As a result, remote work shifted from being a short-term quick fix to a  long-term solution for increased efficiency and productivity. And in the post-pandemic world, work has become more partially remote, aka hybrid, than fully remote.

Hybrid Work Defined

A hybrid workplace blends both virtual and on-site arrangements to give employees the flexibility of dividing their working hours between the office and home. As a result, the employees enjoy more autonomy and life-work balance while remaining more engaged and productive at work. 

So, Why is Hybrid Work Relevant?

A Salesforce post says, “today’s hybrid workplace would soon be called just “the workplace”. A survey of 278 executives by McKinsey revealed that the surveyees planned to reduce their office space by 30%, indicating an increased acceptance of remote work, be it partial or otherwise. Cloud technologies and the right online tools would enable your employees to access data, connect with their colleagues from anywhere, and get their work done in a networked environment. 

The McKinsey study “The postpandemic future of work: Hybrid, remote and what’s ahead” surveyed 100 executives across multiple industries and geographies say that 9 out of 10 companies would go for a blend of remote and on-site working. As work culture gets increasingly hybrid, companies need to ensure efficient online tools are in place to enable their employees to collaborate and communicate seamlessly to get their work done. Organizations need to enforce the specifics required for a mix of remote and on-site work on a permanent basis to keep their hybrid workforce productive. 

Read more: Tips in Building a Hybrid Workplace for the Future

Benefits of a Hybrid Workplace

A hybrid workplace brings quite a few benefits to the table. 

1. Flexibility at work leaves workers happy

Increased flexibility and reduced commute would help employees enjoy a better work-life balance.

2. Reduces operational costs

Hybrid workplace solutions reduce the cost of real estate and office supplies considerably. The money saved on rentals can be invested in technology, marketing, etc.

3. Increases productivity and efficiency

Working from the comfort of their homes and flexible working hours have proven to increase employee productivity and efficiency.

4. Boosts employee engagement

A hybrid working model boosts collaboration among your remote teams, thus keeping them more engaged at work. 

5. Offers location independence

A hybrid work model will essentially have a remote work infrastructure in place, enabling your workforce to work from anywhere in the world.

6. Enhances company culture

A blend of remote and on-site work would motivate your employees to remain more productive and engaged and proactively contribute toward the company’s goals and culture. On-site working days can hold face-to-face meetings and build interpersonal relationships among employees.  

Post-pandemic, companies are increasingly opting for a hybrid working model on a global scale. The Accenture study “The Future of Work: Productive Anywhere” says 83% of the 9326 employees surveyed agree that a hybrid working model would be optimal wherein they get to work remotely for at least one-quarter of their working hours. This calls for adopting smart digital workplace solutions marked by flexibility, scalability, and connectivity to stay efficient and competitive. As remote work evolves into hybrid work, companies must reimagine their digital workplaces to stay competitive. 

Read more: How Can Your Business Be Future-ready to Embrace the Flexible Work

How to Reimagine Your Digital Workplace to Nurture a Hybrid Work Culture?

1. Choose the right set of digital tools 

Your business needs the right set of digital tools and technologies to support hybrid work. You need to choose a smart digital workplace solution well-equipped with state-of-the-art communication, collaboration, and remote technology tools to connect your entire workforce to support a hybrid culture. The platform should enable a seamless and secure flow of data across multiple departments, thus connecting your geographically diverse employees. It should also have smart analytical tools like custom dashboards to get intelligent reports on the progress of projects. As the digital workplace comes integrated with all the tools required for your business operations, your employees needn’t waste their precious time switching from one app to another.

2. Connect employee experiences to business outcomes

Make sure that new technologies enhance employee experiences. Modern tools integrated into the digital platform should recognize your employees’ efforts. Care should be taken to put your employees at the center of the design so that your digital workplace solution transforms how people collaborate and communicate to get work done and meet business goals. Employee surveys help realize what your workforce actually needs to get their work done efficiently. Integrate productivity tools on your digital platform to boost employee performance. The architectural elements should be synced to delight the end users, viz., your employees, while serving to meet goals smarter and faster. Better employee experiences help boost business outcomes.

3. Create a great workplace experience

Your employees deserve a good on-site experience whenever they report to their physical offices. This is very important to make your hybrid working model succeed. Better on-site experiences lead to better in-person collaborations, which boosts better online collaborations among your employees. On-site events should support virtual events to delight your employees. Good on-site experiences make the office a place your employees would love to go.  

4. Build digital fluency

Digital fluency is vital to meet business goals as well as enriching employee experiences. You need to leverage technologies to offer training programs for all segments of your workforce to upskill them.   

In short, the pandemic and multiple lockdowns have caused companies to revisit their long-term business strategies and revamp their business processes to make them hybrid compatible. An April 2022 study of 800 business leaders, “At Work: The 2022 Workplace Trends Report,” says 77% of the companies surveyed have adopted a hybrid working model and that an “at will” hybrid policy has gained momentum. 

Read more: How to Keep Your Remote Teams Connected

To Conclude

You need the tech support of a smart digital workplace solution for your hybrid work model to succeed. This is where an efficient digital platform like Infince comes to your aid. Infince can support and improve the performances of your hybrid workforce in more ways than one. Here are a few:

1. Infince has efficient office and collaboration tools to help your remote teams collaborate efficiently, share files seamlessly, and improve their productivity.
2. It keeps your data private and safe on a secure, private virtual cloud.
3. The curated Infince application marketplace offers a multitude of both commercial and open-source business apps from multiple vendors to suit your unique business needs. 
4. Single sign-on access enables your geographically dispersed employees to have unified access to your data.
5. Infince offers seamless IT infrastructure management from one place to help you manage your information assets with ease and scalability.
6. It comes with a pool of varied collaboration tools to help your teams connect with each other as well as external contacts through live individual and group chats; secure file sharing; audio and video calls, etc.
7. Helps improve your business efficiency by simplifying your data analytics with the help of custom dashboards and tiles for enhanced visibility and productivity across all departments.

Infince is, thus, your one-stop technology solution that caters to anything and everything your hybrid workforce needs. Get in touch with our experts to know more.  

There has been an increasing acceptance of hybrid work culture post the pandemic. Covid-induced lockdowns brought a paradigm shift to how corporates considered work, so much so that the ‘workplace’ became anywhere an employee had access to the cloud and the right online tools to connect with coworkers. As the pandemic’s rampage recedes, companies worldwide opt for a hybrid work culture. One takeaway from the “Pulse of the American worker” survey among 2000 workers conducted by Prudential and Morning Consult in February 2022 is that “hybrid is the future of work”. 72% of the survey respondents say that the hybrid model is beating their expectations.  

Read more: Why Does Employee Well-being Matter in a Hybrid Work Model? 

So, what is a Hybrid Workplace?

A  hybrid workplace blends both in-office and remote work to let your employees enjoy the freedom to decide the ‘when and where’ of their work, thus boosting their satisfaction. While Covid-19 forced companies to adapt to the new normal of working, post the Covid and lockdowns, companies are steadily embracing the new normal, having realized the merits of remote work. HR officials have assessed the benefits of remote work to develop a winning formula of combining remote and in-office work to achieve goals faster and smarter. It remains an indisputable fact that the global pandemic has set new trends in how people work. 

How does a Hybrid Workplace ‘Work’?  

A hybrid workplace is all about ‘how’ people work more than ‘where’ they work, as the remote work culture of the past two years has proved beyond doubt. The technical capabilities of a hybrid workplace give your employees tremendous flexibility when choosing the locale for managing their work. A good internet connection, a computer system, and access to a smart, cloud-backed digital workplace solution ensure that employees get seamless and secure access to data to get their work done. Hybrid work enables your employees to leverage technologies to collaborate with their geographically dispersed teams in the same manner anyone maintains good relationships with their long-distance friends. And it would be the employers’ responsibility to ensure the office remains a place your employees would love to come to for their in-person work schedule, thus enhancing employee experiences. 

Impact of Hybrid Work on Company Culture 

The pandemic-induced remote work paved the way for companies to move away from the rigid and formal form of communication to a seamless and fluid intercommunication, thus breaking the silos. A McKinsey blog says that the ROI for the shareholders will be thrice as from companies with a strong culture than from others who don’t have a distinct employee-friendly culture. When employees work more from home and less in the office, the physical premises of your company becomes the new ‘off-site’. The ‘work-first’ culture of pre-pandemic days switched to a workers-first culture during the pandemic days of remote work; something companies worldwide are trying to uphold through the adoption of smart collaboration tools by digitizing their business processes.

76% of the workers surveyed in a Salesforce study say collaboration directly impacts company culture. The relation between collaboration and culture gleaned from the study are:

1. Employees prefer informal and open communication: This gives equal access to information.  

2. Stronger and more open relationships can be built through chat-based collaboration: This would help your employees remain more motivated and engaged at work. 

3. Flexibility is vital when it comes to choosing tools: Smart technologies would leave your employees happier and more productive. Employees dissatisfied with their tools are likely to be unhappy at work.  

Read more: How to Keep Your Remote Teams Connected 

Importance of Technology in a Hybrid Workplace 

Technological capabilities are vital to the smooth functioning of hybrid workplaces in more ways than one. For a digital workplace solution to succeed in a hybrid culture, the following technical capabilities need to be developed:

1. Smart integration of systems and tools 

You need to adopt a smart digital workplace solution with capabilities to integrate all the applications and systems required for your business operations to make your digital journey meaningful. The integration enables members from different teams to collaborate effectively to manage their workflows on a single platform and increase the efficiency of your hybrid workforce in the event.

2. Measures to secure your valuable data.  

Your digital platform needs to have adequate security protocols in place to safeguard your data when your dispersed employees access it from anywhere. Capabilities like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Single Sign-On (SSO), patching solutions for potential security breaches, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to secure the connections of all devices that access your data, and using the built-in security features on the platform to secure your virtual meetings, are some of the measures you need to take to secure data on your digital platform. The tools you use must be secure by design and private by default to secure your hybrid-work future.  

Adopting a hybrid work model calls for an employee-centric approach through better employee empowerment and investment in training and upskilling. Organizations are expected to increasingly make decisions that will empower their employees to make and meet smart goals. 

Top Three Trends expected to Reshape the Hybrid Workplace in 2022

1. Employee insights and data analytics will enable smarter completion of tasks.
2. Employee welfare and well-being are built into business strategies.
3. More investments are expected to be made in technologies to enhance employee experiences.  

Your business needs a smart digital workplace solution like Infince to enable your hybrid workforce to work smarter and faster. Here is how Infince would be a valuable asset to your hybrid workforce. 

1. Offers a one-stop solution for all your IT infrastructure needs.
2. Secures your data with virtual private servers with scalable server configurations to meet your changing business needs. 
3. Has a smart intranet to improve your internal communication and interactions.
4. Offers virtual desktops to accelerate productivity.
5. Has feature-packed collaboration apps to streamline and effect smarter collaboration and communication, including easy and secure file sharing.
6. Offers a comprehensive employee directory from which your team members can directly initiate a chat, call, or email.
7. Enables individual and group audio and video call for enhanced communication.
8. Simplifies your data analytics through custom dashboards powered by custom and standard tiles.
9. A curated marketplace on the platform with many open-source and commercial business applications to suit your business needs.
10. Seamless IT infrastructure management from a single place.
11. Secures your data through stringent access controls.
12. A single sign-on to enable easy and secure access to your information assets. 

Whether you decide to go for a fully remote, hybrid, or totally in-office work model, Infince can let your employees work smarter and faster to meet your business objectives. Feel free to reach out to our experts for a free demo. 

Flexible working goes beyond the accepted concept of working from home. It offers your employees the freedom to work from anywhere, on any device of their choice! It is a way of working that considers your employee’s personal needs and gives them the freedom to work from home to a certain degree. The term refers to a non-traditional working arrangement wherein the employee can choose a flexible start and finish time, unlike a conventional nine-to-five work schedule. 

Flexible work could mean flexible working hours or any permutation and combination of remote and hybrid work put together. Agreed, multiple lockdowns during the pandemic forced companies worldwide to adopt remote work. But having experienced the benefits of remote work, especially in terms of increased productivity, companies have decided to accept a certain degree of remote work post covid to keep their dispersed employees happy while ensuring improved bottom lines.  

Benefits of Flexible Working

Flexible working brings to the table multiple benefits both to the employee and the employer. These include:

1. A better work-life balance for the employee
2. Lowers levels of absence
3. Decreases stress levels
4. Employees are motivated to be more productive
5. Reduces overhead expenses like rent, utilities
6. Increases employee engagement
7. Betters employer-employee relationship
8. Fosters employee retention

Flexible working hours and remote work have thus become the new normal in an anywhere work scenario.

Read more: Why Does Employee Well-being Matter in a Hybrid Work Model?

How Flexible Working Contributes to Company Efficiency?

1. Workplace flexibility can be leveraged to increase employee engagement and productivity, thus improving overall company efficiency.  
2. Flexibility at work leads to increased happiness of your employees, thus motivating them to work harder to meet goals.
3. Leverage technology to enable seamless communication and collaboration across geographies.
4. Increases the agility of your company in general and your workforce in particular, thus catering to improved customer service and increased customer loyalty. 
5. Reduces attrition levels, a fact that is likely to attract future talent.

A flexible work culture calls for accepting ‘flexibility’ as an essential strategic tool for managing your business and integrating it with all your business systems and processes. There has been a paradigm shift in how companies let their employees work, post Covid-19. The McKinsey-Ipsos study “The American Opportunity Survey” reports that 58% of the 25000 employed Americans surveyed confirm having the option to work full or part of the week from the privacy of their homes. 35% of the respondents of the same study say that they can work from home full time, and another 23% confirm that they can work from home one to four days a week. Stats indicate that remote and hybrid work is here to stay. Both employers and employees have realized the fact that flexible work serves to help the latter find a better work-life balance. 

The ongoing changes in the realm of work have changed employee expectations of work. Hybrid work would be an excellent opportunity for your geographically diverse teams to better their career prospects. Gartner’s “Future of Work Trends Post Covid-19,” says hybrid work is all set to become mainstream. 

Future of Work

• The future of work and the workplace involves embracing digital culture and tools to support flexible work. Adopting smart digital workplace solutions help companies break silos and give transparency in their internal communications. This motivates your employees to work towards realizing the organizational mission and vision better and more efficiently. You need the backup of smart communication and collaboration tools to implement flexible work successfully. Your company needs the right technical capabilities to support your ‘anywhere workforce’ for the successful implementation of flexible work. 
• As employee expectations of working remotely have changed, companies would be designing work around employee-driven flexible schedules to create a human-centric model and culture to promote a healthy hybrid environment.   
• Companies must develop processes and infrastructure that help upskill their current workforce and enable them to move to higher roles, optimize their present manpower and save money in the event.
• Employers must ensure well-being as a critical part of their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to attract and retain talent.
• Companies will leverage technologies to ensure their hybrid employees remain connected to their organizational culture. Also, investments are to be made in talent processes to help expand employee networks. 
• Good manager-employee relationships pave the way for excellent employee experiences. Managers would require the support of proper tools to develop proactive relationships with their diverse teams.  
• Data analytics is essential to assess employee engagement and well-being to enrich employee experiences. Smart digital workplace solutions come with tools to track employee productivity as well. 

Read more: 6 Tips To Guarantee Data Security in a Digital Workplace

How Can a Smart Digital Workplace Solution like Infince render Your Business Futuristic

Infince is a modern workplace solution powered by cloud technologies and smart tools. It can unify your data, simplify your business processes, and enable seamless communication among your teams to deliver, no matter which corner of the earth they work from! The feature-rich digital platform brings to the table a multitude of benefits to ease your business operations and make your company future-ready in the ever-evolving digital ecosystem. Here is how Infince can be your best buddy to shore up your digital endeavors:

1. Infince is purpose-built to enable real-time collaboration through varied collaboration apps to support remote and hybrid work. The platform comes with an array of collaboration tools like employee directory, business phone, live chat, individual and group audio and video calls, etc., to help your teams work better and faster. 
2. It can simplify data analytics by building custom dashboards to suit your business needs. Better access to data and improved transparency help increase employee productivity.
3. Enables effective communication through online office tools, secure file sharing, email, and task manager.
4. Its curated application marketplace comes with several open-source and commercial business apps, allowing you to choose the right tools that suit your line of business, no matter which industry you represent.
5. It allows you to easily manage your information assets and scale efficiently as your business needs change.
6.  You can centrally control your IT assets through a single login.
7. It has stringent access controls to safeguard your critical data.
8. Allows your employees to access your business management software from anywhere on any device of their choice.
9. Infince is your one-stop solution for all your IT infrastructure needs.  
10. And what’s more, Infince mobile app allows you to access your data on its intuitive Android/IOS apps to deliver an engaging experience to your mobile workforce!

Infince is a smart, futuristic digital platform equipped with everything you need to ease your business operations and manage your mobile and diverse workforce efficiently as you scale up. Get in touch with our experts to know more, or sign up for a live demo.  

Remote and hybrid work has gained more popularity during and after the outbreak of Covid-19. Flexible work has been found to keep employees more productive and happy, a fact acknowledged by employers worldwide. Working from home/anywhere has become a vital strategy for organizations to increase employee productivity.  

Post Covid-19, companies are increasingly adopting hybrid work schedules by encouraging employees to work from the comfort of their homes for part of a week. The Accenture 2021 study “Future of Work: A Hybrid Work Model” found that 83% of the 9326 employees surveyed confirmed their allegiance to hybrid work, wherein they got to work at least 25% of the time remotely. Another key finding of the study was that “responsible leaders must move beyond physical location to shape the future of work by giving people resources tailored to their needs.” The same study report also documents that 63% of high-growth companies have already embraced a ‘productivity anywhere’ workforce model. And more companies are expected to follow suit! This data indicates companies that enable their employees to be productive and healthier anywhere have succeeded in improving bottom lines.    

Read more: 5 Tips to Improve Remote Collaboration

How Hybrid Work Model Increase Employee Efficiency?

A hybrid work model serves to improve employee efficiency in a multitude of ways. Here are a few:

1. Hybrid work calls for smart digitization of business processes.

Hybrid work requires the adoption of smart digital workplace platforms to enable your dispersed employees to communicate and collaborate with their remote team members to get their work done. Digitization of business processes endows your business with technical capabilities to fast-track its operations while training your employees in state-of-the-art technologies to help the latter upskill themselves and improve their efficiency.

2. Increases productivity   

Flexible work lets employees work to their strengths, thus serving to increase their productivity. The hybrid work model encourages teams to leverage cloud technologies to find an optimum balance of creativity and collaboration to meet goals.

3. Improves employee satisfaction and culture 

Getting to decide on how, where, and when to work to meet the organizational goals increases employee satisfaction by leaps and bounds. This autonomy in decision-making serves to boost productivity.

4. Increases collaboration and  betters work relationships 

Regular virtual meetings help track the progress of projects while facilitating your geographically diverse teams to communicate and collaborate effectively and efficiently over the digital platform in a connected world. A digital workplace solution offers your employees an avenue to contribute proactively toward meeting goals smarter and faster, thus strengthening relationships in the event.

5. Better work-life balance improves mental health

Hybrid work enables your employees to have a better work-life fit which is very important or their mental well-being. Getting to weave their work around their life allows your employees never to leak their energy into their work, thus decreasing their stress levels. This flexible work schedule prevents your employees from burnout, increasing their productivity.

Digitization improves the efficiency of both the employees and the employers, thus rendering your business processes smarter. Having said that, it doesn’t imply adopting hybrid work would be a cakewalk for companies. Hybrid work poses its own share of challenges to employers. 

Read more: 12 Ways To Drive A Connected Workplace

Two Major Challenges of the Hybrid Work Model

1. Nurturing company culture when working remotely

Companies are worried about growing a company culture around remote work that aligns with their core values and beliefs. The fear of physical distances hindering the development of company culture is amiss. Smart digital workplace solutions come equipped with the right communication and collaboration tools to keep your employees engaged at work and involved in team-building activities to enrich their experiences. Decision-makers must implement an employee-first culture to nurture their remote teams. 

2. Fear that employee well-being might be at risk 

Digital workplace solutions enable employees to seamlessly access data vital to their business operations. Increased levels of communication and collaboration might lead to your employees being bombarded with an overload of information that they may fail to disseminate, leading to higher levels of work stress and burnout. This will adversely affect your employees’ well-being. This problem can be resolved by choosing a smart digital workplace solution with custom capabilities to integrate the right tools to suit your business. Infince is a smart digital workplace solution that ensures the right data reaches relevant people through its highly customizable smart features. You needn’t settle for a one-size-fits-all kind of digital workplace solution anymore! You can use custom dashboards to simplify your employee data analytics and streamline the management of your information assets. Custom dashboards help analyze performances through smart people analytics and use it to manage and assign tasks to optimize your manpower.   

Tips to Reimagine the Well-being of a Hybrid Remote Workforce  

1. Hybrid working model helps make human connections 

A fully remote workforce might miss the human connections and relationships they once enjoyed at their on-site workplaces. Hybrid work would allow your teams to meet at their physical office premises periodically and enjoy casual, personal interactions with their peers like they once did. This will help eliminate the feeling of disconnect that fully remote employees might feel. 

2. Implement hybrid work as a strategy and train leaders to manage new work schedules

Business leaders and managers need to be trained to leverage cloud technologies to manage their hybrid workforce and track their work effectively so that their teams remain engaged and productive. They should be empathetic to the needs of their employees.

3. Integrate smart tools to streamline communication 

Digital workplace solutions come equipped with an array of smart tools to facilitate file sharing, virtual meetings, chatbots, etc., to enable seamless communication among your diverse teams. The right sets of tools ensure that data remains transparent and silos are broken while ensuring the communication remains relevant. 

4. Make employee wellness programs an essential part of your business strategy 

HR teams must plan workshops and programs to help employees destress and unwind. These could include classes on meditation, stress management, fitness challenges, etc. Employee wellness programs help boost employee loyalty and reduce attrition. 

5. Build digital fluency

Digital fluency is critical to improving revenues. Companies must adopt digital working solutions tailor-made to suit their business. Technology is vital to help your remote teams stay connected in a physically disconnected work scenario.

Read more: 6 Ways to Improve Engagement of Your Digital Employees

Summing up

Creating opportunities that optimize communication and cater to the mental well-being of your employees is thus vital for business growth. You must maintain transparency in your communication to build a culture of trust among your hybrid working teams. Hence, you must adopt the right kind of tools and applications to help your business remain agile to meet its ever-changing needs. This is where a smart digital workplace solution like Infince comes in handy. 

Infince is a feature-rich digital platform that can help you manage your hybrid workforce through its,

• Custom dashboards that enable smarter data analysis and improve business efficiency by tracking the progress of projects in real-time
• Varied collaboration apps that enable seamless communication among your dispersed teams through a comprehensive employee directory; live individual and group chats; and individual/group audio/video calls
• Curated marketplace that includes a multitude of applications to suit any business or industry 
• A suite of productivity apps that includes online office tools, business email, and secure file sharing to enable faster and smarter execution of tasks
• Seamless IT infrastructure management from a single place to enable better visibility and much more!

Get in touch with our experts or experience a live demo to know how Infince can be an asset to your digitization endeavors.   

The pandemic caused remote and hybrid work cultures to become the new modes of work. When workplaces shifted to homes, it compelled many companies to adopt digital workplace solutions to enable their employees across diverse geographies and time zones to stay connected. But why are connected workplaces increasingly becoming the need of the hour for businesses today? Why are companies striving to prepare for the future direction of the workplace?

Connectivity offers flexibility to workplaces, and employees tend to be more engaged at work when they can choose how they spend time at work. Remote work allows employees to work from the comfort of their rooms, thus letting them save the time required for daily commutes to the office. 

Read more: How a Unified Environment Promotes a Successful Digital Workplace

So, what is a connected workplace?

A connected place is essentially an integrated, secure network of tools and systems that brings together personnel, information assets, and business services on a single, centralized platform to improve efficiency and productivity. Powered by cloud technologies, a connected workplace is equipped with all the aspects you require to manage the services of your business to the employees and customers alike. Connecting with employees at the workplace is vital for sustained business growth. 

Benefits of connected workplaces

Connected workplaces bring a host of benefits to the table, a few of which are:

1. Inculcate a sense of belongingness among employees, which gives rise to good employee experiences, leading to good customer experiences.
2. Carrying out all tasks on a single platform gives transparency to employee activities, easing collaboration across all departments.
3. The progress of every task can be tracked, which would help in their timely completion.
4. Enable seamless internal communication among all departments.

Connected workplaces help increase cooperation among employees. Your employees can connect with team members, their work, company goals, and work culture. Thanks to the smart tools on a connected digital workplace platform. Hence, keeping your geographically dispersed teams connected at work is important to meet organizational objectives and attain sustained business growth. 

Here are 12 ways to keep your workplace more connected,

1. Make sure you know your employees personally
2. Allow a free flow of information to one and all
3. Focus on employee engagement
4. Integrate collaborative software suites with the digital platforms
5. Ensure your onboarding process is hassle-free
6. Conduct online surveys and opinion polls among employees
7. Set up a peer mentoring program
8. Recognize the voice of your employees
9. Nurture communities of practice
10. Encourage employees to connect on an intranet   
11. Set up an employee directory
12. Plan virtual social events to build a rapport among team members  

1. Make sure you know your employees personally

The managers and HR executives must make sure that they connect well with the employees to create a sense of belongingness in their minds. Several companies make it a point to send a gift to their employees on their birthdays. Such gestures would give the message that employees are important to the company.

2. Allow a free flow of information to one and all

The information must freely flow from top-down, bottom-up, and peer-to-peer while working from home. The multi-directional flow of information required for your day-to-day business operations calls for connecting to digital workplace platforms. Content should be well documented and made accessible to one and all through intranet and other tools for communication available on your digital platform. Employees must have the liberty to ask questions and offer feedback to their superiors as and when required. The free flow of information is an important factor in determining how to stay connected with teams while working remotely.  

3. Focus on employee engagement 

To increase productivity, your employees need to feel enthusiastic and involved in what they do. Lack of enthusiasm might lead to lesser productivity. Being connected on digital workplace platforms renders transparency to work. Tracking and reporting tools like custom dashboards display the progress of tasks and motivate people to work hard. 

4. Integrate collaborative software suites with the digital platforms

A digital platform integrated with collaborative suites like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other collaborative tools helps employees stay connected and join hands with team members to realize organizational goals. 

5. Ensure your onboarding process is  hassle-free

Your new recruits deserve a suitable environment virtually to familiarize themselves with the tasks they would be entrusted with. Conducting well-designed virtual induction programs will help the new recruits connect with their colleagues while familiarizing themselves with your digital platform. Existing employees will get to hone their skill sets by attending virtual orientation programs designed to introduce new software updates. 

Read more: Modernize and Simplify Your HR processes with a Digital Workplace Platform

6. Conduct online surveys and opinion polls among employees

A connected environment would give all your geographically dispersed employees an equal opportunity to engage in conversation with each other. Online surveys and opinion polls would help keep your employees stay connected and engaged while giving insights into employee conceptions and work culture.

7. Set up a peer mentoring program

Workplace mentoring enhances the employee experience and well-being. Peer mentorship helps build unbiased relationships among employees wherein participants encourage and support each other by sharing knowledge on digital workplace platforms. Peer mentoring programs testify that employees stand to gain knowledge and personal growth through social connections via the Internet.

8. Recognize the voice of your employees

Your employees must be encouraged to drop their suggestions and opinions on your company’s performance in virtual suggestion boxes. Managers must appreciate these ideas on their merit and act on them. Internal communication channels on your digital platform can also be used to voice employee opinions on business performance. Your employees’ voices deserve to be heard!

9. Nurture communities of practice

Harvard Business Review defines communities of practice as “groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise”. These groups allow your employees to freely share their experiences and knowledge in novel ways to develop new methods to resolve issues. Communities of practice focus on taking advantage of the expertise within the company by letting your employees across multiple locations connect, brainstorm, and collaborate on your digital workplace platform.

10. Encourage employees to connect on an intranet   

Post good content on the intranet that focuses on specific activities of employees and teams. The special events and campaigns held in the company also must find mention in the content shared on the intranet. Excellent performances must be duly appreciated, thus making the intranet an employee recognition center. This gives people a chance to recognize the good work done by their peers, thus improving your company’s culture. 

11. Set up an employee directory

Having an employee directory on your digital platform would mean having the contact details of all your employees at your fingertips. This would help an employee to communicate with the right person to resolve a crisis. The valuable opinion of the expert can be initiated through an audio or video call or even an email, all of which would be available on the digital workplace platform.  

12. Plan virtual social events to build rapport among team members  

Your geographically dispersed teams can be brought together at virtual social events. Online games and campaigns are other events that help employees connect with peers. 

Your employees deserve to be heard, and their opinions merit appreciation. They need the support of a smart digital workplace solution like Infince to help them stay connected with their peers and company goals. Infince offers many features to help your employees stay connected at work. 

How does Infince help in keeping workplaces connected?

“Employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work”, says Forbes. Infince is a smart digital workplace solution with many features to help your employees stay connected to voice their opinions and share their knowledge. 

Infince offers a pool of effective collaboration tools to help you connect with your teams faster and work together better for greater business achievements. 

• You can create custom dashboards with Infince that offer deep insights into your business operations and track the progress of projects to ensure they are on schedule. 
• The platform offers a wide range of productivity tools to help you manage tasks, organize data, and share files seamlessly in a secure environment. 
• The curated app marketplace of Infince provides your organization with many open-source and commercial business software options from multiple vendors that cater to varied industries. 
• The extensive list of apps available on Infince includes Vanilla Forums to manage interactive community forums for customers and potential clients; LimeSurvey to conduct surveys and gather feedback; MediaWiki to build, track and share a hub of knowledge internally and externally; Mautic to manage campaigns, track metrics and generate reports; and many more! Besides, you can seek the help of our experts to integrate custom apps into the platform.
• The platform helps you streamline communication through live chats, video calls, and meetings. 
• Infince has an extensive employee directory that fetches important details of your company staff and other external contacts, including their designations, email ids, and contact numbers, with a few clicks. You can view their online presence status and initiate a chat, call, or email directly from the directory!

Get in touch with our consultants for more information about our smart digital workplace platform, or just Sign Up for Free!