Goals of increased employee productivity and cost savings are a no-brainer in today’s digitally transformed business landscape. As Rodney Zimmel from McKinsey Digital observes, the whole point of digital transformation isn’t exactly to become digital. It’s actually to drive value for the business. And that value comes from understanding clearly how to move from a physical workspace to a hybrid or a digital workplace platform. 

Embracing a digital workplace is crucial for businesses looking to increase productivity, enhance collaboration, and reduce costs. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a key accelerator of the perceptive shift to the digital workplace.

Read More: The Definitive Guide to Perfect Digital Workplace Solution

In this blog, we’ll discuss the 8 key considerations you need to make while you make the much needed transition to a digital workplace. From the benefits to caution areas, to potential pitfalls – we have the rundown.

1. The Covid-19 pandemic as a watershed movement: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for businesses to shift to a digital workplace, leading to improved efficiencies, cost savings, and a more agile workforce. According to a study by PwC, companies that adopt digital workplace technology experience a 67% increase in productivity. Additionally, Gartner estimates that the digital workplace market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.6% from 2020 to 2027, reaching $45.7 billion by 2027. Deloitte reports that businesses can save up to $11,000 per employee annually by adopting a digital workplace platform. With the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, businesses need to embrace digital transformation and stay ahead of competition. Failure to do so could result in a loss of market share and diminished profitability.
2. Investment in tools and technologies: To enable a successful digital workplace, businesses must invest in the right tools and technologies. This includes video conferencing, instant messaging, project management software, cloud storage, and more. These tools enable employees to communicate and collaborate, regardless of their location or time zone. Additionally, digital workplace tools and technologies offer companies the opportunity to enhance the employee experience, leading to better retention rates and improved employee satisfaction. Access to online training and development programs, as well as digital resources and tools for wellbeing, help employees to feel valued and supported by their employers. A case in point is Accenture, which has implemented a platform called “Collaboration 2.0.” This platform offers employees a range of tools and services to simplify and enhance collaboration and communication, including instant messaging, video conferencing, and document-sharing capabilities. Accenture has reported increased productivity and employee engagement as a result of Collaboration 2.0.
3. The need for continuous upskilling and training: As businesses shift to digital workplaces, it’s essential to upskill and train employees to use the latest technologies effectively. This can be done through online training, workshops, and mentorship programs. Upskilling employees can also boost morale and improve job satisfaction as employees feel valued and equipped with the skills to succeed in a digital workplace. A key example to highlight this is AT&T, which created a Future Ready Employee initiative aimed at providing ongoing upskilling and reskilling to workers while providing them with new career development paths. As a result, they have improved employee retention by 14% and accelerated digital transformation.
4. Cybersecurity as a crucial tenet: As businesses shift to a digital workplace, cybersecurity becomes a crucial consideration. Cyber threats such as phishing, ransomware, and malware can wreak havoc on a business’s operations, leading to data loss and financial losses. To maintain business continuity, it is important to stay wary of cyber attacks that can bring business operations to a complete halt, causing a loss in productivity and revenue.  Educating employees on cybersecurity best practices and investing in strong cybersecurity measures, such as password management and two-factor authentication, is critical in mitigating these risks.
5. Remote work as a key cost-effective driver: Remote work has become increasingly popular in recent years, with the pandemic intensifying the trend. Remote work offers many benefits, such as cost savings and increased productivity. However, managing a remote team can be challenging, requiring strong communication and collaboration tools and a clear structure for managing tasks and deadlines.
6. Change management: Shifting to a digital workplace requires a shift in thinking and behavior, which can be challenging for some employees. Change management is critical in managing resistance to change and ensuring a smooth transition. This involves involving employees in the process and providing them with the support and training necessary to adapt to the new reality. Training employees to get up to speed with the latest tools and technologies is key to successful implementation of a digital workplace platform. The risk of working in silos is also cut to a great degree if there is a cohesive change management plan that drives key resources toward a co
7. Generative AI and the future of work: The future of work is set to be increasingly digital, with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality playing a significant role. Businesses must continue to invest in digital tools and technologies to remain competitive and harness the potential benefits these technologies offer.
8. Processes and best practices: To successfully shift to a digital workplace, businesses must adopt best practices. This includes creating a digital transformation roadmap and involving employees in the process.
   1. Create a clear digital transformation roadmap: Develop a clear roadmap that outlines your goals, timeline, process, and milestones. This will ensure that everyone in your organization understands the direction of the digital transformation.
   2. Involve employees in the process: Employees are key stakeholders in the transformation process, and their involvement is crucial for the success of the project. Get them involved in brainstorming sessions, focus groups, testing, and feedback.
   3. Secure buy-in from leadership: Secure the buy-in from senior leadership to ensure that the transformation receives the necessary resources and support. This will demonstrate the importance of the project and its impact on the organization’s growth.
   4. Evaluate and choose the right digital tools and platforms: Carefully choose the digital tools and platforms that fit your organization’s needs and culture. Ensure that the tools provide the required features and functionality to achieve your goals.
   5. Train and support employees: Ensure that your employees have appropriate training and support throughout the transformation process. Provide training for new tools and processes to improve their adoption and comprehension.
   6. Measure the success of the transition: Regularly review the progress of the transformation using metrics that are relevant to your goals. Assess the results and adjust plans where necessary to achieve intended outcomes.
   7. Ensure data security and privacy: Implement appropriate data security measures to protect data and comply with applicable laws and regulations.
   8. Simplify processes and eliminate redundancies: Use the transformation to simplify processes and eliminate redundancies. This will optimize the use of resources and reduce costs.
   9. Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement: Encourage innovation and continuous improvement in your organization by creating a culture that promotes creativity, experimentation, and learning.
   10. Communicate effectively: Communicate the transformation plans and progress consistently and openly with all stakeholders, partners, and employees. This will ensure that everyone is aware of the efforts and the benefits of the transformation.

In addition to this, the implementation of best practices needs to be reviewed to get a tangible measure of success. Therefore, defining key performance indicators against very specific goals is crucial in ensuring the transition is successful.

Read more: Role of a Digital Workplace Platform in Hybrid Workplace

In conclusion, the shift to a digital workplace is essential for any business looking to remain competitive in an increasingly digital world. The benefits of enhanced collaboration, increased productivity, and cost savings are significant, but the transition requires careful planning, investment in the right tools and technologies, and upskilling and training employees. 

To know more about how InfinCE can take your business to new heights, connect with our experts today!

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!

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.  

A digital workspace is the virtual equivalent of your individual workstation. It is an integrated technology framework that leverages evolving technologies to enable you to work online by providing and managing a hoard of features like apps, data, task management functionality, desktop delivery, etc., on any device, anytime. Global Workforce Study 2021 by BCG and The Network says 89% of the respondents expect their jobs to be partly remote when the pandemic ends. So, remote work is here to stay, fully or partially. 

The pandemic caused businesses worldwide to quickly adopt digital workplace solutions to prevent disruption to their workflows. What started as a move triggered by the force of circumstances later proved to be so highly productive and beneficial that most forced adopters became strong advocates of digital technologies. Adopting a digital workplace solution is the first step toward creating a digital workspace. 

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

Essential features of a digital workspace    

1. App and desktop virtualization to provide seamless access to your remote workforce
2. Secure and hassle-free access to SaaS apps in one place
3. Easy and seamless file sharing
4. Content collaboration tools to let teams create, edit, review, and post content that can be accessed by the right people
5. Automated workflows that save time and man-hours
6. Unified endpoint management of all devices by a central management console 
7. A single sign-on that provides your employees quick and secure access to data and apps  

You can improve the productivity and efficiency of your remote workforce by choosing the right kind of digital workspace with task management functionality that matches your business needs. Hewlett Packard Enterprise defines a digital workplace as “ a virtualized form of the traditional, in-person office environment, where many elements of collaboration and productivity are performed through some combination of digital applications, cloud computing, and other technology”. 

A digital workplace solution leverages cloud technologies to integrate all the apps and services required for the internal operations of your business on a single platform so that your remote teams can seamlessly access and share data in a secure environment. Companies create unified environments to enable seamless collaboration among their systems.  

So, what is a unified environment?

A unified environment or platform is an efficient, effective, collaborative, and scalable ecosystem consisting of people, systems, and data that work in unison to meet business goals. It enables seamless collaboration among teams and offers secure data access, independent of device and location. 

Salient features of a unified platform  

1. Secure and hassle-free exchange of data between systems and apps.
2. Seamless collaboration among teams across geographies.
3. Central and controlled access to data across all access points.
4. Scalable to accommodate the changing needs of your business. 
5. Enhanced security and protection against data breaches. 

Thus, unified platforms have multiple features that help employees improve productivity and meet goals. The pandemic-induced lockdowns and new health protocols have paved the way for increased adoption of remote work among businesses worldwide. The BCG Employee Sentiment Survey 2020 reports that 75% of the 12000 surveyees are able to maintain or improve productivity on individual tasks, while 51% confirm being able to maintain or improve productivity on collaborative tasks. As working from anywhere is becoming the new pattern of work, companies are increasingly embracing digitalization to overcome the challenges of an ever-evolving business environment.  

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

So,  how does a unified environment promote remote work? 

1. Provides a central hub for all business processes, thus eliminating the need to switch between apps to get work done. Multiple modules are integrated on the centralized platform, which can be accessed on dashboards.
2. Allows users to create their own workflows sans coding. Workflows can be reconfigured or changed to meet changing business objectives.
3. Offers flexible integration of apps and data. Data updates are synchronized across all tools, thus breaking silos to enable all pervasive integrations.
4. Uses dashboards for smart reporting. Smart dashboards simplify data analysis and help track and report KPIs and other metrics.  

Digital workplace solutions thus bring together people,  processes, and cloud technologies to deliver secure, efficient, and enriched employee experiences across multiple devices and geographies. They come endowed with a host of features to help your remote teams work smarter for your business growth. 

A smart digital workplace solution will have an extensive suite of collaboration apps to help you connect with your teams faster and smarter to meet your goals. It will help you streamline communication through a series of channels like email, live chats, easy file sharing, individual and group audio/video calls, etc. Above all, you can centrally control your entire IT assets from one place and manage your information assets with ease and security. You can even leverage private business IT infrastructure custom-built to meet your end-to-end needs for enhanced security. 

If you are looking for a digital workplace solution that unifies all your business tools to increase your employee productivity, InfinCE would be your answer. The curated marketplace on the platform includes apps from multiple vendors to meet all your business needs. And what’s more, our experts can guide you through adding custom apps to the platform to increase productivity and improve the experiences of your employees. Whether creating documents, handling emails, scheduling events, or managing tasks, InfinCE’s vast library of productivity tools will help you accomplish your day-to-day activities easily and raise your workforce efficiency. 

Get in touch with our experts or take a demo to know more.   

Digital transformation leverages cloud technologies and modern processes to enable businesses to operate faster and more efficiently. As a result, applications are increasingly moving out of data centers to cloud-backed networks to help businesses work smarter and more collaboratively. Once you drive your applications to the cloud, the service provider will henceforth manage your IT infrastructure, thus relieving you of the complexities of managing your own IT assets. As a result, your employees get to work from anywhere, accessing data on devices of their choice. Digitalization of your business operations ensures seamless IT infrastructure management from one place. When you move your workloads into cloud-backed virtualized networks, it is imperative to adopt new technologies to secure your data. 

Read more: All You Need to Know About Dashboards and Data Security

Why is securing solutions essential for digital transformation?

Your remote employees use their personal devices to access various apps in the cloud, including multiple collaboration tools, to access data on your corporate network to get their work done. This calls for the adoption of enhanced security measures across your network to safeguard your data. Embracing security transformation is essential for successful digital transformation.

So, what is security transformation?

Security transformation refers to the integration of security, combining all aspects of digital technologies to operate your business securely once you embrace digitalization. Integration of security protocols would radically change how security is architected, deployed, and operated to safeguard your data. Therefore, it is crucial for you to choose the right digital workplace solution that suits your business, with capabilities to integrate additional security patches for added security. 

A few tips to secure your solutions to shore up your digital strategies 

1. Ensure password protection rules are in place. 

Strong passwords protect your data against breaches and cyber attacks. Ask your employees to update their passwords mandatorily. They should be taught to create strong passwords and remember them too. 

2. Consolidate all tools on your digital workplace solution to get a single view of your network.  

Creating a single view of your IT infrastructure by integrating tools from multiple vendors will offer control and visibility in one place. 

3. Implement regular security updates

As any connection to the Internet is susceptible to cyber attacks, you should always be prepared to defend against such threats by fortifying your IT assets with security patches and enhancements.

4. Install Virtual Private Network (VPN) for all connections

Networks are more susceptible to cyber attacks as they often have just the protection of generic security measures alone. Make sure your office locations have the added protection of VPN connections. Your employees who may connect through public wi-fi services should be instructed to use the VPN service mandatorily. 

5. Leverage the security features on your digital platform     

Optimize the existing security features on your digital workplace solution to safeguard your data. 

6. Build a multi-layered defense to fortify your current security

Integrate more security solutions, if necessary, to fortify your IT assets.  All your employees and partners who have access to your systems need to be educated on the added-on security protocols to protect your information assets and optimize your cyber security measures. 

Read more: Transform your Data Sharing Practices to Win Customer Trust?

Thus, it would be best if you had adequate measures in place to facilitate the secure operation of your business, to let it remain vigilant against potential cyber-attacks and resilient too, should such attacks happen. Analyze the value of your information assets to assess the potential threats that may occur to them clearly. Your partners and other external players who have access to your critical data should be asked to submit security and audit reports regularly to keep track of the efficacy of your security measures. If you are looking for a smart digital workplace solution that can be scaled up to safeguard your valuable data, InfinCE would be your answer. 

How does InfinCE help boost digital security?

InfinCE can help secure your valuable information assets in a number of ways by offering:

1. Private business infrastructure custom-built to meet your end-to-end needs for improved security 
2. Data security options from multiple vendors, 
3. Scalable private virtual servers that prevent data sharing with third-party software vendors
4. Secure access controls through encrypted keys and strong passwords
5. Seamless and centralized IT management of your processes through a single log-in credentials
6. Secure file sharing through password protection and select edit access to further protect data from unauthorized access. 

Not just that. Get in touch with our experts or take an InfinCE test drive to know more. 

The COVID19 pandemic redefined the way people worked on a global scale! 

The McKinsey report “The Future of Work after Covid-19” says, “the pandemic accelerated existing trends in remote work, e-commerce, and automation with up to 25% more workers than previously estimated potentially needing to switch occupations”. 

Remote work necessitates companies to increasingly adopt digital workplaces to let their employees seamlessly access data from anywhere to get their work done. But how can you define if a digital workplace is effective, safe, and focused on the well-being of the employees? 

This article will take you through the top ways to monitor your digital workplace and keep it relevant!

Read more: How An Integrated Digital Workplace Solution Helps Mitigate Remote Work Hurdles

What Is A Digital Workplace And Why Do You Need A Digital Workplace Solution?

When your traditional or physical workplace turns digital, with everything you need for your work made available over the internet, it’s called a digital workplace. Digital workplaces are the smartest way to operate. But often digital workplaces give rise to security threats, clogged servers, misplaced data, and more such technology errors.

That’s when you need an apt digital solution, which eliminates all risks, and streamlines work digitally.

A digital workplace solution is a single platform that seamlessly integrates all the technologies required for getting work done, which include multiple apps, intranets, and portals. It consists of an all-encompassing, holistic set of multiple tools and environments needed for work made available on a single platform in an easily usable, logical, and productive manner. 

It is essentially a connected environment that provides employees access to all the data they need, independent of devices and geographical locations. Digitization of workplaces has enabled employees at all levels to communicate and collaborate in newer and more effective ways to form more productive relationships, thus serving to break down the silos at work and create employee experiences rooted in efficiency and growth.  

Remote work continues to be the preferred way of work for most employees post lockdown! 

The McKinsey study “What’s next for remote work: An analysis of 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, and nine countries” says  “executives have indicated in surveys that hybrid models of remote work for some employees are here to stay. The virus has broken through cultural and technological barriers that prevented remote work in the past, setting in motion a structural shift in where work takes place, at least for some people”. 

Hybrid work allows employees to switch between work-from-home and the office depending on the demands their roles make on them. Remote work is here to stay, be it full-time or hybrid, a fact that has contributed heavily toward the increased adoption of digital workplace solutions. 

Digitization of business processes has caused companies to focus on leveraging technologies to increase employee efficiencies. Digital workplace solutions serve to streamline the internal operations of your business by segregating and analyzing vast volumes of data, and making it available at your employees’ fingertips, thus enabling them to work smarter and faster. 

Now, What’s Digital Wellbeing?

Digital wellbeing refers to the practice of leveraging data and technology to ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of your employees. Digital workplace solutions leverage technology and streamline data to help you attract and retain talent, increase productivity, and enhance employee experiences. Futuristic companies have come to realize that they should raise the levels of wellbeing of their digital employees to help the latter thrive in a stressful working environment. 

Read more: Driving Employee Engagement In Today’s Changing Work Culture!

A Few Strategies To Ensure The Wellbeing Of Digital Workplaces:

1. Limit screen time 

Digital workplace wellbeing focuses on reducing and optimizing screen time! 

A sample survey of 4000 respondents held in the UK found that 75% of the employees felt that reduced screen time would be good for their mental health.  

Streamlining the data, be it messages or emails, would save your employees from being bombarded with unnecessary data and reduce their screen time and stress levels. You need the service of a smart digital workplace solution to ensure this. 

A good digital workplace solution will make sure that the right data reaches the right people to avoid information overload. Effective collaboration apps can facilitate seamless communication and easy file sharing, thus serving to reduce their screen time. Employees need to access only the right data as and when they need it.

2. The personnel department must focus on human relations than human resources

Companies must cease to look at their employees as means to achieve economic success and consider them as ‘whole men and women’ rather than bundles of skills.  

Employee satisfaction and experience should be of utmost importance and their welfare, a primary concern to the leadership. Building employee welfare into the body of corporate policies would serve to create a sense of belongingness in the minds of the employees. The principle of the human relations approach focuses on making organizational members feel useful and vital to the company.  

Building custom dashboards on digital workplace platforms will let you keep tabs on your projects’ progress and employee performances,  thus enabling you to appreciate and reward good work. Sharing articles of motivation, events, quick games, and surveys through customized dashboards can help keep employees engaged and productive. Good employee experiences create a sense of belongingness and a feeling of being vital, leading to reduced attrition levels.

3. Create an environment of inclusion

Some employees might be wary of new technologies while certain others – like siloed teams – might see collaboration tools as a threat. It is imperative to ensure governance and compliance in place to train your employees at all levels in new technologies before deploying digital platforms. When diverse teams work together from different geographies in a digital working environment, it is the sense of inclusion that helps boost employee engagement. 

A digital workplace can be identified as an effective one only when it can be utilized by all. Thus, it needs to be simple and user-friendly, so that all employees can easily adapt to the new tools and technology. 

Read more: The Definitive Guide to Perfect Digital Workplace Solution

In Conclusion!

As mentioned above, digital workplaces are the smartest way forward for businesses. But it has its own drawbacks. However, these few glitches can easily be eliminated with the adoption of the right digital workplace solution. 

InfinCE makes a smart digital workplace partner that addresses the vital factors of engagement, diversity, inclusion, and belongingness among employees to help them meet the targets set much faster, in an employee-friendly environment designed to create great employee experiences.

With InfinCE, your employees can:

• Stay connected
• Work smart
• Make quick decisions
• Reduce work stress
• Maintain work-life balance well
• Stay engaged, motivated, and feel valued.

Know more about how InfinCE can drive employee wellbeing as well as improve efficiency in your organization. 

Sign Up for a Free Demo today!

A digital workplace is an integrated platform with capabilities to deliver and manage all the apps and data of your business operations in real-time, independent of any device or location. It is a virtualized form of the traditional, in-person office environment, where many elements of collaboration and productivity are performed through some combination of digital applications, cloud computing, and other technology. Digital workplace solutions gained more acceptance when COVID19 forced several businesses to allow their employees to work remotely.  

So, what is an ‘intelligent’ digital workplace?

An intelligent digital workplace is essentially an improved digital workplace, backed up by the ever-evolving cloud technologies, with immense potential to improve employee efficiency and productivity while ensuring enhanced experiences for both employees and customers at reduced costs. It leverages digital technologies to help your company achieve sustainable growth while improving its bottom line.  

Evolution of intelligent digital workplace platform

Digital workplace platform are an offshoot of the corporate intranet, the latter being a tool to share company information among employees. The possibility of having unified, seamless access to data and apps to smoothen business operations led to the birth of digital workplace solutions. Modern intelligent digital workplace solutions employ artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning to streamline your business operations and render them efficient so that your employees needn’t switch between apps anymore, but can focus on the task at hand instead.

Read more: Driving Employee Engagement In Today’s Changing Work Culture!

So how does an intelligent digital workplace solution work?

An intelligent digital workplace solution automates the regular tasks of your business operations and analyzes your business activities to give personalized insights on the performances and progress of projects to enable your employees to work smarter and faster. Your employees, applications, data, analytics, and work culture are brought together on a single digital platform to enable your geographically dispersed team members to serve your customers better and faster. This has prompted futuristic organizations to increasingly invest in intelligent digital workplace solutions. An intelligent digital workplace solution makes better use of data and analytics to equip your employees with insights to help them work more efficiently and intelligently. “The intelligent digital workspace is a personalized, federated, secure, and device- and location-agnostic environment that provides workers with the resources required to effectively do their job, including frictionless access to data, technology, and collaborators,” says IDC TechScape: Worldwide Intelligent Digital Workspace, 2020. 

Personalization of the digital work environment helps accelerate work and reduce the volume of files at each desk while enabling your business to carry out its operations in different time zones.  

Benefits of personalized digital workplace solutions

1. Enhances employee satisfaction and engagement through personalized work experiences

An intelligent digital workplace brings to the table tangible benefits like improved employee performance and productivity as well as intangible benefits like enhanced employee satisfaction and engagement. The digital tool sets that the platform presents to your employees keep them in good stead as they foray into smarter and more innovative digital ways of working. And personalization of digital workplace software serves to give personalized work experiences to motivate and engage your employees. 

2. Seamless integration of multiple collaboration apps

Intelligent digital workplace solutions are empowered by a multitude of collaboration apps through which your employees get to connect with each other and discuss work-related topics. Being networked across teams and departments can help information sharing, but collaboration overload can give rise to information overload, affecting the pace at which work gets done. This is where IT infrastructure management companies come to your aid. Their intelligent digital platform solutions come with an array of collaboration apps, offering you the choice to pick only the ones that suit your business operations best. 

Watch more: Watch how InfinCE makes work-life easier with seamless integration and centralized management!

3. Smarter data analysis through personalized dashboards  

Intelligent digital workplace platforms come with capabilities to create personalized dashboards that offer smarter data analytics and display actionable, effective insights into your business processes. Personalization makes digital workplace solutions intelligent with capabilities to ensure that the right information is visible to the relevant people through personalized dashboards and intelligent collaboration apps at the right time. 

4. Using cloud storage enables access to data from anywhere

Cloud technologies ensure secure storage and easy sharing of all files from anywhere at any time. Personalization in digital workplace software makes them intelligent working environments where employees get to access the right information they need and share their knowledge with a few clicks. 

An infinite cloud platform like InfinCE leverages cloud technologies to enable innovations, and top-class customer services through safe access to resources. 

5. Centralized management enabling enhanced business transparency

When productivity tools can be accessed and managed all from a single platform, through a single sign-on, work becomes much more convenient and smarter. Handling multiple subscription renewals, maintaining multiple credentials, plus paying extra costs on unused tools, can be easily eliminated with centralized IT management.

With InfinCE enabling seamless third-party tool integration, bringing all you need for your work, to one platform, just does not makes work easier, but smarter and more efficient. 

6. Onboarding employees the smarter way

Employee onboarding might as well be declared as the most tedious process of an organization. And that’s why an intelligent digital workplace must target to systemize and streamline this process. 

With an effective cloud platform, new employees can be easily onboarded to the company workflow and culture, introducing them seamlessly to policies, employee directories, chats, communications channels, files, department dashboards, performance matrices, and more just by adding them to a single 

platform. 

In Conclusion!

With market competition on the rise and customer demands changing each day, there is no room for businesses to compromise on efficiency. In fact businesses, today need to be one step ahead of just being efficient. They need to remain future-ready, make quick decisions, and stay trendy. That’s why it’s highly turning imperative for companies to switch to intelligent digital workplaces, that make work smarter, productive, and innovative, plus let your business stay modern with quick adaption to new technologies. 

How can one choose and implement the right digital workplace?

By implementing a digital workplace solution that:

• Promotes the rising capabilities of the Cloud
• Features custom dashboards for complete transparency
• Allows easy communication and collaboration
• Allows centralized management with seamless third-party tool integration
• Makes data access easy and secured
• Gives high priority to resource and data security
• Promotes employee engagement
• And mostly brings all these features to a single platform, eliminating multiple logins.

InfinCE is the one-stop technology solution for all your IT infrastructure needs. The platform offers all the IT infrastructure required to run your business under one roof from building your website to offering a secure intranet while allowing you to personalize your digital workplace solution to suit your unique business needs. InfinCE has the capabilities to build private and secure IT infrastructure to meet your end-to-end needs for enhanced security. Besides, you get to enjoy data security and customization services at the most affordable cost! 

Read more: Why is InfinCE A One-Stop Technology Solution for Small Business?

An IDC study rightly defines intelligent digital workspaces as a framework for enterprises to deliver a diverse set of hardware and software resources to workers, which enables more dynamic and adaptable teams, supports individual and group productivity, enables competitive differentiation, and provides a safety net of security and compliance required in the modern digital economy and workplace. An intelligent digital workplace solution, InfinCE has infinite capabilities to meet all your IT needs and smartly manage and secure your valuable data to improve your employee performances and revenues through personalization.

To know more about how InfinCE can take your business to new heights, connect with our experts today!

Employee engagement is critical for businesses to retain their talent and improve their employee experiences. Engaged employees tend to believe that their employers have their well-being in mind which motivates them to put in their best efforts towards the realization of corporate goals. Disengaged employees are more likely to lose commitment towards the company or start distrusting employers. Such employees fail to see the vision and the objectives of the organization they work for. 

In today’s digital world, employees prefer to be highly involved in what they do and be active contributors to their company’s success. Aligning personal goals with corporate goals would inculcate a sense of belongingness in the minds of the employees which is very important for boosting loyalty, a fact substantiated by Microsoft’s employee survey 2021. The report says 90% of the Microsoft employees surveyed globally have responded that they feel included in their work. 

It has long been established that good employee experiences beget good customer experiences, a fact which was proved time and again during the pandemic. 

Forrester’s study report “Predictions 2022: The Future of Work,” says that 48% of large companies in the US have dedicated programs to improve employee experiences, a number which is expected to rise to 65% in the year to curtail their attrition levels. 

Read more: How An Integrated Digital Workplace Solution Helps Mitigate Remote Work Hurdles

Employee Engagement vs. Employee Experience

“Gallop defines employee engagement as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace.” Employee experience, on the other hand, refers to an employee’s entire journey with respect to his association with the company and is greatly influenced by his engagement at work. 

Why Is Employee Engagement Important?

Employee engagement is vital to companies to help assess employee perspectives on the existing workplace culture which could serve as terms of reference for making future policy changes. Employee engagement catalyzes team engagement, which in turn promotes business growth. 

Employee engagement demands your attention more in today’s business scenario for 3 reasons:

• Companies operate from diverse geographies
• Work is becoming increasingly remote
• There is an overload of information on business systems.  

As work switched from on-site to remote and workplaces transitioned from physical to virtual during the pandemic, with the added bonus of flexibility thrown into the mix, employees increasingly quit jobs that didn’t meet their needs.  “Gartner’s 9 Future of Work Trends Post Covid -19” says 16% of employers surveyed are using technologies to monitor employee activities including employee engagement and their well being to have a better understanding of employee experiences. 

The report advocates responsible use of employee information and analytics to improve employee engagement and enrich employee experiences while working remote, and create a culture of inclusiveness to help employees grow in team culture. 

This is where an efficient digital workplace solution comes to your aid. Backed up by cloud technologies, digital workplace platforms have the capabilities to keep your employees at all levels stay connected and engaged through a multitude of communication and collaboration tools built into them.

Read more: The Definitive Guide to Perfect Digital Workplace Solution

3 Ways Digital Platforms Can Improve Your Employee Engagement

1) Internal communication is rendered seamless through a suite of collaboration apps

A digital workplace facilitates engagement across multiple departments of your business with the help of an array of communication tools and collaboration applications integrated into the platform. These tools can be accessed across geographies, enabling your diversely spread employees to have the right data on their fingertips. Effective internal communication and collaboration are critical to improving employee engagement. Digital workplace solutions ensure that your employees remain connected from anywhere in the world. 

The feature-packed collaboration apps on digital workplace platforms will let your employees at all levels communicate with each other and also with external contacts. Digital platforms ease collaboration from a central hub connecting your employees dispersed across multiple time zones and geographies. 

2) Enable smarter data analysis by creating custom dashboards and tiles

A custom dashboard is a data visualization cum business intelligence tool that showcases a specific set of metrics and KPIs on a single page. A smart digital workplace solution brings to the table the right capabilities to build multiple custom dashboards and tiles for analysis varied purposes. 

Multiple dashboards powered by a variety of tiles can be created on digital workplace platforms for enhanced visibility and productivity. Dashboards serve to track your employee activities and the progress of projects which can be accessed by all team members, thus increasing employee engagement at all levels. Personalized dashboards offer intelligent analytics of data to ensure that the relevant data is visible and accessible only to the right persons. 

You don’t have to go for a ‘one size fits all’ kind of dashboard meant for your industry or your line of business in general, when you have the advantage of creating custom dashboards that uniquely suit your business. Pre-built tiles extract information from business apps and display it on custom dashboards to help track projects, campaigns, and other key metrics in one view, thus motivating your employees to strive more toward goals set, thus keeping them engaged. 

3) Seamlessly integrate multiple apps that cater to the business needs of varied industries  

The successful day-to-day operations of your business demand access to a series of business apps from multiple vendors. Switching between apps will incur huge amounts of time loss which can be prevented by adopting a smart digital workplace solution. A smart digital workplace platform integrates a wide range of apps that find uses in diverse industries. These apps can be managed from a central hub, thus saving time, and serving to improve productivity, communication, and collaboration among your teams.  Your diversely spread employees can access data through these apps from anywhere to get their work done. 

Read more: How Digital Workplaces Improve Employee Experience

In Conclusion!

Good employee experiences stem from good digital experiences, no matter whether companies embrace a fully remote working environment or a hybrid one. This calls for the adoption of a smart, highly interactive digital workplace solution like InfinCE to improve your employee engagement, enhance your employee experiences, and shore up your digitization endeavors in more ways than one. 

The platform enables smarter, effective, and streamlined communication among all departments and teams. You can seamlessly share information and organizational updates on the custom dashboards created on InfinCE. The platform has an array of tools and apps to facilitate live chats, video calls, and meetings among your employees, keeping them engaged. The collaboration features of InfinCE include secure file sharing and live editing of documents, thus catering to employee engagement. With InfinCE, collaborative project planning is possible and project calendars can be managed, shared, and synced with personal calendars. The platform draws on data from various sources such as external APIs and apps to offer insights in the form of graphs and charts. 

InfinCE offers a curated application marketplace to meet your varied business needs. A few of those apps even come free of cost. And what is more, all business apps available on InfinCE, be it commercial or open-source, can be easily accessed through a single login. A few of these apps are WordPress Blog and WordPress portal for content management; Odoo and Rise for CRM; OpenProject and Kanboard for project management; MyBB to manage and moderate discussions among teams; and Vanilla Forums for interactions with customers and potential clients.   

Organizations are increasingly incorporating aspects of engagement into all elements of their employee experience to make it a fruitful journey for both the employers and the employees.  And InfinCE is your one-stop technology solution to digitize your business operations and keep your employees engaged such that personal goals are aligned with company goals and employees develop a holistic view of the company and their roles in its operations. 

To know more on how InfinCE can help enhance employee engagement connect with our experts today!

 

Technology has, over the years, changed the way businesses operate, and the pandemic has fast-tracked the digitization of businesses. COVID-19 induced uncertainties pave the way for increased adoption of digital workplace solutions to prevent any possible disruption to workflows. Digital workplace software is the right platform your business needs to smoothen its digital journey as part of your efforts to scale up the capabilities and efficiency of your internal business operations.   

The concept of a digital workplace stems from the idea that there is a virtual equivalent to a conventional physical workplace that needs to be planned and managed efficiently with the right kind of tools and technologies for higher employee productivity, engagement, and experience. A Hewlett Packard article defines a digital workplace as a “virtualized form of the traditional in-person office environment, where many elements of collaboration and productivity are performed through some combination of digital applications, cloud computing, and other technology”.

A digital workplace goes beyond the physical confines of a traditional workplace to offer your business a digital ecosystem powered by cloud technologies for its day-to-day activities. It facilitates seamless data sharing and collaboration among your employees across multiple geographies in a connected environment. “The Digital Workplace enables new, more effective ways of working; raises employee engagement and agility, and exploits consumer-oriented styles and technologies,” says Gartner.

A digital workplace solution offers a single integrated platform with capabilities to enable your employees to seamlessly access all the data, software, and other related tools to perform their work, irrespective of their physical location or device. When you move part or whole of the internal operations of your business to a digital workplace, your employees get empowered by the right sets of tools to improve their efficiency at the workplace. Embracing digitization is a testimony to a change in the working mindset and culture of your organization. 

Read more: Merits and Demerits of Digital Workplaces – A Sneak Peak

So how do digital workplace tools help your digital workplace employees improve their efficiency? A good digital workplace solution like InfinCE is armed with services and capabilities across multiple dimensions of your business operations to ease seamless integration. Here is how :

1. Improves internal communication and collaboration.

Effective communication is crucial to business growth. A good digital workplace platform comes equipped with the right communication tools to help your digital workplace employees stay connected with peers and higher-ups all the time. InfinCE has an array of feature-packed collaboration apps for faster, smarter, and streamlined communication. Its office tools enable faster sharing and secure storage of documents and bring your geographically dispersed teams together no matter which corner of the earth they work from.

The centralized storage of data saves a large volume of human efforts and working hours; erstwhile used to be spent in search of information during the pre-adoption period. The comprehensive employee directory in InfinCE will fetch contact details of your internal staff as well as external partners with whom you can initiate a chat, call, or email depending on their online presence status. InfinCE also enables real-time active individual and group chats among your employees. The provision for shareable invite links helps you have video chats with your employees and clients without needing to download the InfinCE app. Setting up video meetings has never been easier! Multiple screen share and simultaneous document editing render your online meetings and presentations to be more effective and interactive.

2. Improves employee experience, engagement, and productivity.

A digital workplace platform offers your employees the relevant tools and technologies at their fingertips to give proactive feedback on their employee experiences. This boosts digital employee experience and serves as a motivational factor for increased levels of engagement and productivity on their part. An engaged workforce will always direct their efforts toward meeting the business goals set, thus actively contributing to your business’s growth. As already said, technology helps save time which can be productively used to accomplish business growth. In addition, the interactive tools in InfinCE help build stronger and trusted relationships with your employees and clients on the secure servers of the platform. 

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

3. Brings multiple applications to the table. 

Your business needs multiple applications to run its day-to-day operations. Digital workplace solutions make sure all the applications required for your business operations are available on their platforms. InfinCE provides a curated applications marketplace with an ever-growing library of applications from multiple vendors, including CRM, CMS, and HRM solutions hosted on secure cloud environments and dedicated to serving your business needs. 

4. Boosts workforce agility.

A company’s ability to move its employees to support changes in the highly volatile business environments defines its workforce agility. A digital workplace software solution endows your employees with the capabilities to be productive anytime, anywhere as long as they have internet connectivity. They ensure the internal operations of your business remain uninterrupted in a connected world. Besides, they get to be trained in new skills in tune with the change in customer demands and software updates.

Digital workplace tools have the capabilities to document employee experiences which can be curated and shared among the present and future employees to choose the practices that best suit your business needs. InfinCE offers an array of smart productivity apps that ensure the smooth functioning of your day-to-day business activities and raises your workforce efficiency. We have a dedicated and skilled team to manage the hosting, maintenance, and updates of our digital workplace software to keep your digital workplace employees abreast of the ever-evolving practices and smart technologies in the digital landscape.  

Thus the best digital workplace solutions have the tools and capabilities to increase your employee experience, engagement, and productivity to motivate them to put in their best efforts to improve the bottom line of your business. The digital workplace benefits are plenty and are good enough reasons for non-adopters to embrace it. However, companies should strategically analyze their work environment and business needs before adopting the best digital workplace solution that caters to their requirements. 

Watch: How InfinCE makes work management simpler and efficient from anywhere!

InfinCE is empowered by a wide range of tools and capabilities to provide your business with a tailor-made digital workplace solution to give your internal customers – your employees – an integrated experience sans back-end complexity. 

Gone are the days when work meant a place where employees went to earn their livelihood. Instead, Digital technologies and remote work culture have redefined work as something that goes to the employees on their preferred devices at their geographical location. InfinCE has the right sets of digital workplace tools to synergize with your employees to make your digital transformation journey meaningful.

For more guidance about our digital workplace platform, feel free to contact our experts.

Digital transformation is essential to your businesses primarily because it enables effective and efficient management of all your resources, be it technical or human. It empowers your business with technologies to help you stay relevant in today’s challenging market. Pandemic-induced lockdown forced businesses to increasingly adopt digitalization to enable their employees to stay connected and agile while working from the comfort of their homes or any place they preferred, thus preventing disruptions to workflows. 

Digital workplace statistics definitely demand the attention of non-adopters of digitization. McKinsey’s The Future of Work After the COVID-19 report says that 20-25% of the labor forces in advanced economies now have the capabilities to work from home between 3-5 days a week which is nearly four to five times more remote work than the pre-pandemic period. Reports from other market research firms also speak of an overall increase in digital adoption worldwide, endorsing a growing trend among businesses to embrace future technologies to remain competitive.

Foundry’s 2021 Digital Business Study report says 91% of the organizations surveyed have either adopted or have expressed their plans to adopt a digital-first business strategy. The report also says that the sample members plan to invest as much as $16.5 mn on digital initiatives this year on cutting-edge technologies like machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and public cloud. What is important is once you decide to digitize part or whole of your business processes, you must wisely choose the right technologies that suit your operations best and ease your digital transition. Here is where a digital workplace solution comes in very handy.  A digital workplace solution is your best buddy when it comes to making your digital transformation journey productive, cost-effective, and meaningful.     

A digital workplace platform lets you have virtual meetings with any or all of your employees beyond the barriers of time, geographical location, devices, or network connections. It is an integrated platform that offers your employees all the right tools required to carry out their working tasks effectively and efficiently. It digitizes all the workflows related to your internal business processes and relocates your business space from a physical location to cloud space. This is achieved by moving all the data and technologies related to your business’s internal operations to a secure web interface that can be seamlessly accessed by your employees from anywhere on any device of their choice. InfinCE is a one-stop technology solution that simplifies the cloud by offering a wide array of applications and tools to help your business run its internal operations smoothly and productively. 

Having said that, adopters shouldn’t mistake that everything will always be hunky-dory in a digital workplace environment. Of course, a digital workplace solution has its own share of advantages and disadvantages. But the advantages always outweigh the disadvantages, and the latter should never deter your decision to embrace digital technologies.  

Read more: Five Myths Around Hybrid Workplaces Demystified

A few advantages of digital working places  

1. Promotes employee engagement 

In today’s digital world, businesses need engaged workforces to stay agile and competitive. Engaged employees are motivated to invest their best at work. Seamless communication in digital workplaces enables easy access to data, which helps simplify decision-making and improves employee engagement. 

The communication and collaboration tools of InfinCE help better engagement among your geographically dispersed employees and promote an interactive culture. The custom dashboards available on the platform are powered by a variety of tiles for enhanced visibility. Efficient collaboration and easy file sharing enabled by InfinCE help create a better user experience and bring your workforce together. The in-built digital workplace tools of InfinCE have capabilities to address all the internal operations of your business. 

2. Increases revenue and reduces costs

Digital workplace services improve the overall efficiency of your business operations by optimizing its capabilities while saving time and human efforts. Consolidation and automated processing of documents serve to eliminate the manpower previously required to accomplish the task in a non-digital environment. Centralized data offers information at the fingertips, which saves a lot of employee time. Digital capabilities help save time and human efforts while reducing the operational costs of businesses. 

With InfinCE, you get to run your business without a full-fledged in-house IT team. Thus, saving you much on your operational costs. 

3. Increases business productivity

A digital workplace streamlines business processes and removes communication hazards, thus increasing productivity. Integrating a wide range of tools and software into a digital workplace platform allows end-users to choose the right applications that suit their business model. Furthermore, automation of processes helps save time which can be productively used to achieve organizational goals. 

InfinCE is a perfect digital workplace platform for organizing work and managing your data, thus improving the efficiency of your workforce. The platform empowers your business with a wide range of productivity tools to create documents, manage emails, oversee tasks, and schedule events. Thus, the day-to-day activities of your business can be achieved with ease, and the efficiency of your workforce increases by leaps and bounds.  

Read more: How Digital Workplaces Improve Employee Experience

A few disadvantages of digital working place 

1. Increased dependence on technology

There is no guarantee that the software infrastructure of your digital workplace will run smoothly 24/7. Every aspect of work is likely to get technology dependent which can become a drawback in the long run as a technical glitch on the server-side may lead to a loss in productivity. In addition, if the system crashes, workflows will be disrupted until the issue is resolved. 

With InfinCE, you can enjoy concierge support from a technically adept team. The digital workplace services offered by InfinCE include a dedicated team to assist with the hosting, maintenance,  and updates of the software. The services of our dedicated support time include email, live chat, and phone support round the clock.  

2. Software upgradation can prove expensive

Technology keeps evolving, and so do your business needs. The cost of the upgrade has to be followed up with the cost of training your workforce to handle the upgraded software. A repeated need to learn new applications would be stressful for the employees, adversely affecting their performance and job satisfaction. But with software upgrades, efficiencies improve at all levels.  

The scalability feature on InfinCE helps you increase your server capacity and storage space without any hidden costs. The platform also allows you to scale down your cloud technologies in tune with your changing business needs, and you need to pay only for the applications you use. 

One of the biggest advantages of digitization is facilitating virtual and global collaboration through digital workplace solutions. A digitally integrated workforce enables businesses to keep their geographically dispersed employees on the same page logistically and coordinate their efforts toward meeting organizational goals. Digitization is here to stay, and businesses cannot afford to turn their backs on it if they want to stay competitive.

Reach out to our team for a quick demo or to know more about the InfinCE platform.