Raising the bar on communication, collaboration, and productivity have been three crucial factors driving change across the post-pandemic remote and hybrid work landscape. Business owners have been actively looking at ways to invest in an intranet that meets the three goals apart from meeting other objectives such as knowledge enhancement and upskilling among their employees. Over time, intranets have mostly been essential static file storage spaces that have evolved into dynamic platforms connecting your workforce anytime, anywhere. 

But with an abundance of options available, how do you select the best intranet software for your needs?

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the must-have features for intranet software in 2024.

1. A User-Friendly Interface that Drives Communication

A 2020 survey by Deloitte reveals a 20% increase in employee satisfaction and a corresponding 87% increase in employee retention in organizations that implemented user-friendly intranets. A user-friendly interface is one of the key priorities when choosing intranet software. An intuitive user interface is the first impression employees will have of your intranet software. You should look for software that offers customizable layouts, drag-and-drop functionality, and responsive design to ensure a seamless user experience. In this context, communication boards can be a useful feature as they help offer a unified view of your organization, tapping into real-time data and offering useful insights for employees, thus guiding critical decisions. 

2. Access Controls for Security

A robust communication dashboard can also be the cornerstone to achieving multiple layers of security. This is to ensure that employees can securely share sensitive business information and perform the required data analysis on the go. Features such as role-based access control, encryption, and regular security audits are non-negotiable. Since organizations frequently collaborate with external partners, vendors, and clients, your intranet software should support guest user access, allowing external stakeholders to join discussions and access shared resources securely. 

3. Mobile Accessibility

93% of U.S. employees who own a smartphone and spend at least a third of their time away from a desk use their cell phones for work every day. In today’s fast-paced work environment, employees need access to intranet resources on the go. Your intranet software should be mobile-responsive, allowing employees to access crucial information anytime, anywhere.

4. Video Capabilities to Foster Team Bonding

83% of remote workers feel more connected to their teams when they can participate in video meetings. In 2024, as remote work continues to be a prevalent trend, your intranet software should incorporate video meeting capabilities, facilitating face-to-face interactions regardless of geographical barriers. Research reveals that organizations enabling video meetings have seen a 40% increase in remote worker engagement.

5. Advanced Search Functionality and Employee Directory for Enhanced Collab

Information overload is a common challenge in today’s data-driven work environments. To help employees find what they need quickly, your intranet software should offer robust search functionality. The ideal software should support keyword searches, filters, and predictive search suggestions. Companies with advanced search capabilities report a 35% increase in employee productivity due to reduced time spent searching for information. A robust employee directory ensures employees can easily find and connect with colleagues across various business functions. Studies show that organizations with comprehensive employee directories experience a 15% reduction in time spent searching for colleagues’ contact information.

6. Superior Analytics and Reporting Suite

Data-driven decision-making is crucial for business success. Your intranet software should provide detailed analytics and reporting capabilities. Understand how your employees are engaging with the platform and use this data to refine your internal communications strategy.

Organizations that leverage analytics from their intranet software report a 20% increase in the effectiveness of their internal communications.

7. A Host of Collaboration Tools

Effective collaboration is a cornerstone of modern business. Your intranet should include collaborative features like chat, document sharing, and project management tools. In 2023, 68% of organizations cite improved collaboration as the primary benefit of their intranet.

8. Automation and Workflow Integration for The Win

To streamline processes and reduce manual tasks, your intranet should support automation and workflow integration. Look for features like approval workflows, task automation, and notifications to keep your organization running smoothly.

9. Scalability is the name of the game

As your organization grows, your intranet software should grow with it. Scalability is a vital consideration in 2023, as 80% of companies anticipate growth within the next year. Ensure that your chosen intranet solution can accommodate your future needs without major overhauls. Scalable intranet solutions are 40% more cost-effective in the long run, as they reduce the need for frequent software migrations.

10. Say Yes to Employee Feedback Mechanisms

Listening to your employees is crucial for maintaining a positive workplace culture. Your intranet software should provide tools for collecting feedback, conducting surveys, and monitoring employee sentiment.

11. Flexibility to Customize and Brand

Your intranet should reflect your organization’s unique identity. Customization options, including branding elements like logos, colors, and fonts, allow you to create a cohesive and branded digital workspace. 75% of employees believe that a well-branded intranet improves their sense of belonging and company identity.

Closing Thoughts

Selecting the best intranet software in 2024 demands a meticulous understanding of these essential features: communication boards, employee directory, video meetings, file sharing, mobile app, business phone system, and guest user access. Each of these features contributes significantly to fostering collaboration, improving productivity, and streamlining communication within your organization.

As a leader in your domain, it’s imperative to stay ahead of the curve and leverage the power of modern intranet software. These features aren’t mere technological enhancements; they are strategic tools that can transform your organization’s capabilities. Embrace them, and watch your workforce thrive, your projects excel, and your business reach new heights in 2024 and beyond.

Remember, the best intranet software doesn’t just connect employees; it connects success. So, choose wisely, and pave the way for a brighter future for your organization. 

Schedule a demo with InfinCE. Our experts can help you meet your intranet software criteria to its finest detail.

Whether you’re a small startup or a multinational corporation, staying connected with your team and clients is a strong prerequisite in the digital age. Emails have been the workhorse of corporate communication for decades. However, in a world that constantly evolves, businesses need to adapt. 

In this blog, we’ll explore the whys of businesses thinking beyond traditional emails for their modern communication needs and why InfinCE stands out as a great fit.

1. Real-Time Communication: Traditional emails are inherently asynchronous, which means that they don’t promote real-time conversations. In a business landscape where decisions are made in the blink of an eye, real-time communication is a game-changer. Modern employee communication software facilitates instant messaging and quick decision-making. 

InfinCE’s communication boards allow you to get a unified view of real-time updates across cross-functional teams seamlessly. With a reliable internal communication tool, all critical data that you need is updated automatically, thus helping decision-making and instant communication. It also helps avoid the pain of manual data entry, thus making communication simple and fuss-free. 

2. Collaboration at Its Best: In the age of remote work and globally distributed teams, collaboration is a lifesaver. Emails are clunky and often lead to long threads that are difficult to follow. Modern communication software allows teams to collaborate seamlessly on projects, share files, and offer quick feedback, all in one place. 

InfinCE is packaged as a complete solution with video meetings, a robust business phone system, instant live chats, and a comprehensive employee directory that allows collaboration on the go. Multiple participants can share their screens simultaneously during a meeting to save time and add more clarity to the discussions. Collaboration is made easy with integrated features like file sharing, task management, and project tracking. It’s all in one place, reducing the need for scattered communication channels and endless email chains.

3. Enhanced Productivity: When your team spends less time wading through their overflowing inboxes, they become more productive. Modern communication software can streamline work processes, keep conversations organized, make tasks clearer, and help your team stay focused on their work.

4. Mobile-Friendly: In a world where we are constantly on the move, mobile-friendliness is a must. Modern communication software ensures that your team can access vital information, chat with colleagues, and collaborate on projects from their mobile devices, no matter where they are.

5. Customization and Scalability: Traditional emails have limited customization options, which may not cater to your organization’s unique needs. Modern communication software can be tailored to fit your specific requirements and is easily scalable as your business grows.

6. Increased Security: Many modern communication software platforms come with robust security features to protect sensitive business data. This is a significant advantage over traditional emails, which are susceptible to hacking and data breaches.

How Does InfinCE Stand Out As The Modern Employee Communication Software

InfinCE is built keeping in mind the needs of the modern workforce. Its features make it an ideal choice for modern employee communication:

1. Secure Video Conferencing: InfinCE offers secure video conferencing and facilitates face-to-face virtual meetings, which is vital for remote teams and client interactions.

2. Centralized File Sharing: With a centralized file-sharing system, InfinCE ensures that documents are readily accessible to authorized team members and reduces the risk of data loss.

3. Team Collaboration Suite: InfinCE comes with a suite of collaboration tools, including real-time chat, project management, and task tracking, fostering a productive and cohesive team environment.

4. Advanced Security Features: InfinCE takes data security seriously, with advanced security measures that protect your organization’s sensitive information.

5. Mobile Apps: InfinCE offers mobile apps, making it easy for your team to stay connected, whether they’re in the office or on the go.

In conclusion, while traditional emails have their place in business communication, modern communication software offers a multitude of advantages that can help businesses stay effective, productive, and competitive in today’s fast-paced world. InfinCE, with its top-notch features and customization options, is a prime example of a modern employee communication software that takes your business beyond emails, empowering your team to communicate, collaborate, and succeed. It’s time to embrace the future of communication and unlock your organization’s full potential.

Is a Digital Workplace platform what your company needs to turn employee resignations into employee retention in today’s modern workplace? 

In today’s changing business environment, organizations must rank employee experience to improve retention rates and attract top talent. This involves creating a workplace culture that supports and values employees, providing opportunities for learning and development, and implementing processes and technologies that make it easier for employees to do their job. By strategizing employee experience in the modern workplace, organizations can improve employee retention, foster a more positive work culture, and drive business success. 

A study by Gallup shows that 48% of US employees are on a job hunt. One-third of new employees quit after about six months, according to statistics. It has been recognized that 44% of employees are stressed at work. It is vital for companies, both big and small, to focus on employee retention to maintain a stable and productive workforce. This can involve offering competitive salaries and benefits, providing opportunities for professional development and career advancement, and creating a positive and supportive work environment. 

By focusing on employee retention, companies can reduce the costs and disruptions associated with high levels of turnover and create a more positive and productive work culture.

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

How employee experience contributes to employee retention

Research shows that in August 2022, attrition stood at 29% for the companies that put an end to working from home. In comparison, the companies that allowed remote work or hybrid work models saw only 19% attrition. According to Statista, 72% of people looking for a job believe that work-life balance is an essential factor to consider. 

Employees who do not have a work-life balance tend to burn out more quickly. Employees struggle to have a great work-life balance or even overall EX (employee experience), leading to rising employee resignations. On the other hand, for companies shifting to remote or hybrid models, tracking employee tasks and performances, providing regular training, maintaining transparency, developing trust & build a positive work environment are challenging. 

Here’s more to understanding how ineffective work environments can lead to dissatisfied employees, which can deeply impact the entire organization’s growth and performance.

1.  Lack of effective communication

The relationship between employer & employee is very fragile & can be only maintained via constant two-way communication. This makes employees feel more engaged, motivated & productive. To deliver a promising employee experience, organizations should focus on effective communication channels like video meetings, internal chats, conferences, etc.

2. Connected workplaces are turning imperative 

When employees are involved and connected, they feel valued and tend to be more productive. Maintaining transparency on project progress, sales performances, and other key metrics can help improve employee experience and strengthen their relationship with the company. Businesses can rely on custom dashboards to centralize & customize information to ensure everyone is working towards the same goals and objectives.

3. Ensuring employee well-being in hybrid work culture

When work culture is constantly changing, employees may feel uncertain about their roles and responsibilities, leading to confusion, frustration & decrease in productivity. Statistics show 46% of employees seek mental health benefits in a new job. Shifting to a digital workplace can help improve employee experience and work efficiency in hybrid and remote work cultures through seamless communication and build a culture of trust & focus with transparency.

4. Motivation & career alignment

Employees who feel supported and motivated are likelier to be engaged and motivated to do their best work. Creating a positive work culture and supporting employees’ professional growth can increase job satisfaction and retention. Offering regular training programs, mentorship, coaching, and career growth opportunities and creating supportive growth & learning environment can help employees feel valued and invested in work.

Read more: What is a Digital Workplace: A Complete Guide!

How a digital workplace contributes to improved employee experience

Digital workplaces improve connectivity, be it human-to-human, human-to-machines, or human-to-data. In today’s digital era, where work is impossible without tools, apps, and other technologies, digital workplaces ensure one can leverage them from anywhere, within any work culture. Moreover, maintaining transparency, tracking in real-time, and accessing information securely, get simpler with digital workplaces. For companies trying to stick to hybrid and remote work cultures, digital workplaces can make work collaboration and communication much smarter. Here’s more on how digital workplaces can help tackle workplace challenges and keep employees productive, motivated, and happy!

1. Improved work collaboration

In today’s digital era, you need more ways to stay connected and collaborate at work. A digital workplace, with multiple communication channels, chat facilities, and video conference options, enables employees to reach out faster to the right person, leaving no communication gaps that might hinder work or work relationships. Digital workplaces also come with a pool of productivity tools that allow employees to work together from different locations and track tasks in real-time so everyone stays on the same page at work. Improving work collaboration alone can help employees feel involved and valued at work and strengthen the employer-employee relationship.

2. Improved transparency 

The most effective way to make employees feel valued is by maintaining transparency. Keeping everyone on the same page on several matters of your project or company could get tricky, especially if employees work remotely. But digital workplaces that facilitate intuitive dashboards enable seamlessly keeping your selected employees informed on the respective projects, performance metrics, or company policies. This way, no employees would feel left out on important announcements or updated company targets and goals.

3. Keeping employees engaged

Keeping your staff engaged and motivated all the time is challenging. Along with company goals, most employees look forward to achieving personal career growth as well, the lack of which leads to resignation. With digital work platforms or workplaces, companies can seamlessly integrate training platforms to monitor employee performances and provide regular training to help staff feel encouraged and have clearly defined career paths. Such platforms and apps can also be leveraged to offer regular exercise or mind training programs for employees to keep them active, healthy, and stress-free, regardless of the work culture.

4. Bring your team together

With work cultures shifting rapidly, depending on tools and technologies at work has turned imperative. But when different employees work on separate tools and disparate systems, keeping everyone on your team together gets tricky! Digital workplaces not just bring people together but also tools and technology, enabling seamless integration and centralized management of productivity tools. What’s more effective than having one platform to store and centrally manage all the tools, tasks, and data of your entire team or company?

Read more: The Best Ways to Improve Your Digital Workplace Management

Is InfinCE the right Digital Workplace Platform for your company?

If your company is focused on achieving operational efficiency and growth through a dedicated and future-ready workforce, then InfinCE is your digital workplace platform! InfinCE makes it seamless to keep employees productive, motivated, skilled, and ready to tackle the changing workplace scenarios and challenges. Besides effective management, instant communication, enhanced work collaborations, and a pool of productivity tools, InfinCE is top-notch when it comes to data security and business transparency. Here’s a quick rundown of what makes InfinCE the ultimate digital workplace platform!

• A cloud-based, all-in-one digital workplace platform that allows you to manage multiple workflows effortlessly.
• Offers seamless  IT management from one place while ensuring the safety of data rendered.
• Custom dashboards to quickly keep track of important metrics.
• Application marketplace enabling seamless integration of third-party tools. 
• Free Guest User options.
• Business Phone System, keeping business contacts and communications smarter.
• Employee Directory, enabling everyone in your company to stay connected regardless of departments. 
• Secured and centrally managed IT Infrastructure.
• 24/7 customer support.

Besides the above-mentioned top features, InfinCE can make your brand instantly recognizable with white-label service. Establish boosted credibility and brand consistency with a custom domain, custom business email, custom branded software, personalized workplace solution, and more such white label services from InfinCE that will help provide your clients, customers, and employees an enhanced experience. 
So wait no more! Connect with our experts today, or request a Free Demo to learn more about InfinCE!

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!

Today’s workplace is a sharp deviation from what it was a decade ago. The pandemic has significantly contributed to accelerating the need for change, almost setting a blueprint for the future of work in the long haul.

While the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be dominating headlines all over again now, with new variants posing newer threats to everyday life, regular workplace functioning has taken a beating. Considering the vagaries of this scenario, the much-awaited return to the office in physical work environments seems like a far cry.

Amidst this continuously evolving workplace landscape, organizations worldwide are adopting innovative tools and technologies to keep pace with the dynamic challenges that are characteristic of today’s remote working model.

As we debate how a hybrid model will dictate the post-pandemic workplace, one thing is for sure – the current day workplace is highly digital, offers more flexibility than in the past, and is in a constant state of flux.

Let’s take a look at the many facets of the workplace that have undergone a significant transformation over the past few years and how they have had an impact on overall workplace productivity.   

1. Employee-oriented workplace policies

Human resource managers have their tasks cut out with today’s digitally empowered workforce. Both employers and employees today value transparency and frequent communication and are looking forward to embracing an open culture that shuns hierarchy. A recent McKinsey report states that organizations that have clear open policies and approaches, and streamlined communications have employee well-being and productivity rise.

An interesting observation is that organizations with a clear mandate about post-COVID-19 work arrangements have a significant uptick regarding employee-reported feelings of support. There is a three-fold increase in terms of a feeling of inclusion and an almost five-fold increase in individual productivity. 

From this, it is clear that a cookie-cutter approach to workplace policies is no longer a sustainable solution. 

2. Increased agility in work environments

The traditional on-premises work model would typically include a standard set of tools such as Microsoft Office suite, a company-wide email network, and an internal communicator application. Today, all of this has undergone an interesting makeover. With the advent of the cloud, we are heading towards an entirely cloud-based system that is equipped with smart tools for better collaboration, increased accessibility, enhanced openness, and embracing agility on the whole. 

The physical work environment has slowly yet steadily pivoted from a fixed location model to a co-working or collaborative workspace. It is supported by the superior technological prowess of IoT and other smart capabilities. In addition, immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) show increasing readiness for mainstream business adoption, particularly for conferencing and multi-hosting events. Leveraging the power of IoT and other immersive technologies with their limitations is an important step in determining how successful a remote workplace can guide employee productivity. It remains to be seen, although it offers the scope for immense potential at face value. 

Read more: How A Collaboration Software Can Improve Productivity

3. Rapid skill enhancement/ upskilling via virtual learning

The pandemic has taught us enough lessons on how it is important to be well-equipped to handle change when things come to a grinding halt. Drastic changes in workload allocation with resource crunches have led to an acceleration in the creation of new roles. In such a scenario, it’s essential for today’s workforce to reskill themselves to fit themselves better and contribute effectively to overall organizational changes. In a Feb 2020 McKinsey Global Survey, 87 percent of executives reported going through skill gaps in the workforce or expected them within a few years. Reskilling and upskilling can be path-breaking because they help employees acquire cross-functional acumen, making it seamless for them to work across different business functions. In the same vein, it is seen that the remote working environment is ripe to facilitate on-the-job learning and self-learning activities.

4. Embracing holistic development with a focus on health and safety

COVID-19 has sounded alarm bells concerning employee health and safety. Therefore, dialogue and discussion in that direction have been on the rise, rightly so. Health and legal experts have mandated the need for on-the-job medical screening as a prerequisite to working in offices in the future. To that end, several global organizations are willing to extend support to employees during the pandemic and in the long run with perks such as providing access to mental health resources and childcare coverage. 

5. Sustainability and carbon footprint will assume prime focus

Largely touted as the practice run for the next crisis, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic has set the stage for organizations to factor in environmental sustainability as a crucial goal. At the same time, they draw up their business objectives. Companies such as Microsoft Corp., Facebook Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050. Building an environmentally sustainable workplace model must go beyond achieving individual goals such as minimizing carbon emissions. It should be a collective mindset that addresses a mosaic of related issues in tandem and fundamentally becomes the core facet of organizations’ business models.

Read more: Moving to Hybrid Work Culture? Here’s What You Need to Consider!

How does a comprehensive digital orchestration platform like InfinCE come into play while we build a future-ready workplace?

As the hybrid workplace model comes under the spotlight and is here to stay, we can confidently say that technology will play a crucial role in its success. So every organization looking to make a mark at the global level can set itself up for success if they consider digital disruptions the first step toward thriving in their respective industries. Digital tools for friction-free business management can make employee interactions and customer interactions seamless across all types of environments, thus enhancing productivity several notches higher.  

An all-under-one-hood enterprise platform such as InfinCE can arm you with the competitive edge you need to have in today’s dynamic work environment. Replete with a wide array of features such as Calendar and Task Management, Intranet and File Exchange channels, Collaborative Document and File management, etc. InfinCE allows you to up your game with digital transformation, reimagined!

Get in touch with us to know more about InfinCE.

Utilizing Technology Effectively for Optimal Employee Engagement

Adapting to the situation is the mandate in the post-pandemic world, renewed to its core, especially in the business sector. Organizations failing to embrace the workplace trends and culture will eventually suffer productivity loss and see a decline in the overall operational efficiency. Businesses that offer workplace flexibility get to taste success even in uncertain times. The best way to increase adaptability and flexibility is to use the right workplace technology to ensure optimal employee engagement.

Read More: A Guide to Improving Workplace Collaboration for the Modern Enterprise

Workplace collaboration technology improves employee engagement

People engagement has always been a vital element of the workplace. Employers that are new to the remote work culture often find it difficult to ensure effective employee engagement. Forward-looking enterprises find their solution in all-in-one collaboration platforms, like InfinCE, to improve employee satisfaction, retention, engagement, and productivity rates. 

With the InfinCE digital workplace orchestration platform on your side, you can assign tasks and manage multiple projects from a single dashboard. You can also use various collaboration features like instant messaging, video conferencing, audio calls, and productivity apps to keep everyone aligned with the common goal.

Read more: Why InfinCE Digital Workplace Should be Your Remote Work Companion 

The growing usage of collaboration platforms

Studies say that the adoption of communication and collaboration tools has gone significantly high in the past couple of years.

Fingent, our parent company, successfully switched to 100% remote working in March 2020 with InfinCE digital workplace platform. With InfinCE, Fingent’s team can meet virtually any time of the day and discuss work on the fly.

Read Our Case Study: How Fingent Achieved Breakthroughs in Collaboration with InfinCE Digital Workplace

Spiceworks Ziff Davis reports that “in June 2020, 81% of businesses were using business chat apps, a big jump from 67% in 2019. Additionally, three months into the COVID-19 crisis, more than one-third (37%) of IT decision-makers reported employees in their organization preferring to use business chat apps over email for internal communications — up from 31% in 2019.” These stats denote that businesses now see such communication and collaboration tools as essential components in their day-to-day operations.

However, the challenge is that you still need to be agile and flexible while using such communication tools in a hybrid workplace to enhance employee engagement. Most often, enterprises rely on multiple software applications for communication and collaboration subscribed from different vendors. It creates confusion as it is challenging for IT managers to keep track of numerous renewal messages and license expiry dates. The subscription costs will also add up. This is where InfinCE’s marketplace brings the difference. You can subscribe and readily access all your essential enterprise applications with a single sign-on through the marketplace. With this, you can easily integrate all your business processes, reduce expenses, manage resources optimally, and engage with clients better to stimulate growth. 

White Paper: Business Value of InfinCE Enterprise Cloud for Business Owners and Employees. Download Now! 

InfinCE drives superior productivity in your enterprise and enhances your outcomes. Here are the key drivers that will play a vital role in people’s engagement moving forward.

1. Agile and flexible approach

As mentioned, using the right technology matters the most in the hybrid workplace. Therefore, you need to find the perfect communication and collaboration fit for your company that allows you to stay on top of your goals. Likewise, you should be ready to make the change when required to ensure that your employees have access to the best solutions they need to perform to their best ability. With InfinCE, you can integrate as many productivity apps as you want with the system and scale the collaboration platform features to suit your specific requirements.

2. Get the basics right

It is said that technology is only as good as the person using it. Therefore, you should ensure that the platform you choose is easy to incorporate into your existing business structure and can be easily managed by your employees without needing any technical know-how. InfinCE gives you the best of both worlds – onboarding and using the platform is a breeze, while switching to the communication and collaboration tool will not break the current flow of your business operations either. Besides, there is also round-the-clock support available to help you with any needs, be it getting started with the video calls and conferences or upgrading the apps from the dashboard.

Read more: 5 Ways to Ensure that Digital Workplace Complexity Doesn’t Bog Down Workforce Productivity  

3. Break departmental silos

Removing the silos between remote teams is an essential factor to derive maximum productivity. It is very important to have well-defined workflows, processes, and systems in a hybrid work culture to ensure effective collaboration. InfinCE helps you get the message across the board clearly and allows you to review the daily work practices to make the best use of online conferences and virtual collaboration for knowledge sharing. All of that can be managed from a single dashboard, which also helps keep the costs in check and avoid technology chaos.

Read more: 5 Benefits Of Having A Centralized Employee Dashboard In Your Business

InfinCE dashboards can be restricted to, and contain just the information appropriate for the expected viewers. However, those viewers may be classified: Organization, Department, or Team. An individual can create private-use personal dashboards as well. Dashboards are perfect for sharing project and company updates or other information with co-workers. 

4. Use the right channel to communicate

Most of the popular communication solutions offer just a single channel for collaboration like video conferencing or file sharing. However, overusing the same approach for communication can actually hurt employee engagement and lead to “online fatigue” and loss of productivity. Sometimes, a call may not even be required to get the message across, and a simple text could do. With InfinCE, you can use different channels like audio calls, instant messaging, email, and video conferencing to prevent burnout related to overusing the same virtual communication style. When coupled with features like data sharing, task management, time tracking, reporting, etc., you get a complete tool in InfinCE to improve people engagement.

Read More: How Successful Leaders Engage Employees Using Modern Business Communication Tools like InfinCE

InfinCE makes life simpler for your employees as they do not have to juggle between different apps to find the information needed to perform their jobs. Business communication works well when done through the channel best suited for that purpose. You can always find a way in InfinCE to keep everything moving. The rapidly changing business landscape needs adaptability to remain productive and see results. With InfinCE on your side, you can have all the resources you need from a communication and collaboration platform to ensure improved productivity and employee engagement in your hybrid workplace. Sign up for free and see InfinCE in action. 

Demystifying Digital Workplace Complexity for a More Productive Workforce

The concept of a digital workplace has picked up steam ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced thousands of companies worldwide to shift to a completely remote mode of working for their employees. The scale at which this transition happened and with no preparation time meant that enterprises needed to be at their killer best in enabling seamless adaption of the new normal of work. A Gartner survey points out that over 68% of C-Level executives have agreed that they have active involvement in enabling a digital workplace within the organization.

Read more: 10 Tips for First-time Remote Managers to Handle Their Teams Effectively

On the business front, the enterprise world is witnessing a massive shift to digital that was unprecedented and driven mainly by the need from customers who are now more digital-savvy and demand more digital-friendly services for all their needs. The COVID-19 pandemic was an accelerator to this phenomenon as now people rely on digital for pretty much all needs ranging from shopping to education, banking, and entertainment. Nevertheless, the pace and scale of growth in the digital ecosystem have also put enterprises in a tough spot requiring them to accelerate their operations into the digital realm. In other words, they need to adopt digital workplace solutions to remain competitive.

From customer interactions to internal celebrations, nearly all events have now transitioned into a virtual model. These add up the digital complexity levels in the organization that already had a long list of digital workplace solutions to help them out even before the pandemic made its impact felt. Simply adding newer tech into the digital enterprise ecosystem can negatively impact workforce productivity. A business needs to execute an effective digital workplace strategy that can help employees leverage the right software tools and work more efficiently in their daily routine.

Read more: 10 Benefits of Using Business Communication Apps to Future-Proof Your Company  

Here are some tips for building a digital workplace strategy to ensure that digital workplace complexity does not reach extreme levels and negatively impact workforce productivity:

1. Create awareness

The first step in ensuring that your employees have a firm grip on the digital ecosystem within your organization is to build awareness about the ecosystem. Employees need to be trained and made aware of the need for each tool or the digital workplace solutions that the company invests in and how they can perform their roles better with their aid. Awareness building should be a continuous activity wherein different teams can be segregated based on the applications they need access to and regular sessions on new features, updated functionality, and usage instructions to be followed during different phases. The process should start from the employee on-boarding stage itself, and companies need to keep a tab of their activities that promote awareness.

Download White Paper: How A Digital Workplace Streamlines Business Performance

2. Focus on employees instead of tech focus

While enterprises love to boast about having the latest tech on board in their digital landscape, the practical use of the solution should empower employees to do better in their jobs. Just because a new platform has the latest tech stack, it does not really need to be in your organization. Evaluate software based on the usability it has for your employees, the scope it covers for your unique digital workplace needs, and the business purposes or challenges it can address.

3. Define business goals and metrics for digital workplace solutions

A critical issue that leads to digital workplace complexity is the lack of understanding of the enterprise’s goals. Most organizations do not know why they need to adopt a digital solution or integrate it into their present ecosystem. They also fail to understand how the new digital workplace solution can help them measure progress with the right metrics to evaluate their competence. By defining quantifiable goals for the business and creating relevant metrics to measure progress, the organization focuses on utilizing digital solutions for their intended purpose or outcomes. For example, one key goal for bringing in a digital collaboration tool is to minimize the number of physical meetings or utilization of meeting rooms. For this goal, the metric evaluated could be the number of meetings that have been done online instead of utilizing a meeting room.

Read more: An 8-Point Checklist to Enhance The Modern-Day Digital Workplace

4. Establish communication guidelines

When communication between folks in different hierarchical and organizational structures happens, there will be situations where these could be confusing and ultimately create trouble for the organization. One such challenge for employees is that they need to pay attention to multiple channels when communication happens virtually and through different media like email, intranet, organizational VOIP. 

You can overcome this challenge by including proper guidelines in your digital workplace strategy. Set the policies on which medium to use for a relevant topic or context of communication. The policy should also include which information is to be communicated through which medium. For instance, an organization-wide policy update information should be circulated throughout the company and hence would be wise to publish it via email or the company-wide intranet.

5. Fostering decentralization

In the traditional enterprise ecosystem, decisions were mainly made at the C-Suite or leadership level with very little autonomy for staff in lower hierarchies. But today, the scenario is different as successful organizations focus on empowering staff at all levels to reduce dependencies and make their own decisions for tasks that impact their operations. When digital workforce solutions are incorporated to help employees, this principle of decentralized decision-making needs to be considered. By enabling employees to have a fairer share of participation in an enterprise’s decision-making, they can innovate faster and scale up efficiency without delays. Your digital workplace strategy should focus on incorporating tech that empowers employees to take ownership rather than be plain users.

Read Case Study: How Fingent Achieved Breakthroughs in Collaboration with InfinCE Digital Workplace

From enabling better collaboration to fostering an engaging environment for employees, a digital workplace is a crucial pillar for a sustainable future in the business world. Reports show that over 77% of organizations have prioritized digital workplace as one of their key goals for growth. As the workplace embraces a host of digital solutions, businesses need to ensure that their productivity and efficiency aren’t affected due to overly complex digital environments. Creating the perfect digital workplace strategy combined with a world-class digital workplace orchestration platform like InfinCE can bring out the best in your people. Chat with an expert to learn more about InfinCE. 

How can businesses enhance workplace collaboration in the digital era?

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crucial driver of change in recent human history. One of the most prominent disruptions it brought about was the closure of offices and workplaces worldwide, pushing millions of employees to work remotely from their homes as much as possible. Organizations that have long followed conservative policies and restricted employees from availing work from home options were forced to transition into an utterly remote mode of working in a matter of days. A year passed and what leading research and survey reports are pointing out is that the remote work culture that pushed its way into the spotlight in 2020 is likely to remain at large in the new normal. A Gartner survey of top CFOs revealed that 74% of respondents were planning to permanently shift a section of their employees to a complete remote mode of working even after the pandemic.

Firms opting for a majority remote work policy can leverage several benefits such as:

• Improved work-life balance for employees
• More productive work hours
• Lower operations cost with very little physical office space utilization required
• Better talent sourcing as remote work allows a global hiring scale. 

However, as firms move into remote work operations, the question of building a team culture arises. Many firms are wondering how to improve collaboration among their employees when most of the staff work remotely.

The answer to this problem lies predominantly in two parts. 

• The first part lies in creating a cultural shift to make your employees more accommodative of remote work demands and act responsibly with the freedom of flexibility granted. 
• The second part is empowering employees with the right digital workplace tools to help them succeed with their daily routine when working from anywhere. 

On this note, let us explore the top five ways to help employees improve workplace collaboration.

Read more: 3 Ways a Workplace App Helps Manage Your Business During COVID-19

1. Streamline communication

The most critical aspect of achieving collaboration efficiency in the workplace is establishing a seamless communication framework. Should leaders address employees from time to time, peer-to-peer communication, or external client or vendor communication, there should be a robust communication ecosystem. It should comprise a powerful email system, instant messaging capability, intranet facility for employee engagement, feedback surveys and corporate announcements, business phone systems functioning over VOIP technology, and so on. 

Read more: 5 Best Practices To Enable Seamless Communication For Your Remote Workforce

Organizations need to define and implement an effective communication policy that outlines a framework that guides staff to find the right personnel for a query and the right medium to reach out to them. This will enable better and more productive communication, especially when employees are not working together in a physical space.

Download White Paper: How a Digital Workplace Streamlines Business Performance

2. Enable productive meetings

In almost all workplaces, tasks are often driven to completion through effective teamwork. For team members to remain in sync with each other and other dependent teams in a larger project exercise, there is a need to facilitate effective meetings or discussion sessions periodically. Daily stand-up meetings and monthly or weekly review meetings are a few examples of sessions that team managers can plan to foster a unified work approach. When remote work mode comes into the picture, enterprises must on-board digital workplace platforms like InfinCE that allow seamless audio and video conferencing capabilities. These would enable online meetings and discussions to happen more engagingly and interactively. Besides, colleagues can also get a chance to see each other once in a while which is an excellent social culture that promotes healthy collaboration in the absence of physical office activities like teatime chats and team lunch breaks.

Read more: 10 Ways to Deal with Modern Workplace Distractions and Chaos

3. Seamless information access

Once communication policies are set in place, the next important aspect in facilitating an improved collaboration experience in the workplace is seamless information access. Employees may require access to critical organizational information such as contacts of other employees or customer information, access to marketing or technical collateral for work tasks and customer engagement, information such as policies or IT guidelines, and much more. To promote seamless information access, organizations must ensure that they have a centralized information repository on their internal workforce collaboration platform. It should promote secure file access, exchange, and privileged access provisioning to ensure that confidential information is guarded against unauthorized access. Information access needs to be ensured from multiple devices such as laptops, smartphones, and from anywhere.

4. Empower employees with productivity tools

In the digital era, employees need access to multiple productivity tools to manage their workloads. These may include document tools, spreadsheets, presentation tools, and report generation tools to ease their daily task effort. Enterprises must provide seamless access for employees to such productivity tools and ensure that these tools offer instant virtual collaboration so that different employees can work together using these tools and collectively drive tasks to completion. It will be vital in a scenario where a majority of the workforce is engaged in remote work.

Read more: An 8-Point Checklist to Enhance The Modern-Day Digital Workplace

5. Enable efficient project and task management

Another helpful feature or productivity tool to have in a workplace is an efficient task manager, which will enable seamless coordination between different dependent teams or individuals and help manage responsibility while transparently improving collaboration efficiency. Team members need to be aware of how their task progress impacts the work of others. They also need to know the dependencies that should be managed transparently. 

Read more: 5 Ways to Secure Your Meetings When Using Video Conferencing Software

As businesses continue to navigate new norms in the digital era, workplace collaboration becomes a significant pillar for overall business success. This is where InfinCE can be the one-stop enterprise management solution that helps manage people and serves as a robust digital backbone for your business. 

Read more: How Successful Leaders Engage Employees Using Modern Business Communication Tools like InfinCE

InfinCE covers all aspects from operations to customer relationship management and employee management with its wide range of enterprise apps available for each function. Get in touch with us to explore how your business can improve workplace collaboration by on-boarding InfinCE into your digital ecosystem. If you are excited to get on-board and try the powerful work collaboration software, we would like to invite you for a 30-day free trial here.

Want to Tame the Chaos of the Modern Workplace? Here’s How!

Technology makes our lives better and simpler. Still, there’s no denying billions of hours are wasted each day staring at smartphones, surfing the internet for no reason, or merely browsing social media channels. This phenomenon is, indeed, widely visible at workplaces, too. Today, the modern digital workplace is facing a universal challenge- how to deal with workplace chaos.

What is a modern workplace? It is, ideally, an amalgamation of a digital and physical space combined in such a way to meet the requirements of the end-users and your business. 

A modern workplace ensures that it eliminates obstacles such as:

• Poor communication
• Packed office spaces
• Clunky processes
• Beleaguered IT departments
• Inflexible contracts and software licenses
• Frustrated user-base
• Outdated service offerings
• Lack of cross-platform services

To boldly move forward into the future, you must handle the above chaos effectively.

Read more: An 8-Point Checklist to Enhance The Modern-Day Digital Workplace 

10 ways to deal with modern workplace distractions and chaos

Even highly-qualified and skilled employees, regardless of good intentions, struggle with workday overload – competing deadlines, attending meetings, bombarded by emails, constant phone calls, digital distractions, and never-ending office drama. Contemplating these – would you call it an ideal modern workplace? Is it the best environment to work and be productive?

Let’s dive deep and unearth the secrets to tune out the modern workplace distractions constructively.

1. Focus on creating a positive, harmonious, and professional work environment

Wouldn’t you agree – conflict and disgruntled employees are the significant reasons behind the modern workplace chaos? Creating a positive work environment is the need of the hour. To set up a professional environment, appreciate your employees when they accomplish good work and have an outlet for employees to share and address their concerns.

2. Ensure transparent and clear communication

“Communication is the real work of leadership,” and it is vital to understand what’s going on with your employees and what measures should be taken to tackle their concerns and the chaos.

Download White Paper: Adapting to The Changing Face of Enterprise Collaboration 

3. Unchain yourself from email compulsion

A constant watch on your emails is undoubtedly going to make you less productive. Monitoring personal emails excessively during office hours will kill remote workplace productivity. An alternate method to check your emails would be checking them at scheduled times. Or, concentrate on customizing your email to show only the urgent stuff.

4. Maintain a work journal

Having a work journal at your desk would come in handy organizing your daily routine – how much time you spend on long-term projects, how much time you dedicate to administrative tasks, and so on. This way, you will know when you are most productive and when you are engrossed in trivial stuff.

5. Focus on long-term goals or end goals

Not only will you have to maintain an open-door to your employees, but you must also remind them to focus on the long-term goals. This will minimize the confusion, doubts, and speculations during the short-term.

6. Define business hierarchy

It’s pertinent to have a clearly defined business hierarchy to tame the modern workplace chaos. For example, keep a deft employee in the middle, just like a meat shield, to answer your employees on your behalf. This will, to a great extent, reduce the chaos, thus boosting productivity.

7. Formulate a realistic business plan

In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Having a business with ambiguous plans and outlines will only add more pathos, leading to your business’s chaos and failure. 

Read more: Top 10 Ways to Set up an Effective Business Strategy in 2021 

8. Adopt proactive mindset and ponder over productivity

Having a proactive mindset and taking proactive steps will help you overcome the chaos and get the most out of your day. Instead of turning away from the common workday concerns like numerous emails and meetings, increasing workloads, immediate resignation of a supervisor, and changing priorities, you can focus on the following measures with a proactive mindset:

• Set up an uninterrupted work time
• Accomplish important tasks first
• Don’t overwork yourself
• Take breaks at regular intervals to keep your mind fresh and active

9. Recognize seductive office drama and stop it from creeping your peace of mind

You have to recognize and become aware of the office drama (or even the slightest distraction from work, such as gossiping, eavesdropping, spreading rumors, or sharing opinions without verifying the facts). You must assess your dedication to the drama and let your colleague tell you if it hurts work quality.

10. Improved self-awareness will tune out chaos from work

You must be aware of your positive mindset, mood, emotional level, and physical energy and pay attention to your zest, enthusiasm, reactions, beliefs, feelings, and thoughts while gearing up for your workday. Also, keep the challenges, priorities, and bright spots in the loop as these would help you reduce the chaos of the modern digital workplace.

Do you flaunt an integral urge to be distracted easily? If yes, it will be an arduous task to concentrate on when you are mentally exhausted. You have to reduce the number of decisions you make every day by letting industry-trained and adroit professionals take good care of you and your enterprise platforms. So, what’s the solution?

With InfinCE, you get to simplify decision-making and re-imagine your business with robust business management software. InfinCE is your go-to digital workplace platform for all your business needs.

Download White Paper: The Business Value of InfinCE for Business Owners and Employees If you are excited to get on-board and try the powerful business management software, we would like to invite you for a 30-day free trial here.