By Johnson Varkey, Sales Director – Intelligent Workplace, NTT Ltd In India
In a digital age, organizations need to navigate constant change and accelerate business value using the latest technologies, including analytics and automation. The workplace of tomorrow will be shaped by digital technologies, and we are already seeing the impact that technology is having on the world of work. With the growing use of mobile devices; tablets and smartphones, workers are increasingly demanding seamless access to their information from anywhere. Employees expect that their corporate network will enable them to work from home or on the go when necessary.
We take a look at some of the key trends that will shape the digital workplace of the future, and what you need to do today:
Companies will reimagine workspaces: Today, the modern workplace can be anywhere – an office setting, home or even a remote location. The lines between work and life are blurring rapidly, and there is increasingly a blend of the two as work becomes measured by what employees achieve than the number of hours they put in. Organizations, hence, need to enable an experience that remains the same for all employees. Collaboration and productivity tools must come together on one single platform with the goal of improving employee experience. The NTT 2021 Global Workplace Report mentions that today just 55.1% of organizations are strongly satisfied their company premises can support hybrid working. In 2022, there will hence be a strong focus on creating and reimagining workspaces. These aspirations are corroborated in the report, which states that around two-thirds of organizations are remodeling physical workspaces. 68.8% of organizations have developed, or are planning to develop, videoconferencing and video collaboration spaces in their company premises while 66% will provide more teamwork spaces.
Employee safety will be paramount: Even as mass vaccinations happen at a quick pace, and there is renewed hope of normalcy, the future workplace will be a blend of the remote and office environment. Ensuring a safe return to office for employees will be paramount, and more organizations will use technology to ensure safety. Thermal cameras will be used to automatically detect body temperature when employees enter their workplace. Smart cameras will also be used to ensure that all employees wear masks at all times and adhere to social distancing norms. Any violation of these protocols can trigger alarms or instant notifications to the relevant authorities or management. This is also useful for tracking if any employee tests positive for COVID-19. Companies can track which employees were within 6 feet or without a mask with the specific employee who tested positive. As everything can be stored on the cloud, it can be accessed from anywhere and used for contact tracing and audit purposes. These norms will be an accepted form of practice by employees as they will be comfortable working in environments where the safety of employees is taken seriously.
Dynamic workspaces will be the norm: The future workplace will be a blend of remote and onsite workspaces. As the workforce will change dynamically depending on specific project needs, physical workspaces will have to be aligned accordingly. With flexible working norms, future workspaces will have to be completely redesigned in a way that it gives organizations the capability and flexibility to reduce or increase the office environment space according to the employees attending office. This will see organizations making use of space reservation systems which measure availability of space in real-time using sensors. This will help organizations to dynamically allocate and release space, which is well suited for flexible working models. Using heat-maps and real-time occupancy data, organizations can monitor the usage of all occupied spaces and take decisions to maximize occupancy and reduce costs. In 2022, more enterprises will offer employees the option of hot desking, which allows employees to start working in any of the spaces they want. Companies will also allow employees to reserve their spaces from their mobile phone before they come to the office.
Cloud-based collaboration systems will be the default choice: In the pandemic, we have seen how cloud-based services helped in maintaining an effective line of communication. In 2022, and in the future, services such as business calling, meetings and other contact center services will move to the cloud. These capabilities can give enterprises the speed and scale to accelerate their collaboration initiatives. Using cloud-based collaboration systems, enterprises will increasingly create virtual teams that can be geographically be situated anywhere in the world.
Employee Experience will be a differentiating factor: With Employee Experience (EX) being a differentiating factor for retaining and attracting talented people, more companies will focus on creating and launching initiatives for improving this aspect. For example, the NTT 2021 Global Workplace Report mentions that compared to 2020, there has been a further increase in organizations saying EX is recognized as a crucial strategic differentiator. 62.9% of CEOs and 58.1% of CHROs say EX is recognized as a crucial strategic differentiator. In 2022, we can expect more organizations to focus on enhancing EX, as investments in effective workplaces and driving EX during the pandemic have delivered results in the areas of productivity, staff retention, efficiency and revenue. To enhance EX, we will see more organizations use a combination of workplace analytics, Employer Net Promoter Scores (eNPS) and sentiment analytics to help in driving the right insights and action.
In summary, the current environment offers organizations a great opportunity to reimagine some of their traditional workplace strategies. If enterprises succeed in creating a perfect blend of working environments that delights current and future prospective employees, they will have a distinct and strategic advantage over other similar companies for attracting the best talent.
