Johannesburg, 02 Feb 2021
The past year has been defined by change. In two weeks, organisations shifted their on-site employees into remote locations, created new ways of working and accessing systems, and redefined the employee dynamic.
From 1 000 employees on-site, organisations were suddenly dealing with 1 000 sites – managing challenges around latency, digitisation, productivity and transformation across multiple locations and requirements. As the NTT 2020 Intelligent Workplace Report: ‘Shaping Employee Experiences for a World Transformed’ points out, workplace transformation needs to be sustainable and agile to ensure the changes made at the start of 2020 are capable of withstanding and adapting to whatever the future brings.
Whether the workforce is remote from home or digitally empowered to work from anywhere, connectivity, security, productivity and efficiency are essential. Any long-term strategy needs to be underpinned by digital transformation and the roll-out of new technologies, policies and training. Employees need more than the right tools; they need to feel comfortable with these tools and recognise the value they bring to their roles and the organisation.
Intelligent proficiency
Intelligent workplaces leverage on technology and digital capability to improve productivity, proficiency and capability. Employees have access to greater flexibility and choices when it comes to the tools they use and the skills they learn. It’s a change that empowers. It is also one that has been radically sped up, thanks to the pandemic and the need for processes and platform that are capable of handling the needs of the new workplace.
However, the value of this rapid acceleration into digital transformation is only felt if the investment is made into relevant and innovative solutions that are targeted at growth – for both the individual and the organisation. It has to be capable of rising to meet the demands of remote and flexible working, security, accessibility and scalability.
Sustainable complexity
Of all the buzzwords to emerge from 2020, sustainability is perhaps one of the most important. This is a key consideration when it comes to building brands, attracting and retaining talent, reducing operational costs and achieving business outcomes. In the Intelligent Workplace report, most organisations agreed that sustainability plays a pivotal role in building teamwork, connectivity, collaboration, growth and agile workplace methodologies.
For most companies, the technology implemented at the start of the pandemic was a quick fix – a patch put on the business to stop it from sinking into the COVID-19 sea. Now, these patches need to go beyond business continuity and organisations need to formalise policies and technologies for the consistent delivery of digital solutions for the workplace of the future. This approach allows for the executive to create workplaces that accelerate teamwork, ensure seamless and secure collaboration, and that create meaningful employee experiences across widely distributed teams and locations.
A sustainable workforce is one that can handle the obstacles thrown up by ongoing uncertainty, and that has the flexibility required to respond to change with intent.
The redefined workforce
The two key themes of sustainability and accelerated transformation are integral to the development of the intelligent workplace and improvements in productivity and digital proficiency. How organisations combat the challenges still being laid out by the virus, how they invest in technology and training and the employee will lay the foundations for how entire generations will work in the future. Companies must respond with focus and purpose and drive change in real-time that’s predicated on the pillars of people, process and productivity and driven by sustainability and digital capability.
The NTT 2020 Intelligent Workplace Report throws these statistics into sharp relief. More than half of organisations are installing video conferencing and video collaboration spaces to bring remote employees together, more than a third are implementing creative or thinking, and most recognise that workspaces will change to become more collaborative. The shape of the office is becoming redefined, from dedicated desks to flexible spaces, and the shape of the workforce itself is remodelling to become more agile and productive. But only if the organisation pays attention to the process and technology that’s required to make these changes a long-term reality.
Read more on how to transform and inspire your workforce by downloading the NTT 2020 Intelligent Workplace Report: ‘Shaping Employee Experiences for a World Transformed’ here.
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