Building A Smart Digital Culture

According to 94 percent of executives and 88 percent of employees surveyed in the past year, a distinct workplace culture is vital to a business’ success. But as the structure of companies continue to be redefined, we wondered: is a smart digital workplace the key to great company culture? 

Definitely, and we’ve got you covered with six tips to move forward:

1. Facilitate collaboration

A recent Harvard Business Review article says facilitating collaboration in the workplace is increasingly important. It says this is because over the past two decades, the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has expanded by 50% or more.

That’s a pretty big jump, right?

This is why businesses are now placing increasing importance on investing in technology that allows their employees to work more collaboratively together.

2. Be social

It’s never been more important to be social at work – in the office and online. With the increase in collaboration comes the need to work in a more social and ‘open’ way.

For example, instead of sending several emails to multiple colleagues, employees should post a comment on a co-working platform such as MS Teams and ask for responses.

Taking risks like this is the key to successfully building a digital workplace culture.

3. Think mobile

Every organization should provide an efficient mobile offering where all employees have access to their digital workplace, regardless of where they are.

A study by Upwork highlights how 63% of companies now have remote workers within their organization. This means no matter where your colleagues are working they should be able to have access to the intranet, at all times, even when commuting or traveling overseas.

A good and accessible intranet has been shown to lead to an increase in productivity, this is because it allows people to work in ‘dead time’, for example, such as on their daily commute.

4. Allow for self-serve

Self-serve is a huge business trend right now and companies are developing personal online portals to help make doing routine tasks much easier. Having a one-stop system in which you can access everything you need: information, social groups, and team projects helps to cut down on increasing administration.

With so much to do in the workplace today, we can all benefit from a little digital assistance to help us get through our daily tasks quickly, boosting our motivation and sense of achievement. This is why many companies are introducing self-serve portals and are encouraging staff to become more independent.

5. Empower your staff

Great company culture is rooted in the way employees see themselves, each other, and the work they produce, according to business experts. If your team isn’t invested in building a great culture, you won’t be able to do it alone.

Instead, empowerment is critical – many studies have shown that giving employees more responsibility improves their motivation and enables them to shine.

You can empower colleagues by allowing them to be part of the solution. Using an internal comms tool, such as Teams, that encourages a two-way dialogue between management and shop floor staff, is a good way of inviting staff in.

6. Create a transformational digital workplace

The workplace is becoming more flexible and responsive, and the pace of work is speeding up says Microsoft’s research on the ‘Future of Work’.

By using technology that maximizes productivity and enhances creativity, we can increase performance and inspire employees to think ‘outside the box’. Solutions include removing repetitive daily tasks, which frees up staff, giving them time to innovate.