The digital workplace is significant for providing employees access to work-related services without restriction. Post-pandemic technology success is defined by a company’s ability to enable a hybrid and remote workforce and adopt a more flexible “productivity-from-anywhere” approach.
However, managing this new hybrid work environment is different from driving a physical workplace. Considering that employees now largely work from other locations and time zones, it may not always be easy for managers to coordinate the activities of all employees and achieve productivity effectively.
Digital workplaces, without a doubt, provide many benefits for organisations and employees. But there are still complaints about its use, primarily as it affects millennials the most. Gallup maintains that employee engagement among millennials in the digital workplace is only 28.9%.
Business leaders are making many mistakes in setting up the hybrid work environment that affect their operations' success. The best bet at tackling these is to identify them. Let’s look at some of the missteps being made that hold back a modern workforce.
5 Blunders you may be making when setting up a hybrid work environment
1. Losing control of the cloud environment
The digital workspace encourages various tools essential in connecting everyone in the organisation. These include business applications, video conferencing and VoIP apps, and other cloud-based tools that enable processes for specialised tasks.
There is no shortage of cloud solution options for most types of tools, which can lead to companies losing control of their cloud environment, and employees and departments using any app they see fit. This causes redundancies in the technology environment, higher costs, and problems with data security.
Not restricting the applications that employees use, can also lead to productivity issues due to the lack of integration and the ability to automate digital processes.
2. Neglecting change management
Introducing a new flexible, hybrid working environment when an organisation has been used to on-site work only, can be challenging because not everyone in the workplace may be ready to accept introduced changes. Some companies have realised that implementing digital workplace solutions is no guarantee that the employees will receive them well or adopt the new tools successfully.
The only way a digital workplace, or any type of transition that impacts how people do their jobs, can be successful is to properly enable your staff to adopt the change. This enablement is called change management. It involves making employees aware of upcoming changes, addressing any points of confusion or resistance, promoting the benefits of the change, and training people properly to be successful in adopting the new systems.
3. Outdated HR policies
Many business leaders want to implement a digital workplace but are not ready to forgo outdated strict HR policies. Some HR policies can only work in the physical office structure but are not as pertinent to a digital workplace. These policies are known to alienate employees and defeat the goals of a productivity-from-anywhere approach.
When HR policies are not revisited for remote staff, it will not promote flexibility which is an integral part of the digital workplace, it can also keep a company from experiencing the full benefits of this new work style.
For example, one of the perks of having more flexible working hours and remote employees is that some people may prefer working earlier in the morning or later in the evening. If they work in customer support, this can naturally extend your customer support hours without requiring you to hire additional staff. HR policies need to be updated to reflect this more flexible hybrid work approach.
4. Not updating data security
When employees work from multiple locations, rather than in a single space, data security needs to be updated to keep your company from suffering data leakage or a breach of your systems that expose sensitive information.
One mistake that companies make is trying to fit current data security policies into a hybrid working environment. This can mean that employees using their own devices to work from home are not accounted for, leaving data on or accessed by those devices at risk.
A global study of over ten thousand workers found that55% ofremote employees use personal devices to work from home.
5. Not training digital workplace leaders
Without dedicated leadership, it will be impossible for the organisation to achieve its digital workplace goals. Good digital workplace leaders recognise the impact of communication and use it to keep teams connected and accountable. They also know how to increase employee productivity via training.
Without leaders that are trained in how to manage a team that works both onsite and remotely, employees will not achieve all organisational goals and may run into challenges that cause them to get discouraged and leave the company for a better hybrid environment.
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