3 ways a digital workplace can transform your company culture
Digital technology has drastically changed the how’s and where’s of how we work. Today’s digital workplaces cater to these transforming workplace needs. However, the digital workplace can be more than just an instrument for increased productivity. It can be a vehicle for change in your company culture.
Transforming Company Culture
Today’s workforce is made up of younger, mobile and more connected workers who manage their workload outside the confines of physical space and time. Although the definition of the digital workplace has evolved over time, there’s no question that we’re all spending a lot of time there. Digital tools create an environment where employees are comfortable and connected, both at home and in the office. But while these tools increase productivity and make lives easier in the digital workplace, employees are demanding more. The shift to a mobile and adjustable workplace means workers want this same attitude applied to work communications and interactions. They want a change in company culture.
Building a connected digital workplace
Engaging and modern types of company culture is more than a perk in today’s workplace, it’s an important factor on your bottom line. According to Deloitte 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe distinct corporate culture is important to a business’ success. Another survey shows 94% of senior executives that say culture is the most important element in driving innovation.
Companies can be proactive about growing and re-imagining their company culture by expanding to include digital workplace practices. By not taking the road toward digital transformation, organizations risk lowered productivity, increased turnover, and disengaged employees. Here are three ways that adopting a digital workplace can transform company culture.
Break down silos
While many may have their bone to pick with the effects of digital technology, no one can deny the way it’s broken through the barriers of communication. Workers are no longer expected to be in the office day after day. In fact, flexible and remote working are practices that have been readily encouraged in successful organizations.
Developing a digital workplace gives organizations the tools to tear down the walls between employees, departments, and locations. Social capabilities, colleague relationships and even relationships with executives are essential metrics in the measurement of company culture.
There are also especially relevant when an employee assesses their future at an organization.
Without the presence of digital and social tools, employees feel disconnected and distant from their corporation. Stopping this pattern means adapting a digital workplace that supports social tools and software such as an intranet.
With a social intranet software, your organization can successfully foster an atmosphere of collaboration and communication in the workforce that may be missing.
Your intranet software can make interacting with teams across the organization a breeze. Its numerous features include things like:
- Team Spaces that break down silos and simplify group collaboration by providing team spaces on the intranet for groups with common interests or related hobbies.
- People Directory promotes collaboration by helping employees find each other
- Ability to follow and @mention colleagues provides feedback on intranet posts with and bring others into the conversation.
- Rewards system as a peer-to-peer recognition tool that allows users to award points to colleagues, acknowledging great work or just as a more open way of saying thanks.
As a result, communications becomes smoother, the employee experience improves, and the company culture grows positively.
Collaboration and Recognition
A success organization almost always begins with a sum of equally productive parts. This is where establishing a collaborative workforce comes into play. Digital workplaces aim to make the lives of employees more manageable and in turn create a more engaged workforce.
It largely benefits from the incorporation of collaborative technologies and software. These digital tools create connections between employees regardless of where they exist around the globe. In this way, everyone gets to feel like part of the process and solution. Unnecessary frustrations over miscommunications reduce. Repetitive requests and projects cease.
But the benefits do not end there. Not only can your digital workplace serve as a connection to your colleagues, but it also connects employees to the organization itself. Your digital workplace brings together social tools into a single hub, something that’s usually amplified with a social intranet. A social intranet takes the best features (team sites, forums, social media platforms) and grants workers access to more people than ever before.
With this increased range of eyes, using these same tools to grant recognition to your employees can be the boost in company culture your organization needs. Employee recognition programs, forums where employees are spotlighted, and exchangeable gift vouchers are only a few ways that your digital workplace can help you thank employees.
A social intranet provides organizations with the proper platform to recognize and thank the workers that keep the organization running. Our blog “5 benefits of a social intranet in the digital workplace” gives real-life customer examples of how best to utilize a social intranet in your digital workplace.
Recognizing your workforce is one of the easiest ways to boost morale, and establish the tone of your company culture.
Support Professional Development
Transforming your company culture means supporting the transformation of your very own employees. You cannot expect change to happen on one end. The process should be an equal one, the growth of your organization occurring alongside the growth of your organization. The tools in your digital workplace should support the professional development of your staff.
In the old workplace, manual methods made the process of creating programs and tracking results a challenging one, resulting in the stunted grown of employees. The digital workplace overrides all the above.
Organizations cannot afford to slack in this area as younger generations place tremendous importance on professional growth and will often leave traditional workplaces for greener pastures.
Take all this into consideration and form a counter plan with your digital workplace. Learning has gone as mobile as your workforce. If work can be on the go then so can professional development. Online training programs and eLearning software grants employees the opportunity to take their skills to the next level with the assistance of the organization.
And no more manual setbacks. Automated workflows for training initiatives allow staff to easily track progress, update lessons, and give feedback to those that chose to join these programs.
Online training is an excellent addition to any digital workplace, allowing staff to develop at whatever pace they so choose professionally. eLearning fosters an environment of trust and security where employees feel encouraged to dig in their roots and progress along the professional ladder.
Establishing your new company culture
While important, employees don’t place as much value in things like financial performance and compensation as executives do. Instead, employees rank intangible elements such as regular and candid communications (50%), employee recognition (49%), and access to leadership (47%) highest. (Deloitte) These factors are some of the many that distinguish successful company cultures from the failures.
Building a connected digital workplace
Now more than ever companies are pressured to have a positive digital culture. 87% of organizations cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges, and 50% call the problem very important. The above tips are just a few ways to begin the transformation of your company culture from the inside out.
