A successful digital workplace is a key to success for any company be it a small startup or a big company. These traits help a company to stand out from the rest of the competitors and help the employees to work with full potential. However, these traits can be used regardless of the technology used by the company. These are 7 characteristics of a successful digital workplace.
Overview
Digital workplace failure is very bad for any company. This will lead to an overall misaligned strategy to poor employee engagement. Nonetheless, there are common characteristics of “world-class” Digital Workplaces that really reshape the way in which the business operates.
1. A Clear Vision
The most successful Digital Workplaces possess a transparent and concise vision for the longer term.
The vision might be a part of the corporate mission or maybe a press release associated with a multi-year change program. Either way, this acts like the brightest star in the sky for any business transformation initiative.
All of the choices within the transformation plan – from the goals and objectives of the program strategy, right down to the applications, use cases, and interface design – all relate back to the vision. Every consideration ultimately leads back to a stated purpose.
Interestingly, this is often an overlooked aspect of Digital Workplace planning, and yet, the most crucial thing in a business.
2. Strong Governance Framework & Resources
“World–class Digital Workplaces maintain healthy and evolving governance programs, coupled with the resources necessary to take action”
Establishing a well-defined governance framework will still serve you over the lifetime of your Digital Workplace.
Consider, because the governance program evolves from launch and into the primary year, there’s the potential to form positive business impacts well beyond technical outcomes.
Proper oversight weighs decisions across different layers of responsibilities, with appropriate stakeholders per layer. A best practice that has emerged over the years may be a model that segments stakeholders by Strategic Ownership, Operational Imperatives, and therefore the Tactical Implementation/Interaction – as appropriate to the organization’s culture.
3. Delivers Definitive Business Value
“The value to the organization is obvious and defined – aligned to the vision and mission”
The most successful Digital Workplaces outline a transparent set of goals and objectives aligned to the vision. The absolute best, determine a timeframe of delivery over the course of a year.
This leads to a more defined governance scope, design delivery, and minimizes customization decisions as there are clear, quantitative guardrails established at the start of the journey.
4. Executive Champions
“Transformation may be a tremendous risk for any organization, and it requires strong, active leadership”
The word ‘champion’ is employed here for a selected purpose. Sponsorship as a formality is falsely reassuring to employees. Thus, for trust to develop around any change effort, leaders must be open and transparent about the activities, communicating frequently and celebrating the road ahead of them.
Executives must drive the initiative forward, ensuring the success of their application owners and program strategists. When barriers arise, executive champions provide assistance. Otherwise, competing priorities within the organization will cannibalize time, attention, and resources.
5. Utility Rich Use Cases
“Why do some digital workplaces become vibrant hubs of collaboration, communication, and engagement? the solution is utility”
For a digital workplace to thrive, it must positively answer the timeless question of, “Is this handy to me?”
Far too often, Digital Workplaces will specialize in an abundance of consumption-driven use cases – an awesome pile of stories and announcements which overload the users’ path to more useful information.
Therefore, In other missteps, the main target becomes an excessive amount of on design and creating an “on-brand” experience to satisfy specific business leaders. These implementations will always fail and miss the mark in creating tangible business value that changes the way employees work. So always use utility-rich use cases and never overcomplicate things.
6. Supported Employee Base with Digital Workplace
To achieve revolutionary changes, best-in-class Digital Workplaces and assist employees in becoming a part of a new future.
One of the foundations of change is support. World-class application owners build internal communication and support programs as a part of the digital strategy. This lessens change anxiety, as transformation efforts begin to require shape. Additionally, this enables employees to assist and provide insight with rich feedback cycles.
Digital owners should seed this with valuable information, training, and communications – cultivating an important hub for workers to know the continued digital plans. In fact, strategies like these can turn your most hardened digital works into the easiest and simplified thing.
7. Program Strategy & Roadmap
Program strategy is the heart of transformation, including organizational readiness, measurement planning, governance, and most significantly it is the roadmap to long-term success.
The absolute best digital strategies specialize in creating a vibrant living program within the organization, delivering a compelling employee experience that reshapes the customer and employee experience.
Ultimately, great digital owners refuse to treat the transformation effort as a project (with a definitive end date), but as an ongoing program.
Bringing it all at once
There are many great qualities of successful Digital Workplaces but all the companies that follow 7 traits in a cohesive manner are on a right track to achieve a great digital workplace.
The Transformation Strategy Pyramid is a tool we have used over the last ten years to structure thoughts and guide our clients.