The New Digital Workplace - Overcoming the Limits of Time and Place - Seite 2

This new insight has resulted from successful experiences obtained during the initial period of the pandemic. Sixty-one percent of business leaders reported that the quality of remote work was on par as that conducted in the physical workplace. The benefits of remote working also shone through, with 52 percent experiencing improved collaboration; 57 percent seeing a boost in business agility and nearly half witnessing an increase in productivity (44 percent).

Many businesses benefited from the use of collaboration technologies to maintain productivity with videoconferencing topping the list (98 percent) with other tools such as file sharing (97 percent), instant messaging/chat (95 percent), other collaboration methods (e.g., Slack or Teams – 88 percent) and cloud-based collaboration (85 percent) all also being referenced. In addition, the use of online interactive training to keep employees engaged in their own personal development was key (85 percent).

Using technology to enable a difference

The report also highlights that businesses that have a digital workplace strategy are consistently more likely to see greater returns from their investments than those that don’t. For instance, 52 percent saw increased productivity versus only 40 percent of those without such a strategy. In order to achieve these results, businesses need to go beyond a mere work-at-home policy to define the purpose and goals of the program, the approach the organization will take, and how they will measure success. The use of technology is a key differentiator in this strategy.

The potential of 5G technology was seen as going beyond basic operational improvements to provide more transformative changes, with one fifth (20 percent) of respondents saying that it will enable them to do work they have never been able to do before. Twenty-eight percent believe it will enable new business models to be explored, adding more value to their business proposition. Forty-one percent of those surveyed expected 5G to become a reality for their own organization within two years, opening the door to applications that employ higher-quality/lower-latency video and augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR).