Why is a digital workplace important in today's society?

What is a digital workplace?

A digital workplace has undergone the digitalization of processes and systems to transition an organization to a virtual environment while enhancing employee engagement and experience. Essentially, it creates a digital ecosystem for your organization's day-to-day processes. A digital workplace platform contains all the applications, data, and collaboration tools your employees need to perform their everyday activities in a secure virtual space that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time.

The relevance of the digital workplace

The relevance of the digital workplace has been apparent throughout the pandemic, with businesses all over the world (including the majority of SMBs) transitioning their operations to stay afloat. In addition, businesses are working to meet the diverse demands of a multigenerational workforce as employment demographics change and demands for work-life balance increase. The digital workplace aims to create a positive employee experience through effective communication, collaboration, engagement, productivity, a sense of belonging, and personal fulfillment.

Today's digital workplace demonstrates the shifting future of business and the new opportunities that come with a remote and collaborative work format.

Are you hoping to make a digital workplace the first stage in your organization's digital transformation process? We'll help you get started with our guide to the digital workplace.

How does a digital workplace benefit your organization?

Organizations are now turning to cloud solutions for their crucial business needs, and to initiate their digital transformation projects. Of course, it's important to note organizations wanting to implement a digital transformation strategy have to align their business processes and employees with technology. But it's definitely worth the effort.

Here are the top 8 benefits of a digital workplace:

1. Collaborative and productivity tools

Remote work actually boosts collaboration with the right digital workplace set up. Digital workplaces make communication easier, especially for teams using a variety of tools or software to remain in sync. The right platform provides essential collaborative and productivity tools for streamlined communication between employees, leadership teams, and management. This helps in reducing meeting times and allowing your team more room for innovation.

2. Remote workplace

The demand for digital workplace solutions has increased as teams seek new ways to collaborate and hold meetings outside the office. Unified dashboards and reports help organizations provide employees with well-balanced, customized experiences. This comes in handy as many employees today prefer remote work, and the work-life balance it offers.

3. Enhanced employee engagement and experience

Employee experience is a crucial part of retaining talent and creating a high-performance work culture. With the right digital workplace software, providing a unified digital experience to your workforce is easier. You can mobilize your software to shape and support your employees' experience, and streamline communication for higher levels of engagement. Of course, it is important for businesses to ensure their tools are up-to-date and user-friendly so employees can prioritize their work instead of struggling with their tech.

4. Improved customer experience

An engaged and productive workforce leads to better business outcomes. With new features like BI and analytics, dashboards, and personalized reports, employees can embrace new technologies to create a better customer experience.

5. Cost effective

Many organizations are reconsidering their office space and whether it fosters their desired outcomes for collaboration, culture, and the overall work experience. The decision to deploy enterprise software in general, and digital workplace solutions in particular, is typically motivated by the need to boost productivity and performance. However, it can also help your organization save money by reducing overall office space.

6. Agility and performance

For most businesses, a digital workplace is an essential resource which must be proactive, strategic, and adaptable in times of crisis, change, or growth. Agility is an important benefit of the speed and simplicity that come from using digital workplace tools in sophisticated ways. A digital workplace platform enables you to create the most agile workplace in the shortest amount of time.

7. Recruitment of high quality talent

The biggest asset of a digital workplace is that it'll keep functioning even when conditions change. While a digital workplace isn’t a recruitment tool, it does help in shaping a people-first workplace culture. Investing in a tool that permits employees to think flexibly benefits them and facilitates transparency and communication. This is a great way to signal to potential employees that your organization fosters a great workplace culture.

8. Increased revenue

Adopting the right digital workplace and its best practices can have a direct impact on your businesses sales and revenue. When your employees are provided with the right tools, they perform more efficiently. Further, an organization with the potential to scale simultaneously and increase productivity will likely see increased revenue.

Digital workplace best practices

Digital workplaces, a significant aspect of digital transformation, require organizations to examine and change the way they work. Here are some digital workplace best practices to keep in mind:

• Engage the right people

• Define a standard collaborative framework

• Deploy agile tools

• Utilize transparent and digital communication channels

• Invest in resources (such as collaborative and productivity tools) to upskill your workforce

• Leverage the latest technologies like AI, chat bots, blockchain, and more.

• Make decisions based on real-time data

Is the digital workplace the future of business?

Organizations must change the way employees contribute in order to embrace the changing dynamics of the workforce and gain an advantage over the competition. A digital workplace streamlines your operations and provides your team with a better, more connected experience. Advances in technology, machine learning, augmented reality, and AI are at the heart of the shift. By leveraging these latest technologies you can equip your workplace for the future.

Zoho Creator's digital workplace platform is powerful and versatile enough to adapt to your business needs. It's intuitive and comes with a number of templates and plug-ins that enable your teams to make process-specific applications easily. Get your hands on our comprehensive digital workplace software to build a rich company culture, and a more productive workforce.