2020 became the year of the great professional migration. Never before has such a sudden and massive workplace transformation been seen, almost overnight, hundreds of millions of offices were created, leading to a nearly 1,000% increase in demand for video conferencing solutions and communication tools. Collaboration.
This transformation brought to light the corporate security and business continuity deficiencies of thousands of organizations. Still, it also revealed significant paradoxes, historical requests considered beneficial, such as telecommuting, have not turned out to be as advantageous as they seemed. From the professional side, there is already talk of Zoom fatigue, the loss of spontaneous connections with co-workers, blurred borders between private and professional life (it is estimated that the hours have been increased by up to 40%). Without a proportional increase in productivity) or reduction in the quality of work.
In many cases, the most important problem of remote work is caused by technology, which does not respond to the needs created and solves the incidents of professionals who work from home late. Support tickets have increased by as much as 43% over the past year, and up to 29% of professionals have complained of an unsecured or efficient connection. This causes an increase in nervousness, an increase in working hours and a reduction in productivity. For their part, team leaders have to resolve heterogeneous demands and conflicts that they were not used to experiencing.
The adoption of innovative, adaptable and flexible technologies is a critical aspect of a transition to remote work. For this reason, Unisys has identified 36 types of technologies, grouped into six areas that are essential in the workplace of the future and that support the transformation of the workplace from a physical, human and digital point of view.
Table of Contents
Physical Flexibility
Professionals must be able to carry out their tasks from anywhere. This means that the organization’s operating model must be elastic and accept behaviours not seen until now. By adopting this flexibility, the user experience and customer satisfaction can be improved. The use of analytics tools can help consolidate the hybrid workforce (that is, with teams working simultaneously at home or in the office) since they can more easily adapt to any peak in demand.
Integrated Autonomy
By incorporating robotic process automation tools, Machine Learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence technologies, also in the back office, it will be possible to increase productivity and guarantee the efficiency of the work of professionals. In addition, the organization will assess customer behaviours more easily and help them achieve what they are looking for autonomously.
Always Connected Technology
The cloud enables professionals to access the tools they need and respond to customers at any time. Digital channels hosted in the cloud ensure that business flows are maintained. And in the back office, automation tools, such as sentiment analysis or just-in-time principles, enable seamless customer service and proactive incident resolution capabilities to be offered to the customer. In fact, according to a Unisys study, 51% of workers who experience an incident prefer not to call technical support. Proactive detection of any incident can even solve problems in an automated way.
Digital Connection
Digital connectivity between colleagues and with customers facilitates interactions and improves user satisfaction. Video support, instant messaging or help chats in cost-efficient environments, such as the professional’s home, ensure customer satisfaction.
Also Read: COVID-19 – Tips For Teleworking Without Losing Productivity
Collaboration
Collaborative and social environments mean increased productivity. If, in addition, the professional can collaborate from wherever they want, the balance between work and private life is also improved.
Adaptive Workstation
If there is one thing the pandemic has shown us, crowded offices are not essential. Working from home with the necessary technologies and with the right support is much more beneficial for everyone. The office should be used as a real and adaptable collaborative space for each business situation.
Ultimately, organizations must ensure that they meet the three Cs in the workplace of the future: Connectivity, Communication and Collaboration. If remote work is not done correctly, productivity, efficiency and corporate culture are proven to suffer. And if working from home means reducing spontaneous collaboration between colleagues, the damage it can cause to the organization in terms of operational inefficiencies, loss of turnover or reputational damage can be impossible.
