When the COVID-19 pandemic changed where employees worked, it also changed how they work. Upwork’s 2021 Future Workforce Report reported that “67% of businesses reported… many more changes to long term management practices than in a normal year, excluding temporary adaptations to the pandemic.” With teams spread across cities, states, and countries, it’s more important than ever that businesses are investing in innovative, automated systems for working together. A connected workplace offers many benefits to employees, managers, and companies as a whole. Investing in a connected platform for your workplace encourages collaboration, mobility, efficiency, data collection, and profitability.
1. Collaboration
If teams have a hard time working with one another in the same office, how can they collaborate remotely? Siloed teams slow down the innovation process and other necessary business functions. A connected workplace solution can facilitate communication and collaboration between individuals, teams, and leaders. The right platform can also integrate with other tools that your company may already use to do business.
Collaboration has obvious benefits; McKinsey reports that “improved communication and collaboration through social technologies could raise the productivity of interaction among workers by 20 to 25 percent.”
2. Mobility
With a connected workplace, employees can work from any place and any device, from a laptop at home to a smartphone at the airport. This flexibility allows workers to complete tasks individually or with coworkers without missing a beat. Everything they need to do their job—from brainstorming to marketing initiatives—is always available. The trend toward remote work and resulting technologies (including connected workplace solutions) are an opportunity to revisit old workflows and introduce new processes that encourage innovation.
3. Efficiency
A flexible, collaborative platform makes working easier for employees whether they’re in the office or not, and therefore more efficient as well. A connected workplace lends itself to a well-planned automation strategy. This allows employees to automate tasks that don’t require a human touch and allocate the time they save to more complex tasks.
Intelligent connected workplaces often include built-in functionality to allow for remote IT support, reducing downtime and increasing efficiency.
4. Data Collection
When the majority of your business happens on a single platform, it makes it easier to collect data on how your employees work. Employee preferences and satisfaction, time management and productivity, collaboration, and IT tickets are just some of the information your connected workplace solution may be capable of documenting. This data can help you make informed decisions on everything from security to holiday hours.
5. Profitability
Collaboration, mobility, efficiency, and data collection have the potential to deliver cost savings, increased productivity, and employee retention. These benefits lead to another advantage for companies willing to innovate how they communicate: profitability.