There’s a rising trend of digital transformation programs – particularly among enterprises looking to bring their technology stack up to par – but for most, the digital workplace has evolved slowly over many years.

It started with the introduction of email, payroll, CRMs and HR systems; it’s continued right through to 3D printing or the Internet of Things in the office. Our workplaces are now built on a complex foundation of different technologies, all designed to help us work faster, smarter, better.

Yet we still see issues like printing huge amount of papers, having to do manual entry/inputs for HR, no proper data governance, and verbal communications on important matters.

So how can we adapt a digital workplace:

People: Employees should be educated of the value of going digital. They should understand environmental effects of printing, how software’s can help in making them more efficient, and why it is important to secure company information. Employers will need to invest in educating their employees about the benefits of going digital to make them understand and value it.

Tools: There are many tools and apps out there that can help us make work more efficient, but we will need to evaluate them and pick the right ones which will help in what we actually do rather than just having fancy functions which we may never use.

Culture: When these two elements – people, and tools – come together in a strategic and considered way, they collectively shape the employee experience. Aligning this with our business mission, values and overall direction becomes the foundation of our corporate culture and drives employee engagement.

To those enterprises who are looking to move into digitalization but don’t know how, small steps are good to start with:

1)     Cut down unnecessary printing. 

2)     Start using emails for correspondence and appointment setting rather than verbal communication or paper

3)     Start practicing proper data governance. Know who has your data and where they are storing it,

4)     Implement an ERP system or similar to capture and store all your data. Systems such as Deskera or Syspro are worth checking out as they won’t burn a hole in your budget.

5)     Start synchronizing your departments instead of working in silo.

With these small steps and you will find that you are automatically creating a digital workplace in your organization.