Digital Workplace And Culture How Digital Technologies Are .

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Digital workplace and cultureHow digital technologies arechanging the workforce andhow enterprises can adaptand evolveBy: Jennifer Buchanan, Specialist Leader; Beth Kelley, Manager; AliciaHatch, CMO of Deloitte Digital

Many business leaders are currently operating under atraditional model: vertically integrated companies hiringfull-time employees to work eight- to nine-hour shifts in acompany’s own office, campus or factory.1However, the traditional way of doing business is quicklybecoming outdated.Today’s growth in technological capabilities, exponentialincrease in computing power available to both consumersand enterprises, and almost ubiquitous Internet connectivityamong other digital advances is changing the wayemployees and enterprises work.Organizations are benefiting from the increased digitizationof the workplace through increased productivity, costsavings, a more mobile and agile workforce, and generallyincreased flexibility and adaptability in an ever increasinglycomplex marketplace. Enterprises are collaborating moreglobally, and with more diverse and global staff. Employeescan now work all over the world, from the jungle to thearctic, as long as they have reliable Internet.While this has been a boom for employers, it has alsochanged the power balance in the employer-employeerelationship, often more towards the employee.2 The abilityto work from anywhere and stay connected through smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices has enabledemployees to stay connected and collaborate with peersand stay on top of digital trends more readily than theorganizations they work for.This new digital workplace also creates its own challenges,including security, developing a new kind of digital etiquetteto expectations for employees, and the tendency forbuilding expectation of always being “on,” causing burnoutand often leading to retention problems. Integrating digitaltechnologies into the workplace can not only wreak havocon the productivity of workers, but it also creates its owndistinct culture, impacting the previous work culture andthe general work experience. These changes will challengethe workplace by forcing both executives and employeesto adapt the way they interact with each other and thetechnologies that enable their work.Companies must be proactive in creating new systemsand policies, and re-interpreting their corporate culturearound digital in the workplace, or they risk losing clients,productivity, and employees. Organizations that will succeedin this new digital work environment are those that canbe open to innovation and adopting new digital methods,while also curating those digital experiences for theiremployees, including creating distinct lines between workand non-work, and making the workplace overall morehuman-centered rather than technology-centered.Technology the enablerThe growth in computing speed and storage is makingvirtual and global collaboration possible in more fields everyday. As technology and networks become more robust, thecomputing power available in consumer hardware continuesto increase, and employees become more comfortable withworking on their devices, rather than meeting face to faceor having to come into an office.Having a more digital savvy team has been a boon foremployers. Technology supporting a digitally integratedworkforce gets stronger and more robust every year,enabling enterprises to keep a very disperse team on thesame page logistically and moving towards the samegoals. Mobile computing is rapidly expanding access tothe network of global workers connected by data as wellas voice. Teams across time zones and countries can workremotely while staying connected to their teams virtuallyvia Skype, VoIP, email, and cloud-stored files. Companies nolonger need to send workers on an expensive airplane rideto visit clients or collaborate with other teams. Technicaland social mobility decouples people and organizationsfrom physical geography and defined markets. Today’sworkforces are freer to go where they want to work insteadof staying where work originates. Easier access to skilldevelopment resources is making vertical moves easier, too,for both people and organizations.Digital Workplace and Culture1

Companies are also able to create digitally integrated“on-demand” teams, offering the ability to tap intoextensive networks of innovators, technical experts, andseasoned professionals from all over the world that cancollaborate together. Researchers estimate that as many as30 to 40 percent of all US workers today are contingent.3These contingent employees and “on demand” teams createa level of agility for enterprises of all sizes.Additionally, new cognitive technologies are increasinglyreengineering work. This is a positive for both workersand enterprise as it replaces or augments work that wasbefore very slow and tedious. Cognitive technologies arealso creating new jobs, as these technologies both createand allow the analysis of datasets that were unheard ofonly a few years ago, creating new jobs for those with datascience and analytics skills. On the other hand, some staffmay be worried they will lose their jobs to a machine. Thedevelopment of smart machines will continue to shift theworkplace and force companies to not necessarily replacebut redesign jobs to incorporate new technology solutions.Enterprises must work to integrate both smart machines andpeople into their talent networks.The face of the digital workforceThis increase in communications and virtual connectednesshas also opened the world to new ways of acquiring,developing, and managing talent and work, and is changingthe way work is distributed and sourced. In addition, it isalso changing the perceptions that people have aroundwork and working, and overall work culture.Managing a global talent pool, and one constantly in fluxdepending on needs, requires the ability to manage andmine large pools of employee and business data. A numberof freelance and open source talent, product, and ideamarketplaces have quickly evolved over the past severalyears. The analytics from these allow companies andemployers to access, review, rank, analyze, and maintainmillions of records on individual tasks, projects, and workers.At the same time, this also gives all employees a new powerangle. Since current, contingent, and potential employeesalso have access to much of this data and technology, theyare also learning to use it to their advantage.2Digital technologies have already dramatically impactedthe culture around work and working. This growing groupof younger, connected, and mobile workers are managingtheir careers on their own terms and often outside ofcategories that have defined the workforce for decades.Today’s workers have a new focus on purpose, mission,and work-life integration. They stay connected to friendsand family digitally, and are comfortable working in thesame way, often blending the two. More workers of allages are demanding more of a work-life balance that canaccommodate more time caring for family, living furtheraway from city centers, or just avoiding peak commutetimes. For them, this balancing act includes utilizing digitaltechnologies to enable themselves and their broader goals.Millennials are a particularly important demographic fororganizations to pay attention to. They are the truly first“digital native” generation, and the US Bureau of LaborStatistics predicts that by 2030 millennials will make up75 percent of the workforce.4 As millennials grow intomanagerial roles, their priorities—i.e. working for more thanjust a paycheck—and leadership styles will have a hugeimpact on all organizations in the coming years.Supporting a digital culture provides a layer of flexibility andadaptability enterprises often lack. This struggle is especiallypressing in more traditional industries that have been slowerto adopt digital and social strategies on a broader enterprisescale. Traditionally, HR, talent, and business executives thinkof talent and employee processes as a supply chain with anon ramp for new employees and an off ramp for retirees.However, today’s employees are more nimble and willingto move laterally or to an entirely new company in order toachieve their career goals. Facilitating employees with digitaltools to make their work lives easier provides a necessaryflexibility for both workers and employees.The shift to a more mobile and always available workplacehas also adjusted the corporate mindset to a similar 24/7approach, and impacted the way people think aboutwork and the way they interact with and at work. Theway we communicate at work and with coworkers haschanged dramatically. Digital has helped lead to a morecasual attitude between co-working peers and bosses. Forexample, many people do not think twice when they seean emoji smiley face included in a professional email fromsomeone they have never met in person.

However, digital has also created a divide from workers’preferences to their workplace reality. In a world where amobile phone is only an arm’s reach away and the linesbetween work and life are increasingly ill-defined, work-lifebalance can be hard to achieve.Digital capabilities and technologies have potentially gottenahead of workers and the traditional work culture. This kindof technology access can become addictive for some. It mayfeed well-meaning workers’ tendency towards working longhours and always being “on,” but in the end does not helpoverall productivity.Humans across the globe report being overwhelmed by thedigital capabilities they now possess, and find it difficult toput limits or control how much technology they consumeor how it infiltrates their lives. Employees today work morehours and are nearly continuously connected to their jobsby pervasive mobile technologies. Workers are also oftenthrown onto demanding cross-functional teams that bringnew people together at a rapid rate, which can make it hardto create truly cohesive and collaborative teams.All of this connectivity can also create digital etiquetteproblems for both clients and staff. Workers in differenttime zones or on different work schedules will send emailsor texts to coworkers at all times of the day; smart machinesand cognitive technologies, meant to aid or improve aworker’s productivity and work/life balance, may also sendnotifications to a software engineer or other staff memberwhen a process is done, even if it’s at 8pm. Some of thesenotifications may not need to be responded to right away,but in some organizations there is the expectation thatthey still be responded to soon after delivery, even the 8p.m. notifications.If unresolved, all of this connectedness can lead toemployee burnout. Employees may feel unable to fullydisengage from work, or possibly feel tracked by theircompany. This growing problem of burnout and beingconstantly “tethered” to work by mobile devices, email, orother digital formats results in lost productivity and highturnover for companies. A recent Gallup study exploringthe effects of mobile technology on politics, business andwell-being in the US found that “workers who email forwork and who spend more hours working remotely outsideof normal working hours are more likely to experience asubstantial amount of stress on any given day than workerswho do not exhibit these behaviors.”5In our own research we performed an analysis on socialmedia conversations around workers using their owndevices to work as part of an analysis of “Bring YourOwn Device” (BYOD) policies in the workplace.6 Withinthis analysis we found a large volume of consumers thatmentioned regret in taking work home with them, beingavailable during personal hours, and even working while onvacation. People did not appreciate taking work on vacationwith them, but some felt it was acceptable to work while onvacation, and cited studies or articles that showed it is thenorm for most Americans.Millennials have also witnessed instability in the workplace,with two economic downturns during their careers,companies suddenly closing due to mishandling of data orfinances, and their parents’ jobs being downsized after yearsof loyal service.7BYOD employee conversationJune 2014–June 2015/sample volume 383*Working while on vocation33.7%Working from home11.1%“Need it“ for work/troubleshooting10.1%General mentions7.4%Personal device (for work)7.4%RegretEmployer issued device (for work)Device needs a charge4.7%4.0%3.7%Other**17.8%Figure 1. Top themes discussed in our social media analysisresearch examining conversations around workers usingtheir own devices to work as part of an analysis of “BringYour Own Device” (BYOD) policies in the workplace.(Ref. #6)Digital Workplace and Culture3

All of this unreliability in the job market, combined with thelack of balance, the possibility of never-ending work or fullydisengaging from work and being “always on,” and externaldata about their own company and other companies justa few clicks away, can contribute to employees feelingdisengaged from their work, their company’s mission,and their jobs. According to Gallup, two-thirds of workersare not engaged in their jobs and close to 1 in 5 areactively disengaged.8Despite the struggle to disengage from work, this rapidrise of digital, and in particular social media, has also hadpositive impacts on the way people connect and collaborateat work. People can quickly share ideas, information, andrequests at a speed faster than any other in recordedhistory. The explosion of external people data (data insocial networks, recruiting networks, and talent networks)has created a new world of employee data outside theenterprise that both organizations and employees can tap into in order to gain knowledge about the culture and processof any organization.All of this sharing can be a boon or detriment to companies.Today’s organizations live in an era where every corporatedecision is immediately publicly exposed and debated,thanks to sites like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Twitter, andothers. Once-private issues are now posted online forevery employee—and every potential employee—toread. Given the harsh spotlight of this new transparency,an organization’s culture can become a key competitiveadvantage—or its weakness. For better or for worse,websites like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others notonly increase transparency about a company’s workplace;they make it far easier for employees to learn about newjob opportunities within a company they admire and gainintelligence about a company’s culture. In our own researchwe’ve seen numerous companies struggle with how tomanage Glassdoor reviews and feedback.4When rubber hits the road: Logistics and securityThe logistics of managing this network of workers, externaldata, and connectivity can be challenging for any enterprise.The growth of the digital workplace raises concerns aboutdata security, regulatory compliance, compensation fordevice usage, and internal governance. This is a problemfor all enterprises, not just industries with wider regulationcontrol. Whether the employee is working remotely,working as an “on-demand” employee, or just checkingemails from their phone on the bus ride in to work, anenterprise is responsible for creating a culture of securityand secure data among its staff.9 This is leaving CEOs, ITmanagers, HR, and the rest of the C-suite stuck between arock and a hard place on how manage all of these changesand implement a digital system that balances both workers’needs and the company’s.IT executives in particular can potentially see this digitalinflux as a huge challenge, but they can also benefit fromthis new wealth of digital data and connectivity in theworkplace. Due to the ease of collaboration in the digitalage, enterprise knowledge is created by all people in theorganization and can be shared and used by others just aseasily. The key to success lies not only in the documentedassets (e.g., plans, inventories, contracts, sales contacts,publications and brochures), but also in the ability toleverage the tacit knowledge of individuals and making itexplicit to those who need it, when they need it.10

Enterprises and organizations with a large bureaucracy oftenhave a harder time adopting new technologies and policiesaround them due to slow approval processes, long-standingcontracts with vendors, or other various red tape. Theevolving regulatory environment of many industries mayalso challenge the adoption and incorporation of digitalpractices into the workplace. In the healthcare industry,privacy considerations including HIPAA require additionallevels of security and governance which combined withthe cost to develop digital programs may lead to slowerimplementations with more complexity. There are otherbarriers in medicine; vast differences in digital proficienciesamong medical staff and patients and the changingnature of how patients want to receive information andcommunicate with their caregivers challenge healthcareorganizations to create digital programs that supportthe broad patient demographics and needs as well asaddress the complexities of privacy and other regulatoryconsiderations.11 Many other industries including areasof government, legal, financial services, manufacturing,insurance, and utilities face challenges not in getting accessto the technology but instead implementing a more digitalworkplace and culture, due to a web of local, state, orfederal regulations. Most of these industries often needa formal approved governance plan in place before anemployee can do something seemingly benign like checkemail through a secure VPN log in.Even with executives on board, getting enterprises to fullyembrace a digital strategy as a culture can be a challenge.Some more traditional organizations and industries canfind it hard to get workers—who may prefer to use“old-fashioned” methods like phone calls or in-personmeetings—more comfortable with adopting new methodsand taking a more digital approach to work. It can be trickyto find a good digital culture that provides a balance andaligns with the culture of the enterprise.On the flip-side, many companies or organizationstechnically do not allow employees to work remotely, yetoften employees still find workarounds to get projects doneoffsite or communicate with coworkers. Employees areusing unofficial channels to communicate such as texting,Facebook groups, or Slack. When employees use their ownsolutions to collaborate this can create a problem. Everyinstance of using their own phones and working away fromthe office creates concerns around security of a company’sdata, client data, and other personally-identifiableinformation (PII). A single vulnerable device can leave anentire ecosystem open to attack, with potential disruptionsranging from individual privacy breaches to massivebreakdowns of public systems.Our BYOD policy study found security risks were seen asmajor hurdles for employer-sponsored mobile phone plansbecause implementing a strategy that allowed employeesto use their own personal devices for work, or vice versa,increases the number of devices used for both personal andbusiness purposes as well as the chances that confidentialdata may be compromised. At the same time, we foundindividuals often expressed the need to have their deviceavailable for work. This led them to visit public forums totroubleshoot when an issue with their device came up,which suggests a lack of support from company resources,as well as a potential breach in security. Appropriatestaffing levels for IT and Helpdesk resources are yet anotherimportant consideration in supporting a collaborative digitalculture and workspace, since the increases in the numberand variety of devices and remote engagement from and tothese activities will inevitably overtax current staff.Digital Workplace and Culture5

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Digital implementation: How to do digital wellIn an era of the digital workforce, an enterprise’s culturemust expand to include its digital workplace practices.C

in this new digital work environment are those that can be open to innovation and adopting new digital methods, while also curating those digital experiences for their employees, including creating distinct lines between work and non-work, and making the workplace overall more human-centered rather than technology

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