Engagement, competitive intelligence, and flexibility. This is the best way to define and explain the benefits of a digital workplace. In case you didn’t know, this solution has been consolidating itself as a trend in recent years, mainly due to the popularization of remote work.
Therefore, we prepared this special post on the subject. Here, we will present the main curiosities on the subject, explaining what a digital workplace is, the good practices to implement with the method, and how its management can benefit from this technology. So, save time and follow!
What Is A Digital Workplace?
As always, the best way to understand a concept is to translate its meaning into our language. In Portuguese, the expression digital workplace refers to a digital work environment. It is a platform where professionals can interact while carrying out their work.
This space is represented by a digital interface, such as a work, productivity, and collaboration app, or even a three-dimensional interface, in which avatars are presented in virtual reality — an idea that has gained the attention of technology giants such as Microsoft and Meta (formerly Facebook).
This concept is also known by another equivalent and similar name: the virtual workplace. As the name suggests, a virtual work environment is an instance where employees can contribute to projects, prepare plans, exchange information, and make decisions in an agile, safe, and practical way.
In the future, technologies such as VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) may make digital work environments even more popular, breaking the barrier between material and immaterial. At the moment, only a few sectors have embraced this concept and methodology.
The majority of companies adopting this solution are those that are part of the technology sector. With young, attuned employees with predominantly digital tasks and compatible with remote work, these operations benefit from the particularities of the digital environment.
Among the main business models to adopt these technologies, we highlight software houses, game development studios, marketing agencies, and startups. However, more traditional sectors, such as law firms and accounting, still need to embrace this concept.
What Are The Benefits Of The Digital Workplace?
Engagement, productivity, savings, talent retention, and much more. As we perceive it, this is one of the few modern trends that offer such a wide range of benefits for management. Below, we list and detail each of these aspects. Take a look!
Engagement
Initially, the distancing of remote work cooled relations between people. With the digital workplace, you get the best of both worlds. Employees’ privacy and autonomy are respected, but a face-to-face journey’s proximity and quality of communication are restored.
Productivity
One of the main reasons for the increase in productivity is the enormous gain in autonomy perceived by employees, who carry out their workdays with more comfort, independence, and concentration. The digital workplace adds a dash of functionality and communication to the game.
Flexibility
Taking work to the digital environment was one of the biggest leaps in the industry in recent years. Of course, this transition was due to very strong external pressure due to the pandemic. But as many administrations have discovered, this flexibility has resulted in greater autonomy, productivity, and quality of life.
Attractiveness
The market is hungry for qualified professionals, especially in the technology sector. In this scenario, offering vacancies that offer flexibility and autonomy is very attractive for candidates who are not only looking for a good salary but, above all, a good quality of life.
Retention
In addition to attracting, remote work hours and the flexible, relaxed, and productive daily life of digital workplaces are strong arguments for retaining talent in your company. But of course, this also depends on other factors, such as the quality of relationships between the members.
Optimization
If you understand commercial strategy, you know how important it is to optimize resources, whether material, like money, or immaterial, like time. A digital work environment encourages productivity and focuses while minimizing idleness and distraction, offering only the best for your management.
Economy
Last but not least, we have a cost reduction. Remote work, by itself, is the greatest representative of this benefit. Taking the workday digital, cutting considerable expenses, such as real estate leases, costs with facilities, structures, transportation, and the like, is possible.
What Are The Best Practices For Working In The Digital Workplace?
As in the face-to-face work environment, inserting a code of conduct and good practices is important. Thus, it is possible to encourage a healthy work environment in which members respect the limits of colleagues and, of course, know how to use all the tools. Now, check out the best practices!
Adoption Of Integrated Tools
Real-time integration and connectivity are key pillars of digital work. Therefore, it is important to prioritize the use of synchronized tools. An emblematic example of this is Microsoft’s suite of Office applications, such as Word, Excel, and Team, as well as Google applications, such as Sheet, Docs, and Hangout.
Train The Members
Depending on the tools adopted, not all employees are familiar with these applications, screens, and functions. Therefore, it is very important to invest in team training, teaching everyone to use the tools and extract most of their resources and functionalities.
Also Read: The Relationship Between Agility And Digital Transformation!
