- 23 Aug, 2024
- 0 Comments
- 3 Mins Read
Utilising Digital Transformation to Drive an Effective Workplace
What is Digital Transformation?
The process of digital transformation involves integrating technologies into operations to bring about fundamental change, resulting in enhanced efficiency and increased business flexibility. Companies can achieve this through various paths, such as introducing AI or cloud computing to enhance customer experience and using machine learning to redesign supply chains. Digital transformation starts with a new mindset, offering a chance to reimagine processes from the ground up. Digital transformation requires a departure from traditional thinking and a move towards a more collaborative, experimental approach, unveiling innovative solutions that enhance customer experience, foster employee innovation and drive fundamental company growth.
How Can You Utilise Digital Transformation to Drive an Effective Workspace?
- Embrace Change: Recent findings reveal that a majority of executives, 60%, are not confident in their ability to manage change projects in the future due to a lack of necessary skills. As businesses continue to adapt to the digital landscape and its impact on customer engagement and operations, specialised skills such as advanced analytics, cloud computing and cognitive computing are becoming increasingly vital. This trend emphasises the need for seamless integration of technologies and processes, aligning both customer-facing and internal functions across various industries.
- Understand Your Human Capital: It is crucial for an organisation to understand the capabilities of its employees at all levels. This understanding can enable executives to assemble teams with the right talent from different parts of the organisation to drive various projects. Furthermore, identifying existing skills can help highlight any skill gaps, especially in niche roles that involve expertise in digital technologies. According to Dan Restuccia, the Chief Analytics Officer at Burning Glass Technologies, organisations should establish talent supply chains similar to those used for goods and materials. This approach can help companies anticipate talent needs and proactively address any disruptions or inefficiencies in the talent flow. By mapping out the digital expertise within the workforce, businesses can prioritise required skills and prepare for future role changes that may be significant.
- Invest in Learning and Development: No matter which approach an organisation takes to talent agility, there needs to be some investment in upskilling to keep skills up-to-date and relevant. According to Deloitte, 70% of learning should come from practical training and exposure, 20% should come from facilitated training and 10% should come from self-directed learning and reading. For example, Salesforce is eager to adopt and nurture a culture that breeds digital talent. The cloud computing organisation provides continuous learning and skill development through an online platform offering courses on specific jobs and roles. Upon completion of a course, employees receive a badge featured on their profile on the company’s social collaboration site. This helps identify people with specific expertise and can also play a role in performance evaluation. A well-structured and industry-aligned learning and development program serves the needs of the in-house workforce and keeps skills topped up as required. It also boosts the attractiveness of a company to future talent and aids in retention.
- Drive Collaboration: Cooperation across an organisation can establish a culture of sharing and an environment conducive to innovation. As workforces become more diverse with digital natives, such as millennials, forming a significant part of the workforce, it’s important to foster a collaborative mindset that respects different ages, cultures, and abilities. This collaboration will also impact a customer base that is diverse and will help generate interest from a variety of prospects by leveraging a diverse range of knowledge. In today’s digital age, collaboration is crucial as it is no longer confined to one department but permeates across the business, from marketing to sales to IT. In terms of sales, it involves working with marketing to have the appropriate content to target customers both offline and online, while IT and marketing need to collaborate to extract more value from a company’s data to target customers more effectively. For software supplier Vidyard, promoting collaboration between sales and marketing using digital tools resulted in their business growing by more than 1,000% over a two-year period. In a process called ‘smarketing’, this alignment of sales and marketing teams’ objectives aimed to drive qualified opportunities, pipeline and revenue.
Conclusion
An organisation that integrates digital technologies into its core and invests in developing its employees’ skills will experience improved productivity, higher employee engagement, enhanced employer brand value and better adaptation to a constantly changing environment. Growing an effective workplace doesn’t occur spontaneously; it necessitates a proactive approach from the organisation to cultivate its talent while staying attentive to the digital landscape in order to discern the necessary expertise for the future.