You may be asking, what is a digital workspace, and why is it essential to my team or group? A digital workspace is a secured cloud-based tool that allows mobility for individuals, teams, and groups. Additionally, it centralizes and manages knowledge data to help people to better connect, communicate, collaborate, and innovate. 

The goal of a digital workspace is to build productive relationships beyond natural workgroups to enable knowledge sharing across an organization. When designed well, a digital workspace brings almost all of the technologies and apps a workplace, team, or group uses to get their work done from one centralized location. The digital workspace is a secured and permission-based resource accessible from any device, anytime, and anywhere. The digital workspace is for the entire business, from HR to all other core business areas.

When developing a digital workplace strategy, it is essential to:

1. Establish what you want to accomplish with this initiative;
2. Confirm how it will deliver business value; and
3. Ensure ease of use for all people using the technology, data, and tools.

The primary action is to assess what tools and technologies already exist, then determine what else is needed and how best to retain them holistically in a centralized location. Generally, it is not necessary to build the digital workspace from scratch. Examining what digital technologies already exist for your people will help limit the opportunity for duplication, achieve cost savings, and increase revenues.

There are a few critical considerations for an effective digital workplace strategy, including:

• Better ways for employees or groups to perform their work
• Senior management ownership
• Alignment with the business mission and strategic goals
• Alignment with organization culture
• System structure and processes 
• Business value
• Continuous quality improvement
• Risk management
• Cybersecurity compliance for the tool

In other words, first, determine what a digital workspace means for your business. It is important to uncover how it will solve an existing challenge and provide measurable value for the team, group, business, and customers.

A solid digital workspace:

• Thoughtfully organizes the technology stack your team or group needs in a centralized workspace to enhance employee and customer satisfaction;
• Eliminates hours searching for documents and improves efficiency and productivity;
• Gives back time by communicating to groups of people simultaneously;
• Provides a team or group with continual access to information and limits delays to project work;
• Reduces frustrations associated with access for remote and hybrid teams;
• Improves the team and customer experience and allows them to communicate and collaborate on projects and exchange secured files of any size;
• Engages communities and builds a body of knowledge to speed up innovation by engaging in discussions, polls, and surveys;
• Accesses anytime learning libraries and skills assessments;
• Delivers executive and management reports;
• Attracts talent to your brand and retains a high performing workforce; and
• Reduces operational costs and increases revenue.

A study conducted by Cornell University and Qatalog found that 43% of workers said they spend a significant amount of time searching through different tools to perform their work, and this “promotes context switching and causes a drag on our creativity.”

The emerging digital workspace is helping employers and organizations to be innovative and progressive, deliver flexibility for diverse teams and groups, support virtual and onsite work environments, reduce costs and enhance productivity, increase revenue, and ensure connectedness with employees, customers, and the business.

Did you know that a full-time employee loses 280 hours annually looking for information already out there, which results in an average loss of $10,360 per employee? To help solve this challenge, HR Anew launched the HR Anew Toolbox™, a secured cloud-based tool for individuals, teams, and groups of people to centralize and manage knowledge data and better connect, communicate, collaborate, and innovate. We use the strategies described in this article to help our clients build a digital workspace to foster productive relationships beyond natural workgroups and, therefore, be better able to share knowledge across their organizations.

As we navigate through the turbulence of the white waters of the twenty-first century, having a customized platform to make, onsite and remote work collaborative, creative, and educational is essential for success today. Every HR Anew Toolbox organization’s portal is branded and, in a bank-grade secure, cloud, and permission-based digital environment that is HIPPA compliant and backed by technical support.

Some of the benefits of the HR Anew Toolbox include:

Connections
Access an employee directory and locate colleagues and experts across the organization.

Mobility
Access your branded digital workspace anytime, anywhere – from the physical office, desktop, laptop, mobile phone, or mobile app.

Innovation
Gather ideas, insights, and perspectives from employees, groups, teams, customers, and guests through discussions, polls, surveys, and forums.

Business Applications
Access all or most technologies and applications your team uses from one centralized location – e.g., new hire process and onboarding, HR systems, expense reporting, sales reports, marketing, operations, and more.

Productivity
Groups and teams are more efficient through document and project management and tasks.

Collaboration
Work with internal and approved external alliances and communities to accomplish deliverables.

Messaging
A faster way to communicate with your group or team using our reach out feature.

Communication
Encourage information sharing about topics of interest to the groups or individuals.

Education and Training
Skills assessments and an extensive library provide access to curated articles, videos, workbooks, and presentations.

There is so much more the HR Anew Toolbox ™ has to offer. Want to learn more about how HR Anew can support your team, group, and customers? Schedule a Meeting with us today to learn more.