A recent survey by Oxford Economics reveals a satisfyingly high return on investment for companies that fully embrace the digital workspace — virtualized desktops accessed through mobile devices carried by remote workers — which facilitates productivity, elevating both customer satisfaction and employee retention. If your organization isn’t optimizing its digital investments, it could be (or soon will be) losing market share to those competitors who have already embraced the digital workspace.
Oxford interviewed more than 600 global industry leaders about their adoption and implementation of digital technologies. You can download the full research kit here.
While less than half reported that their organization had taken full advantage of the digital opportunity, those Digital Workspace Leaders were able to articulate exactly how their enterprise had benefited from making the transition. What they learned can serve as more than inspiration — it can serve as a blue print for how you can replicate their success — and avoid their mistakes. Hint: at its essence, the strategy is all about customer retention, employee satisfaction, security, and choice — read more about it in my full point-of-view:
- 74 percent reported higher customer satisfaction ratings vs. 64 percent still using old-style processes.
- 74 percent also reported high levels of employee satisfaction (a key factor for worker retention) vs. 58 percent of traditional procedures.
The switch to digitization changed not just how work was done, but also how leadership thought about doing it:
- Digital investing wasn’t simply purchasing a tablet for each employee. Instead, leaders often developed a strategy that tied the tech and its functions directly to corporate goals (reduced costs or higher productivity per worker, for example).
- Digitization also freed the workforce from traditional schedules and confined offices. Employees were encouraged to attend to personal matters when they had to, knowing they could pick up their work projects where they left off, from wherever they happened to be at that time. This factor alone increased employee satisfaction while also encouraging more collaboration and creative thinking.
- The need for advanced digital security also changed how leaders addressed risk associated with their newly mobile workforce and its virtual workspace. “There are new rules around the way data and privacy have to be treated,” says Kevin Miller, chief information security officer at Herman Miller.
This progressive approach to the enabling the workforce resulted in improved customer relations and higher conversion ratios, which confirmed the value of the digital investment. “It takes an organization with a fairly good focus on understanding end-user needs to … identify which changes to the work process make the most sense,” said Ryan Anderson, Herman Miller’s director of product and portfolio strategy.
Getting started on the path to digital work success is a strategy in itself. I’ve created an executive point of view on this topic, which provides insights and tips to begin the transformation of your enterprise into a digital workspace leader.
Download my executive point of view, To get the most value from digital work, try following the leaders.
