Efficiency is the key to success for any successful digital transformation and thriving business. Poor allocation of time, resources and effort can be detrimental to not only productivity but also profits. Whilst seemingly obvious, growing organisations have a tendency to lose sight of this, leading to problems associated with poor communication and management.
How can online workspaces transform your teams?
As a core element of thriving digital workplaces, team workspaces facilitate collaboration by providing ‘digital rooms’ where teams can communicate, exchange ideas and collaborate on projects in real time. These online spaces transform the way people work away from archaic email threads and catapult them into centralised and collaborative environments which are far more searchable, efficient and flexible.
With the ability to make these spaces as public or as private as needed, users with the right permissions are easily able to create their own online workspaces for each collaborative project they are working on. Users are able to add a document list/library, news stream, RSS feeds, calendar, social feeds and a wide range of other useful features to create their own unique collaborative space.
Why are online workspaces important?
One of the most effective and tech-smart ways to ensure workforce efficiency is through the creation of virtual workspaces. Intranets, in particular, are fantastic in facilitating communication and connecting staff regardless of geographical location, time of day or preferred device – delivering the flexibility expected in the 21st century workplace.
In addition to bringing people together, professional services form Deloitte found that workspaces on intranets are instrumental in fostering employee productivity – companies with intranets are 7% more productive than those without.
Online workspaces provide the freedom to do and achieve more – whether it’s individually, in local teams or across continents. Intranets as a core platform in your digital workplace, significantly reduce or potentially eliminate the need for workers to be physically present to be productive. Furthermore, regardless of project size, these workspaces help businesses meet their objectives through an innovative interface.
Other benefits of the intranet in the digital workplace include:
- Helping the team
- Increased employee retention by up to 87% (Deloitte)
- A median increase of employee satisfaction of 20% (Deloitte)
- Added transparency across the company through easy sharing and access
- Real time updates – helping everyone stay up to date and in the know
- Building trust
- The encouragement of staff to attribute content – increased staff satisfaction and sense of purpose
- The encouragement of staff to add dates – helping them remain on time
- Makes leaders visible – to add to the feel of and to foster a support network
- Providing the technology and tools to enable collaboration
- Social tools – wikis, blogs, profiles, IM, shared workspaces
- Communication tools – video conferencing, enabling mobility
- Enhanced training capabilities – such as Learning Management Systems and eLearning platforms
In all, workspaces delivered via intranets are a key element of digital transformation in the workplace. One of the major intranet benefits for straff and managers is increased efficiency, which translates into higher-value profits. In the 21st century these changes and digital workplace trends are inevitable and all the more reason why companies must be switched on and take a more holistic, creative and collaborative look towards the future – the future starting with transforming your teams with online workspaces.
Next steps
Now is the time to create a digital workplace strategy that sets into place online tools to help your employees deliver the exceptional experiences your customers demand.
In this guide, we share a framework for building a productive and engaged digital workplace. You'll discover how to support your entire workforce and thrive in 2021 and beyond.
