If asked, how many employees would reply “empowering” to the question about defining the technology used at the workplace?
Very few, for sure! Even tough the modern technology offer unique opportunities to deploy a frictionless work environment, it is still difficult for employers to understand the advantage of such an approach.
Empowering employees is to give them authority and control over their role in the company. That means providing them with the information, resources and tools they need to perform their job at the highest level. Once they have these things, they can be more productive and make confident decisions about how best to contribute to your organization.
In fact, employees expect, whenever they use technologies at work, to find the same user-friendliness as in their private life; unfortunately that is not the case.
Despite the high investments made by companies in software, the companies are far from the daily lives of employees in the modern digital world. In reality, these are mostly monolithic software, which plaster and condemn the company to a cumbersome, manual, confused and low visibility operation of the data relevant for the business.
A Unisys survey of 12,000 employees in 12 countries analyzed workplace technology (*) and divided companies into two groups: technology leaders and technology laggards.
The survey found 58 percent of employees at “technology laggards” had negative feelings toward their employers. They were also more likely to use non-IT supported downloads, work-arounds or their own personal devices. In many cases, this meant working inefficiently and potentially introducing security risks to their organization.
In other words, “empowering” tools in the workplace also means having software that flexibly help employees eliminate manual and repetitive work, capable of eliminating excel sheets and other operational complexities without having to bounce between platforms and different technological environments.
Put in another way, to actually enhance a technology you need to give users freedom and authority, without further distraction or complications.
However, the technology is advancing rapidly, but very often the selection is made on the basis of considerations (notoriety, trends, etc.) different from the real needs of the employees.
Some surveys have demonstrated that there is a huge mismatch in the perception of the usefulness of the apps between Cio and employees.
This imply that any technology, in order to be successfully implemented, have to consider :
- The organization’s overall strategy, mission, values and business objectives
- What changes are driving the need for new technology
- What you reallyneed to effectively manage the workplace and workforce
- How your current technology furthers company goals and how it falls short
- The types of technology your workforce wants and needs.
- Replicate the user experience of everyday life in the digital world.
To summarize, to ensure that the technology of the workplace is effectively enhancing the workforce and not chaining it, it is necessary to consider the real needs of the employees from the outset, without underestimating any of the aspects previously exposed.
(*) source: https://www.iofficecorp.com/blog/workplace-technology-pushing-employees
