Chat apps. Hotdesks. Smart machines. In most offices, it’s easy to see how technology is redefining and transforming the modern workplace.But technology isn’t the only force driving changes. Culture plays a significant role, too. For example, today’s employees are less and less inclined to disassociate their work lives from their personal lives. Remember when the stereotype for going to work was “punching in” a timecard and adopting some kind of 9-to-5 work persona (h/t Dolly Parton)? Employees no longer want to be typecast like that; they don’t necessarily want to surrender their identities at the office door.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Remember scrambling like mad for new technology?I know people who camped out overnight to secure their place in line for the latest version of a smartphone. Others significantly overpaid or added their names to pre-order lists months in advance—just to make sure they had the most up-to-date device. When the iPad2 was released back in 2011, some stores sold out within 10 minutes even though it was estimated that 60 percent of consumers purchasing the tablet already owned the original version launched only the year before. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Remember scrambling like mad for new technology?I know people who camped out overnight to secure their place in line for the latest version of a smartphone. Others significantly overpaid or added their names to pre-order lists months in advance—just to make sure they had the most up-to-date device. When the iPad2 was released back in 2011, some stores sold out within 10 minutes even though it was estimated that 60 percent of consumers purchasing the tablet already owned the original version launched only the year before. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Tech companies such as Google and Facebook are known for their informal, non-traditional work environments. But these days, even older, more staid firms are creating headlines in this space, rethinking not only how their employees work, but also where that work happens.Over the past few years, while I’ve been traveling to meet with business executives, I’ve seen office buildings that feature everything from standing desks and roof-top gardens to upholstered co-working rooms complete with craft beer on tap.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Back in the late 1990s, when I started my career with a job helping to develop IBM’s first ecommerce payment product, the term “work” was rather strictly defined. For the most part, my colleagues and I conformed to regular office hours, stationed at our desks on site. But even so, it was impossible to ignore the signs portending how the workplace was poised to change. My Nokia handset offered an exciting new kind of 24/7 connectivity, audio conferencing was gaining in popularity, and “telecommuting” was on the rise (to name just a few).+ Also on Network World: A mobile-first strategy improves employee productivity, study finds +
Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that the definition of work is continuing to morph, now even faster than before. Savvy employers realize there is little time to waste and that they must adapt to a variety of cultural and technological changes if they want to attract and retain talent, improve employee performance and maintain a competitive advantage. Here’s what you need to know about this shifting landscape:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s the beginning of a new year, and like many of you, I find this is a great time to jump-start my resolve to accomplish more and better—whether that means de-cluttering my desk, better managing my inbox or taking a hike to re-focus.Of course, making a New Year’s resolution to improve productivity can be extremely beneficial in the workplace, as well. We all know employee productivity is essential for driving revenue, but the U.S. Department of Labor reported in August that labor productivity growth in the non-farm business sector is lower now than during any of the previous 10 business cycles.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Once you’ve realized how important it is to invest in a digital workplace and have secured the budget you need to move forward with your plan, it’s time to begin looking for a collaboration solution to support this new way of work.Ultimately, the goal is to bring your people, content and technology together in a single, unified content-experience platform that promotes effective team collaboration. To get there, you’ll need to move beyond conventional collaboration applications, which typically include only file sharing or chat, to a more comprehensive solution that includes visual collaboration. But with so many new visual collaboration platforms emerging, how can you decide which one best suits your needs?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In my blog post last month, I wrote about why digital-workplace technology has become a mandate in today’s hyper-mobile world. This month, I explore basics of building a strategy and a business case so you can get budget and make your digital workplace a reality.The other day, I heard a great story about how a colleague of mine got board approval to hire more than two dozen new staff members—and the whole negotiation took less than an hour. He used digital-workplace technology to pull a remote team member into a board meeting on the fly and run ROI scenarios in real time. Without being able to see the specific figures, the decision would have taken weeks and cost millions in potential revenue.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In February of 2013, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer banned working from home across the entire company. Even employees who were hired on as fulltime remote workers were asked to relocate their desks to the Yahoo offices or lose their jobs.The reasoning?According to Mayer's memo: “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. … Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Paige O'Neill