This is a guest post from Connie Chan, my business partner, Principal, and co-founder of Chess Media Group.
Chess Media Group conducted a global research study in May 2013, surveying over 600 employees who currently use social and collaboration technology tools, to understand how these tools affect their ability to work efficiently and flexibly, as well as to understand the impact of the Bring-Your-Own-Device movement and flexible work arrangements. The report offers a look at the findings, as well as provides supporting data and Chess Media Group’s point of view on the results.
The key highlights of this report confirm that many organizations are recognizing and acknowledging the shift in how business is taking place, and are adapting to the trends in how people want to work. Although the report yielded much insight around the future of work, there are three key insights which stand out and should be given special attention by business leaders seeking to evolve their organizations.
Three insights on the Future of Work are:
- Collaboration is promoting stronger growth and creating more effective workers.
- Bring-Your-Own-Device is here to stay.
- Flexible work arrangements are no longer employee perks but a business strategy.
There are few simple things that business leaders and decision makers can do to prepare their organizations for the Future of Work:
Collaboration Initiatives
- The executive team must act as role models
- Take a comprehensive view of how people work and build a deep understanding of their collaborative software requirements
BYOD Initiatives
- Be clear on which devices are supported.
- Collaboratively create a BYOD policy.
Flexible Work Arrangements
- Provide workers, current and future with the flexibility to do their jobs the best ways they can.
- Put policies in place to allow the use of flexwork while managing and maintaining the flow of business.
More key recommendations can be found in the report.
Delivering flexible work arrangements supported by collaboration technologies and BYOD policies will create the foundation for the future of work and allow a company to remain competitive.
Acknowledgements
The future of work research report would not be possible without the support and collaboration of vendor and media partners. They also understand that stakeholders within an industry need to do their part to educate and provide organizations with the possibilities available to them. Our collaborators on this project are:
Atlassian is most known for their Jira product for project and issue tracking, and their confluence product which is designed for employee collaboration. Confluence features everything from a robust wiki editor to task management to mobile access and a robust ecosystem for third party apps. Connect with Atlassian on Twitter.
Central Desktop created a cloud product called SocialBridge which has features such as document and project management, mobile apps, workspaces, integration with third party apps, and much more. Customers include companies such as the American Red Cross, Career Builder, and WD-40. Connect with Central Desktop on Twitter.
Citrix offers a variety of products in the enterprise collaboration space and you may recall that they acquired Podio not too long ago which offers everything from CRM to lead management to meeting planning to social collaboration. Citrix is probably most known for their GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar products. Connect with Citrix on Twitter.
Moxie Software actually made headlines recently when they announced they were giving their product away for free. Their positioning is specifically geared around allowing employees to leverage the collective intelligence of employees to help customers. Moxie has the ability to create both internal and external communities. Connect with Moxie Software on Twitter.
Media Partners
CMSWire.com is a popular web magazine published by Simpler Media Group, Inc. Founded in 2003, it publishes daily news, analysis, interviews and best practices focused on Customer Experience Management, Digital Marketing, Social Business and Enterprise Information Management. Connect with CMSWire.com on Twitter.
CustomerThink is a global online community of business leaders striving to create profitable customer-centric enterprises. Each month, the site reaches over 200,000 subscribers and visitors from 200 countries via email, RSS, LinkedIn and Twitter. CustomerThink currently serves over 80,000 visitors per month. This is the place to learn about every facet of customer-centric business management in articles, blogs, interviews, and news. Connect with CustomerThink on Twitter.
Download a free copy of The Future of Work. Reshaping the Workplace Today. Building for Tomorrow.
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