This is a guest post from Connie Chan, my business partner, Principal, and co-founder of Chess Media Group.
Today’s business leaders face the challenge of creating the future workplace. Because of the advent of new technologies as well as the emergence of Millennials as a major percentage of the workforce, the future workplace will look vastly different than the one we are used to. At the same time, a culture of sharing, transparency, and mobility is entering the business world, as technology barriers lower.
In this report, we examine three imperatives of the future workplace that will squarely address the issues organizations need to discuss today to prepare their organizations for tomorrow: enterprise social and collaboration tools; bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies; and flexible work arrangements.
The fact that over half of those who responded to our survey work for multi-national companies demonstrates that this is a crucial issue for smaller organizations or those with just a few offices, as well as some of the world’s largest organizations. Companies of all sizes recognize that an evolution of the workplace needs to happen, and they are making the necessary investments. Their business leaders understand that they need to reshape their business processes and policies and to adapt to the new ways of working to be successful at attracting, inspiring, and retaining the best workers out there.
Key Highlights
Collaboration is promoting stronger growth and creating more effective workers. In 2011, a Chess Media Group survey, the State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration found that many organizations were just getting started on their collaboration initiatives. However, findings two years later show that 64% of workers state that their organizations have been making investments in collaboration for over one-and-a-half years, and many for three years or more (36%). Currently, general communication (76%), peer-to-peer collaboration (69%), and “to ask and answer questions” (64%) are the top three reasons workers use social and collaboration technologies.
This is a positive movement, given that the majority of workers (86%) said that using social and collaborative tools allows them to work more effectively then if they didn’t have access to them.
Bring-Your-Own-Device is here to stay. The majority of organizations provide a BYOD policy (54%). Of those who reported that their organization does not provide a BYOD policy (39%), the majority (52%) would like to be offered one. Well over half (57%) of workers believe that BYOD motivates employees to use social and collaborative tools.
Flexible work arrangements are no longer employee perks but a business strategy. A significant number of organizations offer flexible work arrangements (81%) and within those organizations, the vast majority of workers (87%) participate in at least one flexible work arrangement.
Whether your organization is already providing workers with collaboration tools, a BYOD policy, or flexible work arrangements, or perhaps your organization is still exploring its options, this research report will shed light on the trends and provide your business leaders with the supporting data needed to reshape today’s workplace and to build an organization that is prepared for the Future of Work.
Download the State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration Report (2011)
For white papers and case studies, visit Chess Media Group’s Resources library.
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