Why Digital Solutions Sit at the Heart of a Successful Office

The pandemic changed a lot of things for businesses, whether that’s customers’ buying behavior or their product demands.

One of the biggest challenges for businesses was the shift to home working. Back in March 2020 during the pandemic outbreak, companies that hadn’t already implemented dedicated digital solutions scrabbled to adapt.

Digital transformation was accelerated by the realities of the coronavirus pandemic. A study by McKinsey found that businesses sped up their digitization by three to four years.

Digital solutions have become essential for business success in the office post-Covid. In this post, we cover some of the key ways you can use digital solutions to boost office performance and drive your business forwards.

Digital Solutions Improve Office Performance and Boost Businesses

Modern digital solutions and technologies like data analytics, Cloud storage technologies, and AI-driven tools sit at heart of successful offices and businesses. Here's why:

1. Hybrid communication is key

2020 was the year of Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Whether we implemented them into the workplace for remote collaboration or we joined a Zoom quiz, video calls epitomised our year.

Now that Covid-19 seems to be behind us and the work-from-home order was removed, hybrid communication may be less essential for some businesses, but it’s still an invaluable tool today.

The many businesses that have embraced flexible working will see the value in continuing to utilize these tools. There’s no better way to mimic in-person sessions than via a video call, and we know that this can keep remote employees engaged.

Our sporadic inability to travel for work over the past 18 months has made many of us re-evaluate how necessary it is. If your North East-based business has clients in London that you used to visit, save precious resources by hosting online meetings.

Reserve those trips across the country for critical reviews instead.

2. Drive performance with visibility

For employees coming into the office, there are ways you can use digital solutions to maximize performance. Displaying your company objectives on digital signage screens will help to motivate your staff. This works especially well if you have a large in-office sales or customer service teams who work to defined KPIs.

It also gives them an understanding of how their work contributes to the business’ overall goals. What’s more, when employee and business goals are shared with more senior staff members, people are more likely to achieve them.

Sharing real-time data on screens around the office will keep your employees committed to meeting their KPIs and the company’s overall goals.

3. Blend business and pleasure

The true value of digital solutions during the pandemic was seen in how they enabled us to remain connected. The ability to chat via Microsoft Teams, for example, allowed us to feel close to our colleagues even as we were separated.

Injecting some fun into your solutions is a great way to keep your hybrid workforce engaged too. Whether that’s setting up a fun chat on Microsoft Teams where you host midday quizzes or sharing employees’ personal news on a dedicated intranet site, you can foster a great culture wherever your employees are.

4. Keep systems up to date for productivity gains

As well as implementing new digital solutions, chances are that your business has also updated its core systems in the past year. If not, perhaps it’s time to do so. A survey by Dell found out exactly how impactful good and bad technology is on your employees, and the results are stark.

Not only can employees achieve 37% more in a workday when the technology they rely on works well, but for every hour worked, they can save a huge 23 minutes. That equates to 15 hours in a 40-hour working week, highlighting how essential functional technology is to your workforce.

Outdated systems and hardware can hold up your employees, not only impacting their productivity but also their stress levels. The same study found that bad technology can double employee stress levels – with it being 30% more stressful than public singing. That says something!

Conclusion

The pandemic and subsequent work from home trends have accelerated business technology adoption in a way we’ve never seen before. This has been a silver lining of the past 18 months as businesses have implemented digital solutions.

Whether your physical office is active or you’ve adopted a hybrid working model, these are the key areas where you can improve performance in your business through digital solutions.