Embracing the Modern Workplace in Your Business
People are a business’s most important asset. However, it’s harder than ever to attract and retain top talent in today’s labor market. The market favors employees, and people aren’t willing to put up with toxic environments or stagnating companies. Thus, businesses need to create a modern workplace that keeps employees happy and engaged. So, what do people want?
Gone are the days when businesses could offer a slightly higher wage and expect employees to flock to them. People are looking past salary to other benefits, like remote work capabilities. In fact, in a FlexJobs survey, 52% of men and 60% of women stated they would quit if they could not continue to work remotely. Remote work has gone from a nice perk to an expectation. And this shift has compelled businesses to adapt their technology and workplaces to accommodate changing expectations.
Helping your business evolve from a traditional office to a modern workplace is challenging. However, the right technology and infrastructure can simplify your transition.
Leverage Technology During Your Transition to a Modern Workplace
Transitioning to a modern workplace permanently requires that business leaders rethink employee workspaces. It’s no longer true that employees need to be in the same building to collaborate seamlessly. Tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Asana, and SharePoint help facilitate communication, project management, and collaboration among teams regardless of their location.
However, remote work does present some technical challenges. For example, it’s not easy to create a software stack where everything is connected seamlessly. This disconnect can be frustrating to employees and slow down productivity. Another challenge is that remote work often requires that companies provide cloud computing capabilities and secure connections to on-premise data — ensuring that teams have access to mission-critical applications.
Businesses are solving the modern workplace challenges by working with full-service IT partners who can provide both the technology and infrastructure to empower their remote teams. IT infrastructure is essential to leveraging technologies like virtualization and hyperconverged infrastructure, which enable businesses to manage incoming computing requests dynamically and give employees access to the needed software. Additionally, there are many positive business outcomes from transitioning to a modern workplace.
The working environment of a modern workplace is designed to meet your business’s physical and technological needs and those of your employees. It’s only reasonable that these needs would change as society’s norms and expectations transform. Business leaders that approach the transition to a modern workplace with a positive mindset experience the following five advantages:
- Draw talent from a global workforce. Enabling remote work in your organization expands your talent pool to a worldwide candidate list from those in your immediate area. This prospect gives businesses more flexibility in times of labor shortage and allows them to find the absolute best in their industry.
- Improve connections between customers and partners. Think about how much more comfortable we’ve become with video conferencing and other interactive web tools. For example, in traditional fields like appliance repair, teams can video chat through a company portal, review the customer’s issue and respond with precision.
- Lower overhead from physical infrastructure. With more people working from home, companies can lower physical office costs by embracing the modern workplace. Companies can then pass these savings on to employees to help improve their home office equipment while still improving their bottom line.
- Better integrated software. Businesses that ensure that employees can collaborate effortlessly, and that software works together seamlessly, enhance areas like customer service and business operations. For example, when employees aren’t spending their time troubleshooting or moving data from one application to another, they are more efficient – boosting profitability.
- Promote future IT investments. When your day-to-day work depends on your IT infrastructure, it’s easier to get leadership buy-in for future IT investments. This mindset shift can promote a culture of innovation and help your business respond with agility to future changes.
Building a modern workplace can make your business more technologically and operationally sound. These changes are already happening everywhere. The only difference is that the companies that embrace the change will be better integrated and better able to lead their industry.
OneNeck Can Help
We’ve discussed the challenges inherent in modernizing your workplace. But, you don’t have to do it alone. OneNeck can give you the tools to transition into a modern workplace. We’ve got you covered, from software stacks based on Cisco and Microsoft technologies to cloud, hybrid cloud, and colocation infrastructure resources. Let’s talk about how you can embrace the modern workplace. Contact us today.