What Defines the Digital Workplace?

When we talk to people about how technology is changing the way they work, we hear lots of excitement about new digital tools that can improve collaboration and help companies connect in a more intuitive way with their customers. However, there’s still a bit of lingering confusion about what the term “digital workplace” actually means.

Some are eager to embark on this new paradigm for collaboration and teamwork but aren’t sure where, or how, to start. Others have already invested in some digital tools but aren’t yet seeing the ROI they expected. In either case, it’s important to start at the beginning with a solid understanding of the definition of a digital workplace and the concrete business benefits it can provide.

Darrin Brooks, Prysm’s Director of Strategic Engagement, tackled these issues head-on in a recent podcast with Modern Marketing Today and host Peter Jacobs.

What defines the digital workplace? As Darrin explained, there are three essential elements. Digital workplaces:

1. Create a single common experience. If you have the right technology, you can bring people together from wherever they physically happen to be, whether that’s at their desk, in a conference room, or at a coffee shop halfway around the world.
2. Enhance the familiar. People should be allowed to bring their preferred technologies and applications into their working environment. Why? Because restricting technology choices can exacerbate differences in skill sets and experience, restricting productivity. Done right, today’s digital workplaces aren’t closed ecosystems; instead, they’re agnostic and accommodating. That way, the employee experience improves even as you boost productivity and performance.
3. Facilitate human interaction. Research continues to show that human interaction is critical to recall and retention, particularly these days when everyone is bombarded with information 24/7. As Darrin points out, training and education used to be based on two senses: seeing and hearing. But with a digital workplace, employers are able to bring in a third sense: touch. As a result, people begin interacting and engaging with content in their own individual, and more meaningful, ways.

 On that last point, you may be wondering how you could start leveraging this third sense and facilitating human interaction? Touch displays on tablets and laptops are just the beginning. As Gartner points out in its Hype Cycle for Display and Vision, 2018 report¹, “The rise of the digital workplace is increasing interest in the conference room and meeting technology solutions. Multiscreen, multistream, room-scale systems are targeted at teams collaborating on tasks that require multiple data streams and active participation from multiple users.”

That’s precisely what we’ve seen among our customers. They’ve found that high-value collaboration spaces support the way people work today, enabling multitasking, collaborative brainstorming sessions, and contributions from participants wherever they happen to be.

 In other words, these new digital tools improve engagement, which leads to business value.

So whether you’re beginning your collaboration journey on a small- or big-scale, keep in mind that the digital workplace is about being able to create a common, shared—and human—experience across multiple devices and locations. When your workplace starts functioning this way, you’ll be able to inspire engagement and improve collaboration, innovation, and productivity.

To hear the podcast in full, please visit the URL.

For more about delivering high-value collaboration spaces for your company, please visit Prysm.com.

¹ Gartner. Hype Cycle for Display and Vision, 2018. July 31, 2018.