Digital Enablement Is A Must For Hybrid Work Model

It is an undeniable fact that hybrid work is the future. And enterprises must accelerate their strategic workplace initiatives and rethink their work models now to thrive in the future of work.

• Given its importance in the future of work, is digital transformation sufficient to achieve super productivity and unlock great business value in the hybrid work model? No. With the pressures of automation and other disruptions looming large, we believe digital enablement is the way forward.

Remote work and flexi-work options were but trends in the pre-pandemic era adopted by only a handful of companies. However, the global pandemic and the questions of business continuity had made it a norm for almost all enterprises. As we open up, are enterprises going to go back to business-as-usual with their on-premise engagement models?

Probably not. An EY Survey found that over 54% of employees would consider leaving their employer if some form of flexibility is not extended to them on where and when they work. A Gartner Study found that 39% of knowledge workers may leave the employer if strict, fully on-site work models are enforced. Employees are looking to work remotely while having the flexibility to go to the physical office space as per their needs and schedule, thus necessitating a shift to hybrid models.

So, what does that mean?

Hybrid work is where employees will work remotely, on-site or shuttle between the two. They seek more control over where, how and when they work. Regardless of where they work, they should be able to seamlessly engage with work. These models take a more humane, people-centric and dynamic approach to work.

For hybrid work models to be successful and to help enterprises unleash their full potential, and unlock infinite growth opportunities in the future of work, they need to ensure that these new work models are as engaging and effective as any other. And that’s exactly where the challenges of hybrid work models lie.

Let’s understand these challenges by taking the example of two employees – Sandra and Ray – working as Sales Executives with a FinServ Company. While Sandra is an on-site worker who leverages the flexi-work options, Ray is a remote worker.

Since the company’s systems and functions are built around a co-located workforce, the knowledge hubs are localized. As a result, Ray finds it challenging to access the necessary information and data to better engage customers and close more deals. Since Sandra does have face time with managers and fellow executives at the office, she gets the help necessary in understanding and learning technology, analyzing data using the new tools, etc. This helps Sandra in making swifter, data-enabled decisions that drive greater business value.

Since the company’s employee engagement model is built for on-site workers, learning, coaching and mentoring are weaved into the culture. And Sandra benefits immensely from her face time in office. Ray does not have that advantage.

Despite their employer providing a whole range of cloud-based tools and software, Sandra and Ray feel a certain sense of being disconnected. The experience is incoherent and broken. The main reason is that they both lack digital fluency and do not have the right digital skills to cope with the changing technology. So, they end up doing a good amount of grunt work, despite the digital transformation efforts of their company.

Employees need more than just access to internet-connected devices or cloud-based, shared resources to thrive in the hybrid future of work. Enterprises must focus on digital fluency and digital inclusion of the entire workforce, regardless of their location or mode of working. So, over and above their digital transformation efforts with company-wide tools and centralized solutions, enterprises need to work towards digital enablement of their employees and leaders.

Digital enablement is the process of augmenting employees across functions and roles with AI-powered digital work assistants to make them super productive. A digital enablement platform like supervity.ai’s enables enterprises to maximize their digital transformation value by empowering their employees with intelligent automation, contextual knowledge and self-service. It helps to take an employee-centric approach to work and helps build a better connected, engaged and empowered workforce.

While company-wide and centralized solutions such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), collaboration tools, etc. are necessary, the bulk of repetitive, manual, data-intensive tasks that have potential to be automated lie at the employee level.

Enterprise-level or department-level automated workflows may not include such tasks owing to the cost and resource constraints and the specificity of such tasks. But they will add great value at the employee level. And equipping employees with their own digital assistants enables them to build customized workflows instead of invoking existing workflows. This helps in automating up to 100% of SOP-driven tasks.

Continuing with our example. Ray could leverage his digital work assistant to gather collate necessary information from across siloed data systems and provide him with contextual, real-time insights to better engage leads and close deals. Ray gets on-demand support and service in a timely and efficient manner without having to wait around or go through multiple channels to get support.

While Sandra prefers face time at the office, she need not wait to get to office to have her IT problems addressed. Her digital assistant extends timely support to her, whether it is IT problems or gathering intelligence before meeting clients. She feels as engaged and productive anywhere and anytime she works.

In fact, with digital enablement platform, enterprises can save up to 90% and improve digital adoption by 75%. Enterprises can create a workforce that is conversant with all kinds of digital technology that exists within the system, adopt digital skills at a good pace and be super productive across the spectrum.

For attracting and retaining the right talent, enterprises need to make hybrid work engagement as effective as their in-office work models. Digital enablement adds more value in hybrid work models and enables employees to become more productive. Further, it helps to maximize business value through optimized costs and overall operational efficiency.

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