Surviving in the new normal is only possible for those who have adopted the change, and this has been visible in the shift from physical workspace to the digital workplace. As businesses across the globe strive to maintain business continuity, cope up with uncertainties, the IT industry is also working towards the challenges and making changes in their way of working in the future.
Most of the companies already know that they need to adapt to the COVID-19 induced changes if they want to win the war and make their way to a secure future.
So, what’s holding them back? Why does an effective digital workplace seem so elusive?
Even when technology is driving how the world operates amid the pandemic, it does not translate into increased revenues for the IT sector. But the journey of the tech industry is not entirely a bed of roses. There are many challenges faced by IT players.
From retaining talent to building a collaborative culture to innovating despite the budget constraints, the IT industry has a lot of obstacles to overcome. Here is an overview of the top 5 challenges that lie ahead and how a next-gen intranet can solve them.
Before we move ahead, let’s understand what is a next-gen intranet.
The conversations around “Digital Workplace” has gone mainstream these days. Are you thinking that the idea of considering a new intranet to build your digital workplace is a bit outdated? With only 38% of employees satisfied with their workplace technology, this is the perfect time to improve the digital experience of employees with a next-gen intranet platform.
Discover 5 effective ways for intranet adoption
The modern intranet brings the best out of the workforce by boosting workplace collaboration and social networking technology, eliminating the communication silos within the integrated virtual work environment. Far from being obsolete, the next-gen intranet provides a central platform to connect, share, collaborate, and stay informed.
5 challenges facing the IT industry a next-gen intranet can solve
Challenge #1. Attract and retain talent
The key to attract and retain talent in the IT industry is “Employer branding.” By improving your organization in the best light, you can create an amazing workforce of talented employees. There is ample evidence that a great employer brand makes it easier to recruit talented employees and also impacts the bottom line of business. The companies with a compelling employer brand have 28% reduced employee turnover rates and enjoy a 50% more qualified talent pool.
However, it becomes a challenging task for IT companies to establish themselves as a brand. The IT leaders who are looking to recruit and retain the top talent need to confront the publicity issues and emphasize their ongoing commitment towards the employees. Here comes the role of a next-gen intranet. The current employees play a powerful role in how the employer brand is perceived. It can be used to share the vision of the organization and create an employee-friendly culture that will help you increase word of mouth and referrals. Here are some tips to build employer branding using a modern intranet.
- Initiate two-way communications and ask for employee feedback through quick polls, surveys, etc.
- Personalize your communications by message, channel, demographics to gain increased employee traction.
- Keep the employees updated proactively by sending them company news, upcoming policies, changes during a crisis, and alike.
- Embrace employee appreciation
- Strengthen your brand voice in all internal communications, intranet news, internal newsletters, or any other updates.
Challenge #2. Store and share assets securely
Managing information is an essential part of the IT industry as it runs on data, codes, and information. It is important to ensure that the information is stored securely, shared easily, and disposed of appropriately. In most cases, the information is stored across multiple platforms like email, Google Drive, word documents, etc. And this makes finding information a tedious task.
Instead, using an intranet as a one-stop platform for all the information can make it easier for the employees to find the information in no time. The HR and legal teams often use the intranet to host the employee onboarding documents like HR guidelines, legal policies, employee benefits. But why stop here? Every employee can leverage the benefits of the centralized knowledge hub.
Knowing that all the information is easily accessible to the employees helps them feel more confident about their work, and finish their tasks faster. The stored documents can be quickly shared with secure shareable links among departments and set their permissions through the centralized portal. Know more about the document management features offered by a modern intranet on Microsoft 365.
Challenge #3. Empower collaboration
With so many IT companies relying on freelancers and remote workers, it is very important to ensure a collaborative and cohesive workplace. When it comes to internal communication and collaboration, most IT companies fail to reach the entire workforce, specifically non-desk employees. As a result, the remote workforce misses out on vital information, news, announcements, events, etc. It is a major challenge to reach the entire workforce, strengthen internal communications, and engage people wherever they are. For this purpose, the IT leaders need efficient channels to keep remote workers and business partners aligned throughout different project stages.
Check your collaboration score
Launching a next-gen intranet can provide a central platform for all kinds of updates while keeping the internal information confidential. The good news is that the mobile version of the intranet can help you overcome the collaboration challenges like never before. Today, most of the employees has a smartphone allowing them to access the digital platform without any hassles. The collaboration and social features of intranet like comments, feedback, news and announcements, notifications, group chats, easy document sharing help you bring the right people at the right time to contribute to work. With a modern intranet solution and internal communication strategy, the remote workforce can also be as connected and engaged as the team in the office.
Challenge #4. Workplace productivity
Every organization and industry face productivity challenges because of low employee engagement rates. Be it finance, retail, manufacturing, or the IT industry, the concerns of workplace productivity remain one of the topmost priorities for the companies because it directly impacts the bottom line of business. And finding the appropriate solutions to boost workplace productivity can be a major challenge.
Well, many things affect workplace productivity. And not having the right digital workplace tools is one of the primary reasons. When employees have all the tools, they need to work without wasting time on manual and repetitive tasks, it can drive employee productivity in a much better manner. Due to the data-centric nature of the IT industry, the employees expect a workplace where they can share ideas, connect with like-minded people, and have access to updated information when they need it.
Microsoft 365 Productivity Tools Made Simple: A Quick Overview
Fortunately, technology is a productivity driver, and all thanks to the powerful tools of the Microsoft 365 suite that can help businesses to be more productive and collaborative. A survey conducted by McKinsey reveals that employees spend over 1.8 hours every day – 9.3 hours every week on searching and gathering relevant information. The information spread across chats, emails, and other external software is disconnected from each other.
Implementing a next-gen intranet can improve workplace productivity levels as workers will have easy access to everything they need to get their work done. With the right intranet tools at the place, the employees can easily find the relevant information, manage projects efficiently, communicate seamlessly with colleagues, collaborate with different departments, automate business workflows, and much more. The features such as FAQ, knowledge base, and advanced search ensure that the intranet becomes a go-to destination for finding answers and sharing knowledge.
Challenge #5. Continuous learning and upskilling
With the increasing pace of digitization and automation in IT companies, the employees and employers face the challenges of keeping up with the ever-shifting skills and requirements. Continuous learning and upskilling have become a mandate in an endlessly evolving workplace. And it requires that the employees and organizations make a move from conventional corporate training to on-demand continuous learning.
The millennial and Generation Z employees prefer to choose the workplace where they can continuously improve and evolve for the better. Over half of the millennials also switch jobs if they don’t learn fast enough. In this knowledge era, it is crucial for companies to keep pace with an ever-evolving landscape. Given the career development and growth opportunities for employees, the intranet can be a great learning hub. Launching a next-gen intranet can include eclectic resources including video webinars, explainer articles, mentoring schemes, internal vacancies to promote a growth-oriented organizational culture.
Are you ready to launch a next-gen intranet for your business?
There are high chances that your organization is also experiencing some of these 5 challenges. And the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed even more to undergo digital transformation. As there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the intranet platform, it is important to evaluate your business challenges and requirements before building your next-gen intranet solution. Schedule a one-on-one demo to get in touch with our digital workplace experts and suggest you the best solution for your business.
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