Technology in the Workplace: 5 Advantages of Employee-Centric Workplace Technology

by James McDonald on September 12, 2017
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Consumer technology is powerful. It allows us to connect with people around the world, to access and share information instantly, to experience new things and grow as individuals. It’s designed with users in mind and built to make our lives easier. And the technology with the most staying power enables all this with an attractive and intuitive interface.

Can the same be said for the technology you provide your workforce?

Powerful, user-friendly technology is an integral part of a positive employee experience. And just as consumer technology is designed to be customer-centric, the workplace technology your business adopts must be employee-centric. It should solve the challenges of your workforce and be something your employees can’t live without.

Here are a five advantages of employee-centric workplace technology.

It demonstrates your commitment to your employees.

Your employees want to feel appreciated, to know you value their hard work, are concerned about their well-being and want to help them accomplish their goals.

By providing workplace technology focused on not just meeting but exceeding the needs of your workforce, your organization proves its interest in making the lives of its employees easier. When you invest in your employees, they’ll invest in you and feel more loyal to the company. As an added bonus, providing employee-centric technology can make your business more attractive to high-quality talent who prefer employers that can give them cutting-edge solutions.

Employee-centric workplace technology lets your workforce know they have control of their development and decisions.It creates a more empowered workforce.

Intuitive, employee-centric workplace technology puts more power in the hands of the workforce. When employees can easily find information when they need it, they don’t have to waste time sending emails or IMs or wandering around the office trying to find the one colleague who can help resolve their issue. Instead, they can use technology to build their individual problem-solving skills and make data-driven decisions on their own. This, in turn, improves their confidence and self-reliance and encourages them to be more innovative in the way they address challenges.

Employee-centric technology enables team members to take control of their own learning and development, creating a workforce of happy, empowered employees.

It improves the rate of adoption.

No organization wants to invest considerable budget in technology that none of its employees use.

If your business takes the word of the IT department as gospel and simply implements the technologies they think the workforce needs, the rate of adoption will undoubtedly be low. But if you offer employee-centric workplace technology that is focused on giving members of the workforce the tools they believe are most beneficial for their productivity and ability to collaborate, you’ll see a much higher adoption rate.

Employee-centric workplace technology allows employees to build relationships with customers. It improves client retention.

The quality of solutions to which an employee has access directly affects the level of service they can provide customers.

Your employees can’t build long-term relationships with customers if slow, clunky technology prevents them from addressing concerns quickly or answering questions correctly. But when your employees have technology they know how to use (and actually enjoy using), they can better serve your customer base. And when that technology is cloud-based, they can do this from anywhere in the world.

It improves business outcomes.

As employees use the workspace and make decisions through employee-facing apps, it generates valuable data. This data can be funneled into facilities management solutions, sensors and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices that generate data points which feed back into operations in real time.

These data and analytics offer clear insights that allow workspace leaders to assess critical space utilization, service requests and employee needs to more effectively plan for the future workspace resources.

Outside the office, your employees choose software and apps that best solve their challenges and make their lives easier. Your organization’s workplace technology must have these same qualities or you risk an unhappy, unproductive workforce.

Looking for more tips on how to increase adoption of new workplace technology? Check out our free guide, The Workplace Leader’s Playbook for New Technology.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James McDonald

James McDonald is a sports enthusiast, brother in Christ and once swam in a tank with the infamous TV sharks.

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