With these 5 Digital Workplace Trends for 2021, you’ll win the race for the Digital Transformation Grand Prize!
For many SMEs, 2020 was a catalyst for their digital transformation. Now the new year is upon us, and you shouldn’t rest on your laurels from the first round. Because when it comes to digital transformation, one trend is chasing the next. To make sure you don’t get left behind by the new year’s innovations, we’re making a quick pit stop and presenting the top 5 digital workplace trends of the coming year that you can use to upgrade your company just in time for the starting gun to 2021.
1. NO LONGER A SECRET TIP: TOOLS FOR REMOTE WORKING IN THE HOME OFFICE
Surely your company is well equipped with video conferencing tools and other equipment that enables and facilitates working in the home office. Smooth, contactless internal communication is thus ensured – the important thing now is not to neglect customer communication.
In line with the trend of recent years, dialog via social media will continue to increase in 2021. And when it comes to dialog: tune your website with a chatbot (also possible with integration in Microsoft Teams). The next trend in 2021 will be virtual assistance for website visitors through artificial intelligence, up to the possibility of making the website findable and readable via Siri or Alexa. Voice-as-UI is the name of this trend, which you should definitely keep an eye on.
Also interesting for the topic of Digital Workplace is the trend towards public cloud adoption (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) and the use of a hybrid and multi-cloud, away from costly “legacy” on-premise solutions. Here we can provide you with competent advice and support with our Managed Workplace Service.
2. DRIVING WITH FORESIGHT: TUNE UP YOUR CYBER SECURITY
“Better safe than sorry” is especially true in the digital workplace! Be sure to upgrade your security precautions for the home office, because the trend par excellence in 2021 is called: cyber security! Clear rules, educated employees (for example through awareness training) and intelligent solutions from the cloud are indispensable in 2021. Such solutions include, for example, behavior-based detection of security incidents and 7×24 monitoring and response by (external) cyber security experts.
3. A GOOD ENGINE ALONE DOES NOT WIN A RACE
As in all races, the Grand Prix of Digital Transformation is about the perfect interplay between a powerful engine (in the company, the employees) and a good driver (executive management and leadership model). The trend in 2021 is clearly towards agile working and leadership models and OKR, as we already presented in a blog post in May 2020. With Ralph Keller, we also have a proven expert for the “digital transformation inwards” at Dinotronic.
4. HIGH TEMPO IS THE TREND IN 2021
A major topic in 2021 will be the global expansion of the 5G network. Agile, modern SMEs can definitely look forward to this because high-speed mobile Internet also simplifies flexible remote working in the home office and on the road. Another trend fits in perfectly with this: ACPC, always connected PC, with its own portable Internet access and full connectivity via 5G/LTE. Limitless work at limitless speed.
5. MOST IMPORTANT TREND 2021: MENTAL HEALTH IN THE DIGITAL WORKPLACE
But with the limitless possibilities, one thing must not be forgotten: The boundary between work and private life. In 2021, there will definitely be more focus on mental health and wellbeing of employees. Due to the long-term physical separation from colleagues and the gradual disappearance of the boundaries between the workplace and private space, this topic is coming to the fore more than ever. In order not to lose team cohesion, you should focus on teambuilding remotely in 2021, because in fact such a race is more like a relay race than an individual fight. Team spirit and good communication ensure that the handover of baton at the interfaces between employees also functions smoothly in the Digital Workplace and in the home office.
With our Top 5 Digital Workplace Trends 2021, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running for digital transformation. We will be happy to support you as a coach and consultant during the conversion and upgrade and get you ready for 2021 – feel free to contact us!
