How many times has your company changed the work policy since the pandemic started almost two years ago? Many of us know that we need to come up with a sustainable work policy resilient to changes. To create such an environment, “digital workplace” is the keyword.

Borrowing the words from Hewlett Packard, “a digital workplace is a virtualized form of the traditional, in-person office environment, where many elements of collaboration and productivity are performed through some combination of digital applications, cloud computing, and other technology.”
https://www.hpe.com/us/en/what-is/digital-workplace.html

Many people consider a digital workplace as a way of working that utilizes software and apps for communication, project management, etc.

Even before the pandemic, when we were all in the office, companies benefited from the digital workplace. For example, some companies stopped using email as an internal communication method and switched to a business chat tool.

Due to the pandemic, we came to depend on the digital workplace more than ever and will be this way because we now realize the efficiency and the convenience of the digital workplace.

As we keep digitizing everything around our work process, we will need to connect the digital workplace and the physical workplace like actual offices and other workplaces.

In the time when many of us work from home, the digital workplace can be like floating in the air. Still, once we proceed to hybrid working, which involves a real and physical workplace, the cloud needs to be tied to some parts of the physical workplace to keep everyone connected no matter where they are working.

People tend to think a digital workplace is just what we need to connect us in a hybrid work environment. However, the linkage between digital and physical workplaces is becoming more critical in terms of connectivity, office design, collaboration, and employee engagement to minimize the friction between digital and physical work environments and maximize the use of each environment.

1. Connectivity — Digital workplace is all about connectivity. Now you should connect all the office tools, too.

The digital workplace’s value lies in its connectivity. Integrations among various software and services are the keys to creating a comfortable virtual workplace where everything is connected seamlessly.

According to Deloitte, “By integrating the technologies that employees use (from e-mail, instant messaging and enterprise social media tools to HR applications and virtual meeting tools), the digital workplace breaks down communication barriers, positioning you to transform the employee experience by fostering efficiency, innovation and growth.”
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/mx/Documents/human-capital/The_digital_workplace.pdf

All the benefits of the digital workplace are enabled by the integration of digital tools. Without the connectivity, we wouldn’t appreciate the digital tools much, because they would simply add more stuff to do, such as typing the same information again and again in different tools. Instead, thanks to the integration and connection among the digital tools, we should be able to invite clients to a web meeting from a calendar screen where you can generate the meeting URL and send an invitation email at the same time.

Now, imagine a day in the office. You go through the office gate using your ID, check where your team members are sitting by walking around the floor, and finally take your seat. You reserved a meeting room from a calendar, but the meeting room is occupied by somebody who didn’t reserve it, and you need to go find a new place to have a video call in. When your client arrives at the office, the reception staff walk around to look for you.

Every step in this story features independent tools that are not connected to each other. However, all these office systems could be connected and be smarter, just like the digital workplace.

For example, an employee ID badge could be replaced by facial recognition or a QR code on a smartphone app. You can check a coworker’s location or receive visitor notifications on the same smartphone app. And a meeting room device connected to a calendar will prevent double-booking.

All these miscellaneous tasks you encounter when working in the physical office could be integrated into the digital workplace.

2. Workplace design — The right combination of the digital and physical workplace improves productivity.

Your company decided to build the digital workplace for better productivity and communication. However, what if all the tools are not used in a proper way? Tools could just make things more complicated.

Here, I’d like to focus on the last one, “poor workplace design.” This report describes poor workplace design: “most companies have not yet revamped their workplaces to move on to an open workspace model. Which can significantly increase collaboration and spur innovation.” Even though this report was originally published in 2013, the same principle still exists now. If you want to design the digital workplace for productivity, the physical one should be designed for productivity, too.

To design both the digital and physical workplaces to improve productivity, consider they are connected. In-office digital tools need to be embedded in the digital workplace you always use.

For example, your office stopped assigned seating and adopted hot desking because not many people commute every day. Also, they reduced meeting rooms for groups and increased phone booths for web conferences. Now, you commute to the office twice a week, and you need to book your seat. You might forget to do so since you don’t have to do it when you work from home.

However, if checking in is a daily step you need to follow when you work, you check in at your home when you work remotely, and you check in at your desk when you work in the office. Meeting room management can be done in the same way, just like you reserve or check-in at your desk, you can book a meeting room. Place management in a hybrid workplace can be this simple.

3. Inclusiveness — An inclusive workplace promotes collaboration and employee engagement.

Some people worry about the unfairness that hybrid work could cause. There is a tendency that employees who go to the office more often could be heard and valued more, and those working remotely could miss out on the important change in the organization.

To make everyone count, knowing each one’s working style could be helpful. In Harvard Business Review’s article, “Making the Hybrid Workplace Fair,” they recommend managers to “create an accurate map of your team’s “hybridity configuration”: who is working where, and when.”
https://hbr.org/2021/02/making-the-hybrid-workplace-fair

If digital and physical workplaces are integrated, letting others know about your workplace of the day would be more simple. Your check-in information will be shared by clicking the check-in button on your web tool, scanning a QR code on a desk, or simply going through a gate with your employee ID.

Once you know who’s working where, it is easier to decide how to communicate with them. For example, you can talk to the team members who have checked in to the home office via voice chat, and, those who happen to be working in the office at the same time as you do, you can set up in-person meetings.

Connecting digital and physical workplaces to make the hybrid environment inclusive and comfortable is crucial for employee engagement and team building.

Now you have some ideas on connecting the digital workplace you elaborated on during the pandemic and the physical workplace where we go back to some extent. Let’s facilitate a comfortable, productive, and creative workplace for the new normal.