About the digital transformation in the world of work
It is not only changing our private lives, but increasingly our professional lives as well: digitalization. How digital does a company have to be today? What does that mean for employees?
In response to rapid developments and changing customer needs, companies and employees today must demonstrate a high degree of digital business agility (DBA). This refers to the flexibility to react appropriately to digital opportunities as well as threats. Otherwise, companies are in danger of being squeezed out of the market by newly founded companies that take advantage of digitalization.
Companies still have a lot of work to do
As part of a study on the transformation of the workforce in the digital age, the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, an initiative of IMD and Cisco, surveyed a total of 941 executives. It found that less than ten percent of companies worldwide are managing their own people in terms of the three basic competencies for Digital Business Agility, namely. Hyperawareness, Informed Decision Making and Fast Executionwould rate as excellent. While hyperawareness means being able to integrate unique employee insights into new business processes by means of new technologies and possibilities, informed decision making means that every informed employee can become the voice of the company. This is because successful innovations are created by integrating a wide variety of perspectives, skills and know-how into business processes. Fast Execution ultimately describes ensuring that qualified personnel are equipped with the necessary skills, experience and perspectives to be able to implement decisions quickly.
New technologies alone are not enough
While many companies are increasingly adapting their business processes to digitalization, they often rely exclusively on the introduction of new IT technologies to drive innovation processes. The potential of the company's own staff is often neglected in the digitization process. This is a cause for concern. Companies that have demonstrated higher digital business agility in their staff over the last five years have recorded three times better financial performance compared to companies without DBA.
"Workforce Digitization" as a basic prerequisite
So once again, a major key to success is the staff. Employees today should find themselves in a working environment in which they can deal flexibly with digital opportunities and threats. Furthermore, the changing expectations of customers with regard to communication, services and product offerings represent a significant challenge. In order to do justice to all of this and to be able to keep up internationally, employees must become more digital. The prerequisite for this is an innovative and modern work environment that connects people, business processes and technologies thanks to advanced tools. "Among other things, workforce digitization should enable employees to work flexibly and from any location. Access to all necessary IT resources, business applications, documents and data must be guaranteed at all times - regardless of whether an employee is in the office, on site with a customer or in a home office.
Traditional office concepts are dissolving
According to a study by the consulting firm Deloitte, 28 percent of Swiss people already work from home at least half a day a week. And the trend is rising. Modern workplace design and the use of digital technologies are already widespread in Swiss companies. Traditional office concepts are increasingly dissolving, and shared desks and co-working spaces are on the rise. This is already becoming apparent in Switzerland, as is the fact that workforce digitization can make a significant contribution to increasing the efficiency and added value of products and services. And yet, although Swiss companies are innovative and competitive, they would have to roll up their sleeves if they were to take on a pioneering role in digitalization on an international scale. So far, no company has made it big in Switzerland's digital economy. One of the reasons for this is probably the very security-sensitive Swiss culture. No one wants to take big business risks in this country. However, thinking "bigger" could make perfect sense with regard to the professional world of the future.
