I have always been a true believer of the New way of Working (#NWOW) - the new workplace ecosystem where facilities, technology and a new style of people management fluidly blend and enable companies to do some curve jumping.
Time to say goodby to the cubicles
In our new ecosystem, you find smart workplace concepts that help employees to be more productive. The office becomes a hive... where you check in on a regular basis. But you are not expected to be there five days out of five. Cuts down already a fair percentage of the commuting time.
People are connected with the hive through smart technology like Unified Communications, collaboration platforms and mobile devices. Because technology is a fully integrated part of the smart workplace, employees become more mobile, flexible and connected. Just do a poll among your employees and you will find out that the majority will find this a very attractive proposition. And don't forget the bottom line savings you will be making: less square metres means a lower facilities cost and a lower energy bill. The overall cost of travel and commuting goes down too... physical attendance does come with a (social) cost.
The business case for the technology investments is pretty straightforward... a lost hour of productivity is lost forever. Facilitating collaboration through smart technology removes the waste in information-intensive processes. Ineffective IT systems come with a hidden cost... because employees cannot access databases or lose time in finding critical documents and accurate date. The typical office worker easily loses between 5 and 10 hours of productivity per week thanks to "bad" technology. Powerful search technologies and smart knowledge sharing platforms like wikis, microblogs, social networks, and advanced analytics will help to leverage the company's intelligence and tap the collective knowledge. Implementing Cloud-based solutions will enable a quick time-to-implement while you can keep the overall technology investments pretty low.
Smart workplace + Smart technology = Smart Work/Life(balance)
You have two powerful drivers for change in your left hand, now you will need the right hand to manage all cultural and social aspects too. In the end, this new way of working is about organisational change and people are THE critical element in this equation. On the other hand, you have a strong and supportive community of collaborators that will gladly assist you. I bet that most of the employees will happily embark upon this journey towards a new future. A future where work and life blend as a Service. A hive-like office where they can co-work and co-create with the colleagues when required and where your their becomes your second workplace. They can now walk their children to school and still be in time to start at 9 thirty - webcam up and running for the video call with the EMEA team based in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK.
The New way of work is not that difficult, all you need is an eye for design and some clever technology. Then start up the conversation with your employees and carefully manage the transition and upgrade towards the all new and improved version 2.0 of the firm.