For most companies, the future of the workplace will be remote. As the pandemic heightened companies’ reliance on virtual office technology, both employers and employees began to reap the productivity and work-life balance benefits of working from home. Companies have been operating remotely for nearly two years, prompting them to hire top talent regardless of their location. This means the hybrid workspace will remain the dominant office structure going forward.
However, many workers are either limited by centralized technology imposed by companies or not given access to technology at all. And when these digital workplace tools are insufficient in such a tech-savvy business landscape, hybrid workers are frustrated by project delays and limited workplace agility. To combat these inefficiencies, companies will continue to embrace the future workspace, which is defined by the International Data Corporation (IDC), a technology consultancy, as a "connected, secure work environment, independent of place or time." This kind of decentralized technology can not only provide customizable digital workspaces, but it can also support companies' far-flung workforces — 24/7, no matter where they are.
No Turning Back
A Deloitte survey found that nearly 55% of companies expect at least half of their workforce to be remote in the future — more than twice the pre-pandemic number. IDC projects mobile workers will make up 60% of the workforce, thus increasing from 78.5 million in 2020 to 93.5 million by 2024.
The fundamental reason is that mobile and remote work, which were brought on or spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, simply … works. It boosts productivity, improves work-life balance, and gives companies access to a greater pool of talent. In fact, 83% of employers said the shift to remote work had been successful for their company, compared with 73% of those surveyed in June 2020, according to a PwC survey.
According to that same study, “companies that may have been slow to adopt technologies that support remote work — or to create clear rules and a secure structure around working from home — are playing catch-up.” As such, over 60% of executives expect to increase spending on virtual collaboration tools and manager training, which demonstrates the growing support of a decentralized workforce.
How Decentralized Technology Can Help
These days, hybrid and remote workers expect their employers to provide technology that makes their work more efficient and is specific to their roles. To accomplish that, they need to implement digital tools and mobile workstation apps that maximize productivity, collaboration, communication, and storage.
And decentralized technology is an efficient way to deliver those tools and empower the workforce. With decentralized tools and services, companies can offer their workers a customizable set of workplace applications, allowing virtual offices to function as well as physical ones. From onboarding to making project- or client-specific decisions, decentralized technology can help:
- Support your company goals. Centralization can limit the selection of technology a company offers its workers. With decentralized technology, a company can customize its technological toolkit to reach specific company goals — and vary the selection according to the needs of each department or role.
- Improve communication and collaboration. Communication tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams allow employees to engage in real-time collaboration. These tools can also integrate with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, digital content management platforms, and cloud-based file-sharing tools, thus streamlining information for each party involved in a project or transaction.
- Reduce IT costs and efforts. Decentralization also allows for end-user computing, which is software that allows non-programmers to create and build applications. This decreases the time and efforts of an IT team, who can make updates from a central server (rather than on each individualized device) and focus on more important areas like cybersecurity.
- Empower your employees. Instead of moving every decision through a company hierarchy, employees can be more agile and creative in their decision-making.
- Solve problems better — and faster. Instead of having projects, questions, and transactions held up by high-level stakeholders, decentralization encourages employees to solve problems faster, thus improving a company's bottom line.
Embracing Decentralization
By nature, decentralized technology isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. In order to ensure decentralization creates a productive remote workforce, leaders need to create a technological framework that benefits their company. "'Decentralized' should not mean 'out of control,'" says Mike Lloyd, Chief Technology Officer at RedSeal. "The old medieval castle model didn’t work, but this means there are more perimeters everywhere now. You need automation to keep up and verify you’re only allowing the right access."
Digital workspaces can be monitored and optimized to enhance risk management. This means embracing modern automation tools, such as robotics and AI-driven software and cloud management, allows leaders to both oversee these digital "perimeters" while simultaneously encouraging an autonomous workforce.
Seeking Better Employee Experiences
More than anything, in the shift to remote and hybrid work, a better employee experience is paramount. To enhance employee satisfaction and increase productivity, employers should be implementing the right technology for their specific workforce. And yet, a PwC study finds only 53% of employees feel their company is implementing technology that actually meets their needs. It's clear that leaders need to rely on their workforce to identify the digital tools and services essential to their productivity.
Managers, too, can use decentralized tools to motivate and connect with their direct reports. Leveraging tools that encourage one-on-one conversations can close gaps between manager and employee expectations, giving employees more confidence and support to complete their work.
The bottom line: hybrid and remote work are here to stay. From hiring and retaining employees to reaching company milestones, companies that provide their hybrid workers with decentralized digital tools will maintain their competitive advantage.