For several weeks now numerous media outlets have been publishing articles related to remote work on topics from technology to etiquette to preventing feelings of isolation (virtual happy hour anyone?) But how ready are we for this “new normal”?
While many organizations today are providing digital workspaces for their employees, some are not meeting the requirement of a truly digitally transformed work environment. These workspaces that are not up to par are inflexible workspaces. Inflexible workspaces are unable to sufficiently deliver an ideal employee experience, protect what matters most to an organization’s security, and effectively measure the impact of a technology initiative relative to overall business success.
Government leaders recognize that modernizing the workforce and implementing strategies that empower workers are critical components in transforming the government. Strategic workforce management includes strengthening leadership of human capital systems, developing better human resources processes and capabilities, and enhancing the workforce culture.
For decades, technology advancements have changed the way we work, and organizations have adapted. In today’s fast-paced digital world, work transformation – the “future of work”- is a major disruptive force, and organizations are having a hard time keeping up.
In an earlier blog about the Future of Work, and in a recent IDC Perspective, we presented IDC’s view of the Future of Work and offered a framework that provides a way to approach and scope the organizational, policy, and technology changes required to leverage this opportunity in a holistic manner. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at the growing role of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, IPA, and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) in automating and augmenting the tasks and processes traditionally accomplished by human workers. We’ll also explore how organizations are planning to acquire the skills required to leverage the opportunities for automation and human-machine collaboration.
In the United States today, women account for 47% of the overall workforce, yet only 25% of IT workers are female according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The tech industry’s efforts to raise the inclusivity of women as employees have been sporadic and inconsistent over the last 50 years, though the issue has certainly gained more notoriety in recent years. Yet despite employers’ efforts to introduce numerous programs to help educate, hire and retain women in technology, women remain significantly underrepresented at all levels.
Customer Experience (CX) will have a greater influence over future purchase decisions, say 93% of tech buyers. CX improvement must become a top initiative for CMOs or marketing will be the proverbial canary in the coal mine – the first to be blamed if the pipeline erodes due to customers’ poor experience. The CMO’s conundrum? Marketing can’t do this alone. To succeed, companies must integrate into an adaptable, team-based, organization focused on customer success.
We can all acknowledge that the same technologies that are driving digital transformation within organizations are also rapidly transforming work as we know it. Much has been written in the mainstream media about the impact of the cloud, big data analytics, artificial intelligence and robotics on the future job market. But the story isn’t all doom and gloom. In a recent IDC survey, almost half of U.S. organizations surveyed (47%) thought that AI and robotics will have a positive impact on their organization’s jobs in the next 3 years.