Member Article

Connected by design: building the connected workforce

Perhaps one of the most exciting and relatively unexplored frontiers of the digital revolution is the new possibilities for workforce performance improvement through digital technology and it’s natural fit with human behaviour.

The place where bytes meet neurons.

Digital technologies have already changed the environment we are in, creating possibilities for real-time data analysis, global connectivity, 24/7 mobile access to information, enhanced communications and on-demand digital tools and apps. Our workforces are already connected and becoming more so on a day-by-day basis.

Our new, digitally enabled, tech rich workforces are like fertile gardens. We can design the layout, plant the right digital capabilities, cultivate the right behaviours and remove the legacy of dead wood. Alternatively, we can let the wind blow in whatever direction it will, and allow our workforce to be a digital wasteland - barren in parts and populated by unwanted weeds. Businesses should take a moment to consider whether their workforce is connected by design…. or by chance?

If they’re not sure, it might be useful to think about what an effectively connected workforce looks like. There are a number of features that are recognisable as inputs to the creation of the connected workforce. The big outcomes are:

1. The employee is able to access and use the right data, at the right time and location to make the best possible real-time decisions
2. The employer is able to generate valuable insight from analysing the data associated with the actions of their employees. This enables them to continually enhance the quality of MI, advice and support

In theory this creates a wonderful virtuous circle of learning between employee and employer, and the development of a very smart learning organisation.

Now that is either very exciting or very scary depending on your viewpoint.

Our work phones and tablets provide rich two-way sources of data, allowing employees to receive real time direction on their “next best action” and employers to receive real time insights into the behaviours of their employees under changing conditions. Taken to its relatively realistic conclusion, it will be possible for organisations to make and effectively action real-time course corrections based on changing external conditions.

This is a vision of the truly connected workforce and once we get past the Matrix/ Terminator/ Cybermen “machines have taken over” worries, we really need to sit down and think through how we build the workforce infrastructure, ethics and architecture that will enable our organisations to thrive in this fast approaching world. This is not science fiction – recent MIT/Capgemini research into digital transformation neatly illustrates that the “Digirati” (those companies that are leading the way on digital) are spending serious time and money to get this right. They are definitely not leaving employee connectivity to chance.

Now it’s never quite as simple in practice as it is in theory, and my experience to date says it is definitely worth breaking the concept of the connected workforce down a bit to have a look at the component parts, otherwise it may all seem a bit too sci-fi and unobtainable.

Here are a few of the key base building blocks that are in place in digitally smart organisations which are working towards creating a connected workforce:

• Employees have easy (often mobile) access to real-time decision support tools that are supported by effective data analytics
• These tools are supported by a digital infrastructure that allows employees across the business to have a shared view of the customer and the customer issues
• Employees have easy access to a wide range of communication channels that enhance their connectivity and accessibility to their colleagues – particularly those that support teaming and knowledge sharing
• Employees behaviours (particularly around learning and compliance) are influenced and modified by the use of “gamification” and other digital solutions, they are not left to chance
• Employees can access the services that support them in their roles such as Admin, Knowledge Management, Learning and Development and Performance Management tools across multiple channels (including mobile) on a 24/7 basis
• Management have the ability to monitor and assess the multi-layered People Risks that exist in the organisation using multiple data sources
• Where appropriate, non-front line employees, have the ability to choose the devices and tools that best enable them to do their jobs (Bring Your Own Device schemes etc)

Once these are in place, the prospect of a connected workforce is a real possibility with all the associated business benefits and ethical/behavioural conundrums. We will need to think hard about how we feel about being “controlled by the machines”. Are we ok with the fact that our decisions will be increasingly informed by an aggregation of everyone else’s decisions? Will I no longer be able to think independently? Inevitably the answer will be yes and no. Philosophical challenges aside, we need to recognise the digital genie is already out of the bottle and we need to respond effectively to this new digital world.

Three steps to a digital workforce

So what has to change? What have the smart CEOs and HRDs got to get to grips with in order to connect their workforces by design? According to what I am coming across with my clients, there are three areas that require action. To develop a connected workforce, organisations need to build a digital infrastructure, develop a digital aptitude and determine their digital appetite. This takes a lot of leadership and a good deal of vision. Let me try and unpick it a little.

Infrastructure

Firstly the organisation needs to build a digital infrastructure to support the connected workforce. This infrastructure needs to be able to do four things really well. It needs to be able to “sense” what employees need and require (digital senses). It needs to be able to collect and “interpret” employee related data (digital brain). It needs to be able to connect with and instruct the workforce on the next best action (digital spine) and it needs to be able to provide the employee with the digital tools and methods required to support them in the delivery of their tasks (digital limbs).

Aptitude

Secondly the organisation needs its leaders and workforce to take on new digital attitudes and skills (digital aptitude) to take full advantage of the digital infrastructure. As occasionally happens in sport, new enthusiasts can be accused of having “all the gear and no idea”. Having digital infrastructure without digital aptitude is just a bit embarrassing. It is really important that the CEO and HRD work on shifting the culture using behavioural psychology and digital gamification to shift old school behaviours and learn new skills. The connected workforce will require new digital skills (data analysis and basic programming etc). Recent research by O2 suggests 745,000 additional workers with digital skills will be needed before 2017. What an opportunity and what a challenge.

Appetite

And finally the organisation needs to determine its approach to digital risk management and governance (digital appetite). Digital appetite is a proxy for deciding on the level of risk, security requirements, transparency and external engagement the organisation is prepared to work with. It’s really important that the organisation is able to think through the controls required and to communicate them effectively to the organisation. Not everyone needs to see and share everything.

So to conclude, a properly connected workforce that underpins a real time learning organisation is no longer a pipe dream but a very real possibility.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rick Freeman .