Digital workplace environment benefits examples
April 2, 2013 at 8:10 am | Posted in benefit, best practice, digital workplace, research, value | 2 CommentsTags: benefit, best practice, digital workplace, research, value
This is the last in my series of posts showing examples of the savings organisations have made by shifting work to a digital workplace and new ways of working. It draws on my previous posts on how you need to plan your strategy, governance, and management of content, tools, and services for a digital workplace. This is essential to transform your intranet into a digital workplace. My previous posts in this series have covered productivity savings, reduced absenteeism, reduced staff turnover, and property costs savings.
I will be using examples from the Digital Workplace Group‘s report ‘What is the financial value of investing in digital working?‘ that show what organisations taking the right approach can achieve. This example covers how changing to new ways of working can improve your organisation’s green reputation and have a good impact on the environment.
How to reduce the environmental impact
Governments, organisations, and people are realising more what their impact on the environment can be. More importantly there are options we can take which can reduce the impact we have by changing our behaviour to work. Simply we can now bring our work to us more rather than have to travel to it. So, as well as striking a better work/life balance we can also reduce our impact on the environment by:
- not commuting to work
- video and conference calls with other people instead of every meeting being face to face
- less office space to be heated and lit
- when travelling is necessary, doing it outside of peak commuting hours if possible
- using collaboration tools that replicate what used to happen when people were in physical workplaces
What organisations can achieve
- Reducing environmental impact is a key factor of an organisation’s Corporate and Social Responsibilities commitments.
- If US employees with compatible jobs and a desire to work from home did so half the time, it is estimated the nation could cut its Persian Gulf imports by 47%. The greenhouse gas impact would be equivalent to taking the entire New York State workforce off the road. (Wow!)
- Reducing an organisation’s liability to environmental taxes and penalties by changing behaviour.
- Significant savings can be achieved through reduction in business travel. For example: Ernst & Young (£2.5m a year) and Cisco ($10.3m a year).
- Digital workplace technology has the potential significantly to reduce the negative environmental impact of organisations.
Examples
- During 2010, consolidation enabled Hewlett Packard to close 16 data centres and 447 computer labs and reduce floor space by around 12,000 square metres, while maintaining HP’s presence in all the world’s major regions and their ability to support customers worldwide. In turn, HP estimates that this consolidation avoided 260,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2) emissions.
- Through its award winning flexible working programme, in 2009/10 Ernst & Young avoided 6.8m air miles from using video-conferencing facilities. And in 2010/11, it achieved a 24% reduction in distance travelled by road per head, and a 15% reduction in CO2 emissions per head, compared with 2006/07. It also achieved a 5% reduction in distance travelled by rail and CO2e emissions per head in 2010/11 compared with 2006/07. Its flexible working strategy has been supported by a £650,000 initial investment while the potential annual direct cost savings from business travel avoidance is £2.5m.
- In its 2010 CSR report, Cisco makes an explicit link between using collaboration solutions internally (principally WebEx and telepresence) to host a staggering 19.3m hours of virtual meetings. This represents an annual saving of 47,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year and a general reduction of 12% of Cisco’s output in greenhouse gases since 2007.
- Capgemini’s carbon emissions have fallen by 12.6% since 2008 as a result of its TravelWell programme, which included providing technology alternatives to non-essential travel. It has also achieved WWF UK’s ‘One in Five Challenge’ (reducing business flights by 20% in five years). A founder sponsor of the challenge, Capgemini achieved this in the first year, reducing flights by 4,508.
I hope these posts have made you pause and think about how you can help your own organisation. You can contact me if you want more help.
There are more examples and details in ‘What is the financial value of investing in digital working.
Big property savings examples in digital workplace
March 25, 2013 at 8:17 am | Posted in benefit, best practice, digital workplace, mobile, research, strategy, value | 3 CommentsTags: benefit, best practice, digital workplace, research, value
This is the fourth in my series of posts showing examples of the savings organisations have made by shifting work to a digital workplace. It draws on my previous posts on how you need to plan your strategy, governance, and management of content, tools, and services for a digital workplace. This is essential to transform your intranet into a digital workplace. The previous posts covered productivity savings, reduced absenteeism, and lower staff turnover.
I will be using examples from the Digital Workplace Group‘s report ‘What is the financial value of investing in digital working?‘ that show what organisations taking the right approach can achieve. This example covers how less, better utilised, physical workspace can save large amounts of money and impact on your organisation’s financial bottom line.
How to make the savings
- Transform the physical workplace into a digital workplace where employees can take advantage of its benefits.
- Dedicated versus flexible workspace – do you need the same workspace every working day?
- Reduce the number of buildings you need if more people are working at home or away from their dedicated workspace more often.
- Increase occupancy rates by matching the workspace to the people who actually use it rather than have empty desks while people are working elsewhere.
- Lower your costs by accurately forecasting your physical workspace needs based on trends in digital working.
What can be achieved
- Traditional offices are expensive, inefficient, inflexible, and difficult to scale (particularly down).
- About 60% of a company’s desks are vacant at any time.
- The average business could save $2,500 to $5,000 a year in property and related costs for each half time teleworker.
- Savings from real estate reduction through new ways of working programmes are making the headlines globally: Cisco ($1.1bn), BT (£60m), Deloitte ($30m),
IBM ($450m), US Patent & Trademark Office ($19.8m), GlaxoSmithKline ($50m) and more. - Investment in the digital workplace is a prerequisite for enabling employees to work effectively while reducing office space.
Examples
- BT’s Agile Worker programme saves approximately £6,000 a year for every full-time homeworker at BT. In 2009, with 10,168 homeworker par ticipants, BT saved approximately £60m, largely based on reduced estate costs.
- On any given day, more than 115,000 IBM employees around the world work in a non-IBM office. 40% of the IBM workforce operates without a dedicated office space. The employee/desk ratio is currently 4:1, with plans to increase the ratio to 8:1 in field locations. IBM calculates that it saves $450m a year in reduced facility infrastructure and associated initiatives through agile working.
- By transforming its sales team from office based to mobile, YELL reduced its property costs by £1.5m ($2.5m) a year and drove efficiency through reduced downtime.
- Through its Global Workplace Initiative, HP has increased its office space utilisation from an average of less than 40% to nearly 80% in just three years. The ratio of employees to desks ranges from 2:1 to 20:1 and varies by job, location, and other factors.
There are more examples and details in ‘What is the financial value of investing in digital working. My next post will cover the environmental benefits.
Great examples of digital workplace savings:absenteeism
March 13, 2013 at 10:20 am | Posted in benefit, digital workplace, engagement, research, value | 6 CommentsTags: benefit, digital workplace, engagement, research, value
This is the second in my series of posts showing examples of the benefits and savings organisations have gained by shifting work to a digital workplace. It draws on my previous posts on how you need to plan your strategy, governance, and management of content, tools, and services for a digital workplace. This is essential when transforming your intranet into a digital workplace. The first post ‘Great examples of Digital Workplace productivity savings‘ covered productivity.
I will be using examples from the Digital Workplace Group‘s report ‘What is the financial value of investing in digital working?‘ that show what can be achieved if your organisation can take the right approach. My second example is how reduced absenteeism can lead to savings in your time working and show on your organisation’s financial bottom line.
How to make the savings
I posted on how to encourage people to be more engaged with their organisation:
- Policies that encourage you to move to a digital workplace
- Recognise and reward the right behaviours that make a DW succeed
- Working styles that encourage productive and effective working
What can be achieved
- Studies indicate significant costs to employers from absenteeism. For example, average direct and indirect costs of all categories of absence are estimated at about 35% of payroll.
- The value of reduced absenteeism from half-time telework is estimated at an annual $1,900 per teleworker.
- Improvement in overall work-life balance, and reduction of stress, are key factors in reducing absenteeism enabled by new ways of working.
- The digital workplace produces significant and sustained reductions in absenteeism and the direct and related financial gains from this are dramatic.
Examples
- A study showed 63% of BT homeworkers take fewer sick days than office-based people
- And 74% of BT homeworkers have a “good” or “very good” work-life balance
- Surveys showed 4% of US people have called in sick to work because they couldn’t face their journey to work
- US Dept. of Labour estimated 3% to 5% of the workforce was absent on any day in 2010. So, any slight improvement means large sums of money saves.
There are more examples and details in ‘What is the financial value of investing in digital working. My next post will cover declines in staff turnover.
Great examples of Digital Workplace productivity savings
February 27, 2013 at 9:24 am | Posted in benefit, best practice, digital workplace, engagement, intranet, research, value | 8 CommentsTags: benefit, best practice, digital workplace, engagement, money, research, value
This is the first in a series of posts showing examples of the benefits and savings organisations have gained by shifting work to a digital workplace. It draws on my previous posts on how you need to plan your strategy, governance, and management of content, tools, and services for a digital workplace. This is essential when transforming your intranet into a digital workplace.
I will be using examples from the Digital Workplace Group’s report ‘What is the financial value of investing in digital working?‘ that show what can be achieved if your organisation can take the right approach. My first example is how improved productivity can lead to huge savings in your time working and show on your organisation’s financial bottom line.
How to make the savings
I have posted on what you need to do to make productivity savings:
- Usability: clearly labelled content that’s easy to find
- IT capability: right tools to make best use of digital workplace
- Security: confidence in privacy of sensitive content
- Involvement: contribute to plans, make your needs known
What can be achieved
Organisations that have implemented these successfully have found:
- Improved productivity is the benefit that will have the most impact with senior management
- Work that happens in traditional offices is often inefficient
- Employee engagement is stronger with flexible working
- Engaged employees work harder and better
- Increased productivity through people working half the week from home
- Flexible work programmes improve productivity
- Investment is needed to increase productivity through new ways of working programmes
Examples
- BT now has 15,000 homeworkers out of 92,000 people who are 20% more productive (I know! I have been a homeworker for many years)
- Microsoft improved productivity by 28 minutes per person per day ($86m) through use of unified communications technology
- UPS homeworkers increased productivity by 17% and job satisfaction by 86%
There are more examples and details in ‘What is the financial value of investing in digital working‘. My next post in this series will cover declines in absenteeism.
My 2013 ‘fabulous five’ predictions
December 17, 2012 at 9:23 am | Posted in career, collaboration, communication, digital workplace, engagement, governance, intranet, SharePoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, value | 3 CommentsTags: career path, collaboration, communication, digital workplace, engagement, governance, intranet, sharepoint 2010, social media, standards, strategy, value
Several people have asked me what my predictions are for 2013 for intranets and digital workplaces. I couldn’t resist the temptation to give my view from more of a practitioner’s perspective than maybe others have done. So as that legend in his own lunchtime, Tony Blackburn on Pick of the Pops (c’mon you’re not that young to not know him in the UK at least! 
) says “Ok pop pickers, here is the fabulous five!”.
1. Not just a flexi fortnight
In 2012 we had the fantastic experience of the London Olympics and Paralympics. Many blue chip and dyed in the wool organisations with office workers in London had a big shock and had to wrench their employment practices quickly into the 21st century by letting people work away from the office at home or other more local places. People were trusted to work as normal for each of these games events. Amazingly it all went smoothly with many organisations realising here was a quick way of helping to save costs with pressure on their business performance.
I predict many ‘flexi fortnight’ organisations will invest heavily in making the digital workplace permanent in 2013 and help change many people’s work/life balance for the better as well as improve overall business performance. They will need help though!
2. SharePoint will be ‘good enough’
SharePoint 2010 and increasingly 2013 will continue to be the major technology deployed by large organisations transforming their intranets into digital workplaces. Why? Well, there are not many alternatives to choose from now or likely during 2013. Organisations may not choose it for the right reasons ‘herding sheep’ is sometime the image that comes to my mind. Where the real challenge will be is the perennial areas of strategy and governance.
I predict many organisations will need help unpicking poor decisions taken without the full knowledge of what SharePoint is capable of. We know that it can be capable of many good things if in the right hands – then again the opposite happens too.
3. ‘Social media’ a threat to internal comms?
And the problem is partly the term ‘social media’ which is misleading in my humble opinion. I always use terms which are more practical and relevant when talking with clients. The same should apply for intranet/digital workplace practitioners when talking to their internal partners and customers. So we’re helping people to find other people with similar interests to help solve a problem quicker, easier and maybe cheaper rather than ‘knowledge management’ and improving communications by people showing how much they value it by sharing, liking, rating, and commenting on it rather introducing ‘Facebook’ or ‘social media’.
I predict internal communications will ‘get it’ and see this as a big opportunity to gain better employee engagement. Use the right terms and examples to get a better understanding of what it’s all about.
4. Security and compliance taken more seriously
We have seen several high-profile examples of organisations with previously strong reputations and brands suffer severe setbacks because of insecure processes and training and not complying with regulations and legal requirements. It really is time that organisations looked at ALL the legal and regulation requirements as a joined up picture for what is needed in a digital workplace. There has always been a risk that sensitive information can be mislaid since the written word many centuries ago so it’s not a new problem.
I predict organisations will ensure their digital workplace governance and processes are robust using software and education to make sure the right behaviour is encouraged to minimise risks of sensitive and commercial information being found by the ‘wrong’ people.
5. Intranet practitioners become INTRANET or DIGITAL WORKPLACE PRACTITIONERS
Yes, it’s my shorthand method of saying the profile for practitioners will grow in 2013. I do believe as intranets transform into digital workplaces, organisations are realising the value they give them. I also believe your profile will increase as you engage with more senior managers over wider areas that are relevant to a digital workplace than just to intranets. I sincerely hope the value you provide in your role will be recognised and rewarded.
I predict 2013 is the year when many intranet practitioners will find by the end of it their career on a much stronger path with many people showing more interested in wanting to be part of this journey and more willing to help you.
Whatever happens in 2013 I hope you achieve your ambitions!
How to create a Digital Workplace strategy
December 4, 2012 at 11:57 am | Posted in digital workplace, intranet, strategy, value | 8 CommentsTags: digital workplace, strategy, value
Recently I talked at Intranett 2012 about how your organisation can transform its intranet into digital workplace to save costs and reduce unproductive time and workspace. I define the digital workplace as “Work is what you do, not a place you go to”.
The intranet is a key ingredient in an evolving world of work and technology called the digital workplace. If you are working from a cafe on a smartphone, accessing IM, sales data or online expenses forms, you are in the digital workplace. I want to cover in my next few posts how you can help make this happen starting with how you create a strategy for your digital workplace.
Vital to align your digital workplace strategy
Your digital workplace strategy must align with your organisation’s strategy. There is no point moving in one direction if your organisation is planning to go in a different direction. You need to be clear what your organisation’s strategy is and make sure your strategy shows how it will help to achieve it.
Digital workplace strategy is wider than intranet
A digital workplace strategy will usually be wider than your intranet strategy. It’s more than the traditional role for information published online. It will also cover the online user experience where you will be working e.g. while mobile, at home, in cafes; how you will be working e.g. using laptops, smartphones, and maybe personal and/or public PCs; what you need to do your work e.g. completing tasks, sharing knowledge.
Plan for the short, medium, and long-term
Your plans need to cover the short-term (0 – 3 months), medium term (3 – 12 months), and long-term (over 1 year). You need to prioritise your action plan to give the biggest benefit to your organisation based on best positive impact on people; most savings for your organisation; quickest to implement; and cheapest to do.
Who will have the biggest influence
You need to identify the senior managers, your stakeholders, who will have the biggest influence on your strategy. You need to build and maintain good relationships with them for your strategy to a) be implemented and b) have the best chance of succeeding. Typically they will represent Finance, CIO, HR and most importantly, your business units.
Identify who will be affected the most
You need to identify who will be most affected by your strategy. You also need to maintain good relationships with them for your strategy to a) be implemented and b) have the greatest chance of succeeding and make sure they are clear what to expect and understand how they will be affected. Typically they will be from your business units most influenced by the digital workplace.
Please contact me if you need my help or leave a comment on this post. In my next post I will cover the governance needed in a digital workplace.
Tips to help you achieve a Digital Workplace
November 27, 2012 at 9:39 am | Posted in benefit, digital workplace, intranet, strategy, value | 3 CommentsTags: benefit, digital workplace, money, plan, strategy, value
When you are proposing a Digital Workplace to your organisation you need to decide how to present this to your senior managers as well as what the benefits will be. Here are a few tips I have found have helped me and my clients to succeed:
1. Don’t use any technical terms
Find out who you will be presenting, meeting, or discussing your proposal with. Use the language that your audience understands best. Don’t use technology terms or abbreviations.
2. Really understand what your organisation needs
What is the overall strategy for your organisation? What are the key priorities? How can a digital workplace support them?
3. Find a quick win
Try to identify something within your control, needs little time or money to achieve, but will make your senior managers look up and take notice because of the difference it will make when achieved.
4. Find something which will have a big impact
Maybe a difficult and inefficient process? Maybe an activity that can make a big saving in money? Maybe something which affects everyone? It has to make a difference that will get everyone’s attention.
5. Show slides with before and after scenarios
You need to make sure you explain clearly with examples of what is happening now and how it will change afterwards. Your examples need to show money saved, time saved, extra revenue, better productivity, etc. They can be shown words or graphic but they must be clear and easily understood.
6. Be honest about timescales
Senior managers quickly get turned off from a project if the reality is different to the expectation you have set. Make sure you can justify what you are showing.
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