Future digital workplaces will require employees to continuously learn new ‘literacies’, including new media, information and technical skills, to help their company thrive and spur personal growth.
Information technology (IT) research firm Gartner, thus, suggests that companies develop a digital workplace manifesto to provide employees with information on what would be expected of them in such a workplace.
Employee engagement and organisational culture are important elements in the competition for new talent. Prospective employees increasingly consider culture and engagement as important factors when choosing an employer, explains Gartner VP and distinguished analyst Matthew Cain.
“The manifesto must be aspirational in nature and should inspire employees to take action. It is complementary to other more formal documents, such as the digital workplace vision, the strategic plan, the execution strategy or various detailed project management-related planning documents.”
The manifesto provides a way of communicating the broad goals of IT in an organisation, of which many employees are largely unaware.
“The core idea behind the digital workplace – boosting employee engagement and agility through a more consumerised work environment – can be difficult to translate into tangible actions that are easily understood by the broader community,” notes Cain.
An example of a good digital workplace manifesto clause is that companies “endeavour to ‘work in public’, where projects, research and activities are available to anyone in the community or organisation to spur awareness, collaboration and, ultimately, innovation, while respecting personal privacy”.
A digital manifesto must create a sense of belonging and ownership through novel thinking and employee-chosen devices, applications and other services to facilitate personal and organisational agility and effectiveness, he adds.
The manifesto should be implemented in conjunction with existing workplace policies and with organisational change efforts for the digital workplace, which should include a common and consistent vision. A variety of communication media and approaches, including social media, should be employed and peer advocates should be used to translate the top-level vision into the specifics that will enable stakeholder groups to engage and take action.
“Companies should actively promote self-organisation and localised decision-making by employees to formulate and implement the digital workplace. Further, leaders must embrace and demonstrate digital workplace values.”