Fieldwork

How technology is strengthening today’s remote workforce

As the workplace becomes less of an office space, and more of a remote working space, technology becomes increasingly important. The right workspace technology helps create an experience for remote workers to be more engaged, productive, and demonstrate collective organizational resiliency.

ARTICLE | 2m read
April 10, 2020

Shifting from workplace to workspace technology

The best UX design is one that’s invisible to the user. In fact, Quartz research tells us there are three foundational technology attributes that users think of as table stakes in their ability to do their jobs. Now that workforces have become more distributed out of necessity than trend, these workspace attributes are musts:

  • Speed – the response time of the technology based on factors such as network or internet connectivity or even code efficiency of the technology
  • Reliability – real-time and consistent performance of the technology, even from the home office
  • Ease of use – the intuitiveness of the technology for more seamless adoption

Attaching sustainable value

Once these attributes are addressed, the aim will then be to associate sustainable value to the technology to maintain momentum, or even increase productivity, and build for future innovation and growth. Take the University of Sydney for example – with more than 14,000 students unable to travel to Australia due to global travel bans, the university turned to its technology partners to connect staff and students to the apps and data needed to continue their coursework from the safety of their residences. Now, remote education is possible for the university.

Leeds City Council is another example which acted over a period of just a few days to scale up and enable more than 10,000 employees to work from home. Now, from anywhere, council employees can securely support residents during times of need.

With new models of work environments like this in place, we must ask: How can we make remote employee engagement even better through remote technology? Or rather, how can remote feel less remote and use technology to help employees achieve work-life balance and digital wellness?

Quartz research points to the following as attributes that add the most value beyond speed, reliability and ease of use:

  • Ability to simplify routine tasks with automation
  • Better communication and collaboration
  • Simplifies and improves experience of carrying out common tasks

14K

of students were unable to travel to Australia due to global travel bans