Leaders are going through a stage where their businesses are changing. They must decide on how they wish their future of work to look like. Specifically, what they want technology to achieve and whom they want to invest their time in.
There is one future where data will be the lone important thing and where data collection programs will solve every issue or activities with data will be automated. There is another, more emphatic future in which the preferences, requirements, and unique capabilities of individuals will be made more credible properly.
Leaders have to choose the second kind of future because the current situation fails businesses and their workers in the following ways.
- The deification of technology has caused the so-called ‘last mile problem’ to continue. In this situation, processes are stretched across a continually-growing number of isolated and limited (purpose-wise) applications, plus work settings cannot run end-to-end. This results in the kind of inefficiencies that cause businesses an estimated loss of around 20% to 30% in revenue yearly.
- The prioritization of technology to the point of worship has caused businesses to lose much of their happiness. Workers invest more hours in filling the gaps that technological limitations have made as compared to reaping the benefits of the functionality of it. Therefore, they feel more and more underutilized, detached, and disheartened at workplaces.
- The systems and processes made nowadays are far from being flexible because the applications that people rely on are not holistic with regard to scope. As a result of this, their processes usually work under certain conditions alone. When these conditions suddenly change, like due to disruption in the market that makes people work remotely, their processes cease to function.
Businesses are expecting to have a world where individuals are treated as the most significant resources. Workers should not be made to invest considerable time in finishing such intense clerical tasks that affect normal thought. Instead, they have to be authorized to perform the things they carry out in the best way, which means high-leverage activities they are employed for. Studies reveal that those who think they are well-supported feel happier and more encouraged.
Engaged workers, on the other hand, have a positive effect on the net profits of businesses. As per the research company named ‘Gallup,’ businesses reporting higher worker engagement are at a state of yielding 21% greater profits.
Similarly, people are the best resource available to leaders to confirm that their businesses stay agile. Workflows and processes that are important to a company’s functioning and that are built just on top of technology, exist and break down with the related tech. When applications start to fail, businesses go down. Anyhow, your company is adaptive when systems are strategized around what individuals require to prosper, and those systems are built to let them keep thriving, despite conditions changing. When workers must perform tasks from their residence, you should not worry in the event you account for this in your technology, business continuity plan, and operation-related strategies.
The fact is that tech alone cannot be the most useful resource for your business. Rather, you have to utilize technology to empower individuals who work in your business. They are more important than everything else, especially when they have the soft skills that cannot be replaced. Some of these skills are the capabilities to think when doing something else, problem-solve in an innovative way, and working together for progress. Individuals make growth easier to achieve, letting business leaders set their ethos and products/services apart from the competition in a meaningful way. Successful businesses have mostly acknowledged the role individuals play in this regard.
Then again, things will keep changing, so the future will be all about adapting to the changes and continuing to do what you have been best so far. You should not assume that you have a sufficiently stable foundation; instead, you have to make the best use of your resources to be adaptable.
There exists a way to achieve that with certainty. When designing your company infrastructure, you must not consider which technology solution you require to accomplish a particular result. Instead, you should think about the things your workers want to prosper.
