Majority of digital workplace initiatives will fail till 2021: Gartner

A majority of digital workplace initiatives will fail to establish new ways of working till 2021, technology research firm Gartner said in a statement. Only a quarter of midsized and large organisations will be able to achieve 80% of their initiatives, it added.

According to Gartner, the new ways of working include distributed decision-making, virtual and remote work, and redesigned physical workspaces. It said that while these digital workplace initiatives are mostly possible through information technology, it alone cannot facilitate these.

“When initiatives are executed as a series of technology roll-outs, employee engagement and addressing the associated cultural change are left behind. Digital workplace success is impossible without such,” said Carol Rozwell, research vice-president at Gartner. 

Gartner said that organisations should have a leadership in place for coping with the shifting demands of digital businesses as well as to make the initiatives to establish a digital workplace. Such organisations will emerge as digital workplace leaders.

Gartner said that organisations that take time to invest in the employee experience will see a 10% improvement in worker engagement scores.

According to Gartner, digital workplace leaders should shift their thoughts and actions towards people-oriented designs, as they can inspire and engage a cross-disciplinary team to help strategise new ways of working.

This team should be drawn from information technology, facilities management, human resources and business stakeholders.

Success in establishing digital workplace programmes are less about technology and more about understanding what affects the employee experience and making necessary changes to the work environment, Gartner said, adding that business unit leaders were also important in establishing a digital workplace.

Rozwell said, “This is the person who identifies the desired business outcomes, develops the business case and establishes the measures by which success is determined. Without engaging business unit leaders, it will be impossible to successfully grapple with the scope of changes needed.”