Analyst Insights for Trailblazing the Digital Workplace Landscape

Recently, I had the privilege of attending the 2023 Gartner Digital Workplace Summit in San Diego, where leading Gartner analysts shared their insights and predictions on the latest trends shaping the digital workplace landscape. When it comes to empowering employees, enhancing productivity, and fostering sustainable growth in the digital workplace, these are a few of the important messages that resonated with me during the event.

Digital dexterity for managers and employees

Gartner analyst Lane Stevenson predicted that organizations prioritizing digital dexterity enablement for both managers and employees will experience significant year-over-year revenue growth by 2027. Digital dexterity refers to the ability for employees to use and manipulate digital technologies effectively and efficiently. It involves understanding their proficiency to navigate digital interfaces, operate devices, and interact with digital tools and applications.

Leveraging employee productivity monitoring tools

According to Gartner analyst Tori Paulman, many employees are open to being tracked by productivity monitoring tools if there is a system in place that helps them improve their skills. Robust Digital Employee Experience (DEX) solutions, enable organizations to assess whether applications empower or frustrate employees. Understanding and enhancing the employee experience can have a positive impact on employee engagement, productivity and overall satisfaction.

Expanding the scope of DEX

Gartner analyst Dan Wilson asserted that DEX tool deployments focused solely on IT use cases will struggle to achieve sustainable ROI. It is crucial to consider non-IT use cases such as equitable experience and sustainability. DEX tools equipped with telemetry and sentiment analysis capabilities can identify digital friction experienced by individual employees or specific employee segments. This is particularly relevant for remote workers facing challenges like slow internet connectivity.

The intersection of sustainability and performance

During the conference, Gartner analysts emphasized the importance of evaluating DEX platforms based on their Green IT use cases. Autumn Stanish and Stuart Downes discussed the benefits of adopting a performance-driven refresh cycle for endpoint devices, rather than relying on calendar-based replacements.

DEX tools that monitor power consumption, optimize power-saving features, and encourage improved habits among employees lay the foundation for digital business leadership. However, the challenge lies in striking the right balance between sustainability and performance trade-offs. While extending the lifecycle of laptops reduces the annual total cost of ownership and carbon footprint, the number of performance risks for laptops increase. Examples include increased failure rates, compatibility issues with future OS and apps, insufficient hardware support for new workloads and more.

Create a strong digital workplace

The Gartner Digital Workplace Conference shed light on crucial aspects of today’s digital workplace strategy.

Prioritizing digital dexterity, leveraging employee productivity monitoring tools, expanding DEX beyond IT use cases, and embracing sustainability through Green IT initiatives are key considerations for organizations aiming to thrive in the digital age. By staying informed and implementing these insights, businesses can create a digital workplace that empowers employees, maximizes performance, and drives sustainable growth in the digital age.