Technology has completely transformed businesses, customer relationships, and workforces. In today’s world, running a successful business assumes that you also manage a digital organization seamlessly.
But when you think about the culture of your organization, do your first thoughts go to digital? What kind of digital culture do you have? Is it moving your forward, or dragging you behind? Over a third[1] of key decision makers in companies agree that culture is a significant barrier to digital transformation, followed by lack of understanding of the latest digital trends.
SMBs that will survive the future recognize that a company’s digital culture IS their culture. Those that are able to erase the boundaries and accept the digital realities will be in a place to succeed. In fact, the SMB familiarity with digital transformation has doubled over the years, with just 33 percent[2] in 2017 to 57 percent in 2019. Purely digital companies have always had a slight advantage, but now they are way ahead of their competitors that relied on a co-located, physical culture.
CEOs of SMBs need to quickly make the shift to a digital culture in order to survive and thrive in the future. The companies that thrive over the next three years are those that can successfully make this change.
What is digital culture?
A digital culture within an organization works as a code of conduct that gives employees the directions on how to make judgment calls and decisions on the spot. Carefully embedding digital culture in your organization means every employee, regardless of their role or responsibilities, is aware of the impact that digital technologies can have on the sales, revenue and overall productivity.
Organizations with deeply embedded digital culture move relatively faster than traditional organizations, mainly because of their flatter hierarchy and seamless operations which helps speed up the entire decision making process.
An effective digital culture in organizations encourages employees to act appropriately and make decisions that can advance the company’s business goals.
While there is no universal strategy or standard to digital culture, it has five main defining elements.
External orientation
A digital culture encourages employees to look outward, instead of inward and engage with their customers in a more effective way. A great example of this is understanding the customer’s journey through the context of digital touchpoints. By putting themselves in the place of the customers, employees are able to better understand their needs and requirements.
Independent decision making
Instead of consistently receiving instructions from their managers about how to perform their work, a digital culture sets employees up to know what is required of them without the need for direct management. A digital workplace can be set up to give each person all the information they need to not only do their current task, but also be able to grab new tasks. This in turn gives employees more accountability and a sense of independence. It also helps speed up decision making within the company which directly leads to higher efficiency and productivity.
Less conversation, more action
A digital culture doesn’t just mean that everyone is constantly on chat all the time. Unstructured conversations are great for catching up and making a personal connection. However, they aren’t ideal for getting work done. A digital culture lets employees ignore conversations so that they can focus on the tasks in front of them and ask contextual questions when they get stuck.
Team collaboration over individual effort
It is only possible to see success through digital culture if the organization values collective work over individual efforts. This can only be possible by making sure internal company information is easily available across different departments, divisions, and units and creating a greater level of transparency.
How digital workplaces can help
To create a healthy digital culture in an organization, you need the right tools by your side and that starts with a digital workplace. By implementing a digital workplace, organizations have been able to see an increase of 43 percent[3] in revenue, 53 percent in employee engagement, and 67 percent in productivity.
Digital workplaces are now becoming the future of work as the platform gives employees the freedom to work from any location or device they want.
In simple terms, a digital workplace is the virtual replacement of the physical office space, but with lots of new advantages. Employees get access to the set of digital tools that they need to manage their work responsibilities. A digital workplace is the one place people know they can go to focus and get work done.
More importantly, a digital workplace provides all the core functions that team leaders need to guide their discussions, projects, and automated processes. This in turn saves time and improves productivity since employees no longer have to switch back and forth between different applications.
With a digital workplace, you are able to:
- Incorporate agile project management principles in your organization
- Automate repetitive processes
- Digitize business processes to create streamlined workflows
- Collaborate with other team members easily
Digital culture starts with a digital workplace
The good news is that it is possible for SMBs to improve the digital experience of their workforce while also improving employee engagement and productivity. To do that, they need to recognize and integrate the right digital tools to streamline their systems, processes, and capabilities, which starts with a digital workplace.
Kissflow is a digital workplace platform that makes it easier for employees to access all of their projects, tasks, workflows, and applications through a unified platform which increases productivity and saves time.
Ready to give it a try? Sign up for a trial to see how Kissflow can help your organization weave digital and culture in a more effective way.
