The modern workplace is changing because of societal factors such as globalisation but also in response to new drivers around immediacy fostered by the internet and increased mobility. In this constantly evolving workplace, new trends such as mobility and remote working are emerging and becoming increasingly important. One recent survey found the number of people who say they’ve quit a job due to lack of flexibility has nearly doubled from 17% in 2014 to 32% in 2017. In such a context flexible communication and collaboration are crucial to establish and maintain relationships within an organisation but also to engage with customers.
The question is how do you deploy a true anytime, anywhere, any device communication?
Start with your company culture
Organisations tend to consist of a diverse set of people with different roles and communications methods and preferences. Problems can occur when communications are restricted or when teams don’t work together. Individuals or departments can become protective of their data and unwilling to share it with others — even those from the same organisation. This type of silo mentality can negatively affect efficiency and contribute to a toxic work culture.
To get to a truly collaborative workplace, it is important to establish a company culture that encourages the free flow of communications to reduce the chances of silos developing while providing a foundation for better customers relationships. The company culture also needs to extend to data systems access and exchange so that every member of staff has the appropriate company’s resources at their fingertips to carry out their respective duties quickly and efficiently.
Choose the right technology
Technology that supports your company culture and goals is vital when creating a workplace that that enables anywhere, anytime and any device communication. Whether you are office based, field-based or travelling, the technology must deliver easy and reliable access to communication. This means that your communication whether its phone calls, instant messaging, team collaboration, file sharing and conferencing are available on the device of your choice mobile phone, desktop, desk phone and centralised for a consistent experience.
Flexible is paramount. For example, an instant message conversation between two colleagues can be quickly expanded to include additional staff across any device and even voice conference with just a few clicks. Technology also needs to be flexible to the needs of the evolving business. Whether that’s through integration capabilities or the option to scale users – technology must be the enabler for transformative change and not a limitation.
Within such as a competitive business landscape, the importance of enabling a true anywhere, anytime and any device communication cannot be understated. Click To Tweet
Infuse communication in your business applications
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Integration between your communications system and key line of business applications can improve access to critical information leading to improved productivity for everyone, regardless of their location, roles and the applications they use.[/inlinetweet] By integrating your CRM with your telephony, for example, employees don’t have to juggle between systems and windows which leads to a more streamlined experience. Even seemingly simple feature as ‘click to call’ can dramatically improve productivity while removing room for mistakes.
This integration has been made easier by the adoption of cloud-based communication and platforms. Along with inherent cloud benefits around rapid deployment and scalability, cloud communication platforms tend to support a wider range of application programming interfaces and often have open software development environments which encourage more bespoke integration that allows even highly specialised applications to benefit from enhanced communication options.
Longer-term goals
Within such as a competitive business landscape, the importance of enabling a true anywhere, anytime and any device communication cannot be understated. Numerous studies have shown the benefits including a recent example by Mckinsey that found 70% percent of agile companies rank in the top quartile of organisational health. Other data suggest that all workers, especially millennials, prefer to work for organisations that offer remote working and use more agile communication methods such as instant messaging.
However, there is no single communication medium that is perfect for all situations. The key is to build a workplace where every person or team can use the right tools for the job while removing the hurdles and limitations that reduce productivity.
Originally published May 04, 2018, updated Jan 17, 2023
