7 ways DWG research will help fast track member digital workplaces in 2017

Digital Workplace Group is delighted to announce the topics for its upcoming member research programme for 2017.

For more than 10 years DWG’s expert research programme has been trusted by DWG members to deliver focused insights across both intranet and digital workplace good practice. In fact, 82% of members said that access to research and case studies is one of the best things about DWG membership!* The selection of topics is guided by a combination of DWG’s unique insight into the industry together with member priorities for the year ahead.

The range of topics this year spans digital workplace practices from strategies for content and mobile to achieving integration and gaining adoption. We’ll also focus in on the future of the workplace and what digital means for leaders. Together, these comprise some core areas of intranet and digital workplace practice, building on the current library of 65+ reports.

From time to time DWG also makes a report available publicly for free download.

Here are the seven topics we’ll be covering in 2017:

1. The future of the workplace

What will the digital experience of work look and feel like in 2025? What will be a typical “day in the life” of a digitally enabled worker?

This thought leadership report will take a holistic view of the future workplace and experience of work, focusing on the intersection between physical and digital workplaces. It will explore perspectives from a range of leaders, mapping out the key features of the future landscape of work as well as their implications for digital workplace practitioners now.

Related research:

• The Digital Renaissance of Work: Delivering digital workplaces fit for the future – download free chapters
• How Mature is your Digital Workplace? What leading organizations discover from the DWG Digital Workplace Maturity Benchmark – download free report

2. Knowledge management in the digital workplace

Knowledge management (KM) is alive and well and a key component of the evolving digital workplace. This research will provide practitioners with an understanding of the role of KM in the digital workplace, and enable them to gain key learnings from the field of KM that are relevant to their roles.

It will examine questions such as: What are the barriers to knowledge “flow” in the fragmented digital workplace? What is the potential for a major shift in knowledge worker productivity in the digital workplace? How and to what extent should KM and digital workplace strategies be aligned?

Related research:

• The Art of Collaboration: Optimizing online collaboration for success – download the executive summary
• Successful Social Intranets: Creating business value through strategic alignment and adoption planning – download the executive summary

3. Achieving digital workplace integration

Is a fully integrated digital experience of work an achievable goal or just a utopian dream? And, if achievable, is it desirable?

This research will build on DWG’s user experience research track to explore the integration challenge faced by most organizations embarking on a digital workplace programme of work. It will explore challenges and opportunities posed by the proliferation of tools and applications, increasing fragmentation, company provided vs. bring your own device (BYOD), company hosted vs. cloud, pressures from consumer technology, use of open APIs – and more.

Related research:

• Digital Workplace Governance: Key components for getting it right – download the executive summary
• Digital Workplace User Experience: Designing for a flexible workforce – download the executive summary

4. Adoption strategies for the digital workplace

DWG research relating to adoption is consistently popular among members, covering topics such as change management, organizational readiness, user-centred design and culture.

This paper will build on previous research to analyse what factors contribute to a successful adoption strategy and approach for digital workplace initiatives. It will provide practitioners with a “psychology 101” of key theories and frameworks for understanding how and why users do or don’t adopt new technologies.

Related research:

• Change Management for the Intranet and Digital Workplace: Bringing the organization with you – download the executive summary
• Is your Organization Ready for Digital Working? – download the executive summary
• Understanding the Relationship between Organizational Culture and the Digital Workplace – download the executive summary

5. Best practices for content strategy

This research will build on “Managing Intranet Content”, one of the top three most popular reports in the DWG research library, to re-examine the content strategy from a digital workplace perspective.

It will tap into industry good practice to address challenges such as aligning content platforms, dealing with multiple languages, achieving global–local balance, ensuring user needs help drive content, auditing and analytics – and more. The research will explore key practices for establishing an effective content strategy for the digital workplace.

Related research:

• Managing Intranet Content: A good practice guide – download the executive summary
• Digital Channel Matrix: Creating employee-focused internal communications – download the executive summary
• The Personalized Intranet: Using personalization and customization to optimize user experience – download the executive summary

6. Leadership in the digital workplace

Being digital workplace “savvy” is a critical component of 21st century leadership; and strong digital leadership is essential to digital workplace success.

This research will provide leaders with a comprehensive overview of what they need in order to:

• lead in the digital workplace – including skills, principles and leadership style
• lead the digital workplace – including understanding and evaluating the landscape and establishing the programme.

It will include leadership “spotlights” to highlight good practice, as well as self-assessment tools for leaders.

Related research:

• Becoming a Digital Workplace Leader: The big shift from intranet management – download the executive summary
• The Digital Renaissance of Work: Delivering digital workplaces fit for the future – download free chapter

7. Defining and implementing mobile strategy

Without a comprehensive mobile strategy, the potential of the digital workplace to enable an anywhere, anytime workplace is hampered by partial or tentative efforts at mobilization.

In 2016, 52% of DWG members said that the intranet is available on both company-provided and employee-owned devices, while 27% said it is available on company-provided devices only. Although many organizations are making progress with mobile, particularly in terms of empowering employees at the frontline, an opportunity exists to accelerate practice.

This research will explore approaches to delivering mobile services to the workforce.

Related research:

• Success with Enterprise Mobile: How tools for frontline employees drive value – download executive summary
• Enterprise Mobility: An intranet perspective.(Available only to DWG members via a secure extranet)

As always, the DWG team is incredibly excited to see the launch of the new programme. DWG’s Managing Director of Member Services and Strategic Partnerships, Nancy Goebel, says:  

“We are delighted to unveil our 2017 research programme to our members knowing that they see our evidence-based white papers as a trusted source for actionable insights and real-world examples that address most pressing challenges, deliver innovative thinking and help accelerate efforts.”

Also commenting on the programme, DWG’s Director of Research, Elizabeth

Marsh, says: “For me the DWG research programme is about helping to drive forward member practice, so it’s always an exciting moment when we announce the topics for the coming year. We’re continually building new knowledge around core areas of intranet and digital workplace practice, helping members with step-by-step guides, checklists, and examples of great practice – as well as pushing the boundaries in terms of thought leadership pieces.”

What members say about research

“It’s great to see intranet best practices from real-life examples. Also, DWG provides a lot of explanations to help support their recommendations. I’m constantly searching for tips and guidelines on the internet for ‘intranet best practices’, but what I find is that there’s no data to support those recommendations.”
Tiffani Crawle, Digital Reporting & Analytics Consultant at The Coca-Cola Company.

“Our default position is always to check the research library first and if there’s something relevant to what we’re doing there, we start with that.”
Matthew Beckett, Digital Specialist, Intranet at Schroders.

To join organizations like 3M, Adobe, BT, The Coca-Cola Company, IKEA, Scottish Government and Verizon, who are already benefiting from DWG research, contact Nancy Goebel, Managing Director, Member Services and Strategic Partnerships to learn more.

Research and Resources

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* DWG Annual Member Survey, 2016.