Failure to invest in user experience will widen the recruitment gap

11 December 2012, New York & London.

Paul Miller, CEO and Founder of the Digital Workplace Group and author of “The Digital Workplace: How Technology is Liberating Work”, predicts companies that fail to invest in a good user experience in their digital work environment will fail to attract new employees.

In his annual forecast of the upcoming top ten digital workplace trends, Paul sees that organizations which have vibrant digital workplaces which enable staff to work how they want and from where they want will have the edge in recruiting talent from younger generations.

He sees this trend as part of a widening chasm between those organizations which choose to invest in their digital work infrastructure and those which don’t, creating significant competitive advantage for the former. This has the potential to cause “digital differentiation” which will “send shockwaves through corporate life and will be noticed by the stock market,” Paul predicts.

He also believes that where there is investment in digital working it will tend be channelled towards “tailored digital workplace projects” in specific areas which each individual organization regards as having value, such as field sales or call centres. The diversity of different projects will prove that there is no “one size fits all” strategy for the digital workplace.

Full details of Paul Miller’s ten digital workplace trends, including individual explanations for each trend, can be found at: https://digitalworkplacegroup.com/2012/12/digital-workplace-trends-for-2013/

Miller’s top ten digital workplace trends are published by the Digital Workplace Forum, a company within the Digital Workplace Group.

Paul Miller’s top ten digital workplace trends for 2013:

Trend 1 – Frontline retail environments will see digital workplace innovations that will transform staff and customer experiences.

Trend 2 – New recruits and younger demographics will demand (and receive) far richer digital experiences when they start work.

Trend 3 – Fears of “digital fragmentation” will produce a more harmonious balance between the physical workplace and digital workplace.

Trend 4 – Each organization will find its focus for digital workplace investment – such as field sales, call centres, remote engineers, distribution – and tailored programmes will accelerate.

Trend 5 – Work/life blurring will intensify through “anywhere, anytime” working as teams struggle to handle varying expectations of what is meant by a working day.

Trend 6 – The gap between companies building advanced digital workplaces and those playing “catch up” will extend, creating significant competitive advantage.

Trend 7 – Work will localize, being performed closer to where employees and contractors live – and new shared physical workplace formats will emerge in cities, towns and countryside.

Trend 8 – The digital workplace will become embedded into the bricks and motor workplaces with “smart buildings” offering enhanced technology for those who make the journey to work.

Trend 9 – Government policy will underpin digital workplace strategies due to the environmental and health benefits of the flexible working strand to the digital world of work innovations.

Trend 10 – Manufacturing, logistics and distribution will experience a wave of digital innovations that will automate and re-design factories and warehouses.

About Paul Miller

Paul Miller is the CEO and Founder of the Digital Workplace Group