Winner of Digital Workplace of the Year 2022 – Fidelity Investments

DWG is pleased to announce that the 2022 winner of Digital Workplace of the Year is Fidelity Investments, as revealed by DWG Director of Research, Elizabeth Marsh, during a special live awards event on September 6. 

Now in their sixth year, the awards are produced by DWG and celebrate organizations and practitioners that have excelled in creating well-executed, high-performing digital workplace environments. 

Winners of the Digital Workplace of the Year award excel across the board, with ambitious strategies, robust governance, features that delight, deep engagement with users, and business outcomes that impress. The bar has been set high by winners over the last five years (as you can see in our free report Celebrating the best digital workplaces: 5-year trends from DWG’s awards). Following the deliberations of our panel of independent judges, this year Fidelity Investments lifted the main award for its ongoing delivery of an associate-centric digital workplace ecosystem. 

Commenting on the award in the DW Live special awards episode, Elizabeth Marsh said: “Fidelity Investments is a worthy winner of Digital Workplace of the Year 2022. The team impressed the judges with their relentless focus on delivering an integrated digital workplace experience for associates that also aligns closely with organizational objectives. With category award wins in 2020 for Strategic Vision and 2021 for Associate Experience, Fidelity Investments exemplifies how an organization can progress up the curve of digital workplace maturity to achieve a winning result. This is a digital workplace delivered by a team that loves to learn and continually raises the bar for itself in what it delivers.” 

Setting up for a winning digital workplace

Articulating an ambitious vision for the digital workplace, supported by a strong ‘Why’ statement, sets a foundation for a successful programme. Fidelity Investments ticks both of these boxes, with a detailed and well thought-out digital workplace strategy that is focused on associate experience while also demonstrating a strong tie-in to the wider enterprise strategy.  

A layered operational model featuring business partners and a strong governance framework guides prioritization and informs the digital workplace squad’s strategic objectives, while continuously reflecting employee needs. 

One area where impressive achievements have been accomplished by the team is in the mobile space where they are unlocking new capabilities for associates, while also driving adoption of enterprise programmes. 

Creating an associate-centric ecosystem

The associate focus of the vision is evident right through the team’s working practices and processes. The judges really felt that this is an exceptional example of how to engage employees throughout the digital workplace lifecycle.  

The team at Fidelity Investments take a research-driven approach, with clear stages for capturing and quantifying user problems, identifying solutions that users love, and measuring and optimizing the experience over time. 

Associates are also supported to make the most of the digital workplace ecosystem through a network of ‘Digital Heroes’, who provide coaching and support. A digital literacy/user adoption programme includes weekly ‘DW Learning Days’ that enable associates to build their digital work skills and explore new topics and capabilities. 

Orienting towards the future

A hallmark of Digital Workplace of the Year winners is that, as well as being deeply engaged with employees’ current digital workplace needs, they also have an eye to the future and what that experience might look like tomorrow.  

Fidelity Investments is no exception. One example of this is in the hybrid working ‘test and learns’ the digital workplace team is running to understand needs across digital and physical workplaces. Another is the Emerging Technology Council it organizes to bring together a range of stakeholders from across the organization to share knowledge and collectively explore technologies such as VR, digital sales rooms and AV solutions for hybrid B2B meetings. 

The judges were impressed with the proactive, dynamic approach from a future-oriented team that is very focused on continual learning. As one of the panel commented: “I like the forward-thinking focus this team has and how their business case isn’t just looking at the ‘Why do we need this now?’ but also ‘What do we need in the future?’ and ‘What are the possibilities?’.” 

Toby Spear from Fidelity Investments commented on what it meant for the Fidelity team to win the award: “It’s an amazing honor for our organization to be named the 2022 Digital Workplace of the Year by our partners at Digital Workplace Group. Looking back at our journey over the past 2.5 years, I couldn’t be prouder of our team, our company, and the industry as a whole. This award is recognition of Fidelity’s commitment to investing in our associates’ experience so that we can be happier and more effective for our customers.” 

The Digital Workplace of the Year Awards, produced by DWG, celebrate those organizations and practitioners who have excelled at creating well-executed, high-performing digital workplace environments. 

The awards provide the perfect opportunity for you and your organization to share your digital workplace achievements with peers and to gain global, industry recognition! 

The entry and judgement criteria for these awards are underpinned by the collective knowledge and experience of DWG research, benchmarking and expertise plus extensive industry insights. Nominations for the 2023 Awards will open early 2023, watch out on our website for more details. 

Read these blogs to help you enter: 

• 6 reasons why entering the Digital Workplace of the Year Awards could benefit you and your organization 
• Digital Workplace Awards Hall of Fame 
• 6 pieces of advice for entering the Awards 

Categorised in: Digital Workplace of the Year Awards