Digital transformation: Collaboration across the blended workforce

Damien Delard

January 25, 2018

当今的技术趋势——大数据, artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Internet of Things — are feeding into the fourth industrial revolution. Today, we are connected to unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge.

根据麦肯锡全球研究所的一份报告, robots and computers will see the elimination of routine labour. As automation increases, we might see exponential growth in products.

At the same time, traditional jobs are making way for hybrid roles. The current labour climate is shifting away from traditional employment toward temporary work arrangements.

根据人力部的一项调查, about 167,000 individuals in Singapore were engaged in freelance work as their primary job last year. 劳动力市场吃紧, companies have increasingly turned to hiring these freelancers to supplement their permanent staff.

这在工作场所创造了一种新的多样性. It is a diversity that is fundamentally different from the vertical, hierarchical structure most organisations have been running on.

Traditionally, keeping communications solely within the office walls worked. 有了这种新的多样性, however, employees – full-time and freelancers alike – are no longer confined to their office desks. Organisations must create a secure online environment to ensure smooth and secure collaborations between all employees.

合作的需要

Collaboration is more than connecting networks, people, processes, and knowledge. It is about engaging the diverse workforce and bringing employees, customers, 随时随地都能在一起.

它需要有计划的努力, is time-consuming, and can sometimes result in even more administrative chores. As organisations grow, 他们创造新的产品和服务, enter new regions, 进入新的火狐体育手机, 不可避免地变得更加复杂. 根据波士顿咨询集团的一份报告, “the index of complicatedness” has grown 600% over the past 60 years. 随着复杂性的增加, 员工花更多的时间寻找信息, 让他们几乎没有时间与团队合作.

组织也倾向于依赖大型企业, diverse teams of highly educated specialists in the face of challenging projects. 哈佛商业评论的研究, however, revealed an interesting paradox: the qualities required for success are the same that can undermine it. It found that “the greater the proportion of experts a team has, the more likely it is to disintegrate into non-productive conflict or stalemate”. 这些专家不太可能自由分享知识, learn from one another, 或者帮助别人完成工作，按时完成任务. 换句话说，他们不太可能合作.

另一种策略

Trust needs to be evident in all business relationships today. 没有信任，合作很快就会破裂. But, how does a full-time employee trust a stranger (in this case, a freelancer) to get the job done without risking jeopardy to oneself?

Here’s where online collaborative tools come in – most of which come with easy-to-use software so all you need is a secured network. Such tools have a variety of tracking capabilities that make it easy for members to track the evolution of the project on hand. 因为所有的东西都是在线记录的, team members can easily send their updates regardless of their location.

Collaboration technologies also cut time spent waiting for members to be available for discussion. 如果需要面对面的讨论, 预定的视频会议电话总是可用的.

文档可以上传到工具中, which allows team members to provide comments at their own time. 文档存储在一个地方, the need for back and forth emails with multiple versions of each document is erased.

Blending workforces

A diverse and collaborative culture is a powerful competitive advantage. A well-implemented, trained and supported high-performance team will better align outcomes around both their objective and company mission. The work environment and business leaders must help employees to work in flexible, 充满活力的团队，互相尊重地分享信息, decision-making, responsibility, learning, and recognition.

As technology advances, we expect more from the new wave of collaborative technologies. They must help shape how work is performed and enable teamwork that leads to better results, greater innovation, 以及更高的生产率.

当计划和执行技巧, the development of a blended workforce can make a company more creative, productive, and just plain better. Enterprises that take the time and effort to do it right discover the benefits of traditional employees and freelancers working together, and bask in an engaged, collaborative, 以及高效的劳动力. 

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