By Ville Somppi

In brief…

• The transition from remote work to hybrid to return-to-work creates challenges as organizations struggle to attract and retain top talent.
• Focusing on tools that improve data or document management, workflow automation, and content collaboration promotes the growth of “digital dexterity.”
• Employees and organizations report that improvements in “digital dexterity” improve retention, employee satisfaction, and productivity.

In an evolving world of work-from-home vs. hybrid vs. return-to-office tensions, experts say promoting “digital dexterity” may be the key to attracting, recruiting, and retaining a more engaged, talented knowledge workforce through the use of digital tools, such as a document management system or collaboration platform.

A recent report published by Gartner® suggests:

“Improving organizational outcomes with technology and optimizing technology experiences is critical for long-term prosperity. The most successful and innovative digital workplace teams have shifted their operating goals from operational fitness to workforce transformation by promoting new and more effective ways of working. The focus is on creating a human-centric strategy to improve digital dexterity – where employees can easily see the benefits to themselves and their teams.”

Organizations that deploy optimized technology experiences—including intelligent information systems—are seeing measurable progress in areas such as employee wellness/happiness, learning/skills growth, retention, and productive organizational culture.

“This combination of personal and business digital acceleration led organizations to recognize that a digitally dexterous workforce – one that has the ambition and ability to use technology for better business outcomes – is an essential element for driving organizational prosperity moving forward,” as the report notes.

The Power of Digital Dexterity: Building a Skilled & Thriving Workforce

What is Digital Dexterity?

In a world where the personal work environment has shifted with changing global disruptions—from office to WFH to hybrid to office again—workers are becoming more stressed. Like a game of musical chairs, the “how” of getting work done keeps changing.

Over the last decade and even before the pandemic, experts began to recognize the concept of “digital employee experience” as technology replaced cubicles and physical conference rooms.

The report adds: “The digital employee experience is primarily managed by the digital workplace team which serves as the frontline for most employee/IT interactions. This team’s responsibilities include: device management, intranet governance, personal productivity and team collaboration applications, technology enablement strategies, and other support services.”

“Important emerging business practices highlighted in this research collection include promoting digital skills development in the hybrid workplace with the four pillars of digital dexterity: data, process, content, and collaboration.” The report further notes: “Organizations can use the digital workplace to not only promote workforce digital dexterity but also to drive personal and team growth, and support organizational goals around culture and community.”

4 Pillars of Digital Dexterity

Data

Upskilling employees is the key to realizing the value from investments in digital workplace tools. Application leaders responsible for the digital workplace must identify the key data skills needed to support new ways of working.

Process

Promoting social connections and collaborative relationships between colleagues across the organization helps employee engagement, retention, and productivity.

Content

So, what happens when an organization commits to the digital experience-focused pillars of data, process, content, and collaboration? According to the report:

• “80 percent of employees say improving their digital dexterity will positively impact their career advancement.”
• “91 percent of employees say that improving their digital dexterity improves their work effectiveness.”
• “90 percent of employees say that intuitive and effective technology has a positive impact on their overall job satisfaction.”

Collaboration

The digital employee experience is primarily managed by the digital workplace team which serves as the frontline for most employee/IT interactions. This team’s responsibilities include: device management, intranet governance, personal productivity and team collaboration applications, technology enablement strategies, and other support services.

M-Files: Your Partner in Building a Digitally Dexterous Workforce

M-Files offers an innovative way to promote digital dexterity for knowledge workers with an industry-leading, metadata-driven document management platform. By using the power of metadata (which is simply data about other data), M‑Files:

• Helps ensure everyone is working on the latest version of a document;
• Empowers workers to collaborate in real-time, ensuring that no work is duplicated;
• Focuses on “what” a file is, rather than “where” it is, creating a more intuitive way to search;
• Increases consistency of work and reduces errors by automating workflows;
• Reduces business risk by ensuring compliance.

To access the full Gartner report, “Transform the Digital Employee Experience with an Evolving Digital Workplace,” click here.

Ready to empower your workforce and unlock the benefits of digital dexterity? Schedule a free demo or start your free trial today!

Source: Gartner, Transform the Digital Employee Experience with an Evolving Digital Workplace, Matt Cain, Lane Severson, Tori Paulman, 14 October 2022.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Ville Somppi is the Vice President, Industry Solutions at M-Files. Ville is in charge of M-Files industry solutions, driving the cross-functional go-to-market execution. He brings more than 20 years of experience in new business creation for both product and services businesses across a wide range of industries from technology and management consulting to aviation, construction, and consumer electronics. Ville holds a master’s degree in software engineering from Tampere University of Technology