Magnetic Thought Report: Empowering the distributed workforce

The world we’re shaping tomorrow through the trends emerging today. Continuing our series on the big topics on leaders’ minds, next in our series of articles we are chatting about empowering the distributed workforce. If you missed our series, catch up with Trend #1 Green by Design, Trend #2 New Digital Worlds, and Trend #3 Tech and Touch.

The digital transformation continues. What was once an emergency response to a global crisis has, four years later, turned into a permanent transformation. A lot has been said since March 2020 about not knowing what the long-term effects of prolonged home working would be, both personally and for businesses. Now we do know.

There are positives and negatives, and it varies between every person and every business.

Which is why hybrid working, in varying degrees, is here to stay — despite all the recent, dramatic RTO (return to office) headlines. This year, some major companies including Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock have issued RTO mandates. However, most appear to be for three or four days a week; not many are for five. A survey in August of 1,000 managers and execs found that 90% of those with office space expect to RTO by the end of 2024 — but only 19% said it will be five days a week.

This radical global shift has been enabled by the huge digital transformation that kept our businesses operating. In 2019, half of employees were using cloud-based technologies, storage, video meetings and messaging tools. By 2021, this was 80%. Digital collaboration tools had become not just the norm but essential to be able to work and be productive. Empowering the distributed workforce

We’ve come a long way since then and you might think we’d have settled to a new status quo. But we haven’t.

This year, Microsoft surveyed 2,700 employees and 1,800 business leaders in the UK, US and Japan, across finance, IT, marketing, sales, supply chain and customer service. It discovered that the digital transformation is not over: 87% of employees say it’s even more important now.

People want better digital tools that help them collaborate and automate and that can be customised; 84% want tools that help them be more agile; 86% want information to be more accessible across the organisation; almost 9 out of 10 want simpler ways to automate daily tasks so that they can focus on the work that matters.

Two areas of opportunity

Integration and collaboration. Employees say their collaboration tools don’t
align with how their team works, are fragmented and not compatible with each other, and don’t integrate with their day-to-day processes. 64% agree that the lack of integration between their organisation’s tools and processes makes it hard to collaborate across teams.

• Accessible data. Employees in Microsoft’s survey were challenged by inaccurate data, teams working from different datasets, and being unable to access and share data. They waste time chasing data and copying it into chats and emails: 86% said their teams would benefit most from solutions that make data, documents and customer records more accessible across the organisation.
• Low-code and no-code software. This allows teams with little or no development skills to create the custom web or mobile apps they need. Rather than coding, it uses a visual, modular approach, with a graphic interface and drag-and-drop to connect components. This can help people create innovative solutions, such as workflows, managing processes or engaging with customers, led by what they actually need rather than what IT or bosses think they need.

Magnetic Example: In 2020, Bupa knew the impact that remote working could have on employee engagement and wellbeing and wanted to create a hybrid model with wellbeing at the heart of it. After a rich analysis of its existing data we designed and delivered workshops with leaders and stakeholders, to prioritise opportunities and areas of focus. We validated these through interviews with people across Bupa to more fully understand their needs, concerns and the reality of hybrid working. The result was a blueprint for the future of work at Bupa UK Insurance. It addressed senior leaders’ needs in three key areas: evolving leadership; new skills for hybrid working; and rethinking where they work. It was a first step; a starting point that gave clear, immediate action but can also be built on over time.

Digital transformation. Nearly all business leaders (84%) say digital transformation projects remain a top priority and that employee buy-in is important for these to be successful; 79% of employees agree. Yet 61% of employees say they’re not part of the process. This leads to a gap between what leadership thinks are priority investments and the real needs of the workforce, which is often dispersed across locations.

Inspiring Example: Nike’s digital transformation Nike invested in innovation and pioneering technologies to accelerate its d2c strategy and lead (despite economic uncertainty) to revenue growth that’s predicted to accelerate in 2024. This has included AI, AR, apps, a chatbot, the metaverse, digital sneakers and NFTs, digital supply chain transformation, 1,000 robots in distribution centres, and investments and acquisitions in data science technology, predictive analytics tools and a new tech innovation centre in Atlanta.

• Engage employees. Nearly all employees want initiatives to shift from being led by IT to involving people across the organisation, from all departments. Just as you would with customer experience, listen to your end user — in this case, employees — so that you’re sure you’re solving the right problem for the right person.
• Prepare and empower your teams, by equipping them to solve problems and turn innovative ideas into action. At Magnetic, we often observe that teams are not short of ideas but processes slow them down or prevent change happening. We’ve worked with organisations across sectors to train staff and embed new ways of working (e.g. PATRIZIA). Now, we’ve launched our Innovation Academy, a programme of training courses where we will train your teams to do what we do.
• AI is both a big opportunity and a big risk. 95% of business leaders think staff are using it covertly, without any AI policy in place, and 53% believe it’s now driving some departments, according to an October 2023 survey of 1,863 C-suite executives in eight countries including the UK, Germany and France. 91% of leaders want a deeper understanding of how AI works and where data goes, 59% are very concerned about employees inadvertently leaking confidential data, but despite this, only 22% have discussed putting rules and regulations in place. Nevertheless, 44% want to use AI to lighten the leadership team’s own workload.

I think worrying about what we don’t know, or our dilemma over policies, strategies or where to invest, can thwart us. Instead, what are the problems we need to solve? If staff are already using AI, they’re telling us what they need! If we can listen and understand their problems, we can see the use case and map out potential benefits and risks, based on the knowledge that we do have. With AI, we are all learning.

CEO’s POV: The distributed workforce
For me, blanket RTO dictates are not the way to an empowered, committed workforce who feel they are trusted. At Magnetic, achieving this is a balance between the needs of the business, the people and businesses we work with and our people. There are many times when a project moves forward more rapidly, creatively and collaboratively when we’re together. But I trust our team leaders and team members to know when that is and make it happen.

All organisations have seen how much we were able to innovate when we were forced to. Digital tools now shape the way we collaborate, innovate and drive our businesses forward. As roles, skills and expectations change, we continue to need better tools, which integrate with each other and are personalised. We want greater agility, less fragmentation and shared access to data so that information isn’t siloed.

However, a true digital transformation is more than investment in software and systems. Empowering a distributed workforce requires more than technology. It requires leaders to create a culture where everyone feels included and is enabled to work collaboratively and without friction, regardless of physical location. Putting people first and listening to the needs of our teams and the people we work with is how we build this culture. This benefits all of us, so that we are more responsive, inclusive and collaborative, deliver our best outcomes and build a resilient business.

This is an exert from our latest Thought Report, the full report can be downloaded here.

Author: Jenny Burns, Magnetic CEO

Jenny is always happy to talk about the issues teams and businesses are facing, and how we can unpack problems together to find and design for unmet needs. Coffee? Email jenny.burns@wearemagnetic.com.