Finding the sweet spot where tech and humans meet in the future of work

Enterprise digitalization – the human element remains central

Over the past years, we have seen a massive rise in the use of digital tools for collaboration and product development. For many companies, the Covid-19 pandemic was the push needed to speed up their plans for digital changes by years1. They leaped into a new way of working that everyone called the “new normal”. But as we moved past the pandemic, the “new normal” began to look different for each company. Even within the same company, people had different approaches when it came to embracing new ways of working and digital tools.

This new era in collaboration and product development is driven by the mindful use of different technologies like cloud computing and cellular connectivity. Certain platforms and applications also became more relevant, for example, online collaboration platforms like Teams, modeling tools such as digital twins, and everyone’s new favorite, the generative AI applications.

Let’s take my situation as an example. Someone living in the countryside, too far from Ericsson’s headquarters to make a daily commute feasible. The idea of working in Stockholm was never part of my bucket list before. However, the shift to hybrid work models and a more flexible work-life balance changed that. The digital shifts opened new career opportunities for me. For instance, fixed wireless access (FWA) is the only viable connectivity solution in my neighborhood. In addition, my mobile phone’s hotspot is a trustworthy connectivity companion during the long train rides to work. Cellular connectivity has become the primary technology, serving as an enabler in my collaboration and development efforts.

Of course, not everyone shares my sentiments or living arrangements. But one thing that appears to be consistent is that we are all going through a paradigm shift in collaboration and development through digitalization. This transition is leading every organization into a cyber-physical workplace in some form. It is also safe to say that despite all these digital transformations, humans remain integral to the workforce. If anything, their role and how they adapt to digital changes is now more important than ever.

Advancing operations as a core value driver, yet looking beyond mere numbers

In our Future of Enterprise report, edition #4.2 [2], we looked more closely into the role of humans in the digitalization journey of enterprises. We focused on how value is created through three human-centric use cases: remote meetings, remote education, and digital product and service development.

Figure 1: The three human-centric use cases covered in the Future of Enterprise report, edition #4.2

Naturally, it’s not possible to attribute a single form of value to these use cases. Our study confirmed this as well. Both enterprise decision-makers and employees believe these use cases can help advance operations, create agility, and boost resilience. What stood out, though, was the shared opinion of both groups in recognizing the great value of these use cases in advancing operations.

Employees see a clear benefit in improving their work efficiency, thanks to the use cases. As shown in Figure 2, they particularly consider remote meetings to be a great way to enhance their efficiency at work. Nearly 20 percent higher than any other benefit is linked to the remote meetings.

What surprised us the most though, was how much the decision-makers valued the less tangible benefits of adopting these use cases. Benefits such as customer and employee satisfaction,  improved safety, and the potential for innovation and scalability. As can be seen in Figure 3, direct financial rewards, such as reductions in operating expenses (OpEx) and capital expenditures (CapEx), were ranked at the bottom of the list of benefits by decision-makers. This highlights the significance of humans in digitalizing businesses.

Figure 3: The ranked benefits of human-centric use cases, according to the decision-makers

Different strokes: Employees vs. decision-makers’ viewpoints

 The path to realizing the values expected from these digital collaboration use cases is not one without friction. It is heartwarming that both employees and decision-makers see similar value potential in the use cases. Yet, our findings also showed some mismatches in their views. We noticed several instances where employees see opportunities in using human-centric use cases, while decision-makers are still more skeptical.

We found that decision-makers have a very different view of what employees want. Figure 4 shows that their perceptions of employees’ preferences for in-person meetings and willingness to give up business travel were quite different from what the employees said themselves.

Meetings are done for different reasons, and some admittedly benefit more from in-person interaction. For example, meetings focused on building initial trust or making important decisions are effective when conducted in person. However, the overall perception can be biased. Leaders might base their views on their own needs and desires rather than what works best for their employees. The same goes for business travel, which is highly linked with the need to meet in person. Business travel has long been seen as both a necessity and a privilege. But this view seems to be changing, at least among employees.

We see news headlines every day about another big company pushing for more in-office work. These companies often say that their decision is motivated by “building company culture”, “improving productivity”, or even “increasing control”. Our study suggests that such decisions might also be influenced by not fully understanding what works for employees.

Such misalignment may prevent companies from leveraging the benefits of human-centric use cases. One may also wonder how a continued push to return to the office might affect the mobile network rollout plans, considering that mobile networks have been a great enabler in the transition to cyber-physical workplaces.

 

 

Cybersecurity challenges can creep into enterprises from different areas

It would be naïve to think the only challenge to a smooth transition to cyber-physical workplaces is that decision-makers tend to be more skeptical about things. For instance, most of our survey respondents were not happy with the quality of current digital solutions for the three human-centric use cases available in the market. They did not believe these solutions were good enough to substitute their in-person alternatives.

Another challenge worth mentioning was cybersecurity. The study uncovered some intriguing insights regarding the matter. We noticed more evidence of differing views between decision-makers and employees in this case as well. In this instance, significantly fewer employees expressed concerns about cybersecurity challenges while conducting remote meetings and engaging in remote educational activities. Interestingly, both decision-makers and employees shared similar views on the significance of cybersecurity challenges in digital product development. These differences can be seen in Figure 5.

In general, there seems to be a much better employee awareness of cybersecurity risks involved in digital product development than in other human-centric use cases.

One reason why employees seem to underestimate cybersecurity risks in remote education and remote meetings can be that they engage in these activities more frequently. This frequent use can create a sense of comfort, leading to less sensitivity about the risks involved. For example, employees might not be concerned about who is allowed to join a remote meeting, or what kind of product-related information is safe to share during a remote education session. Data breaches and cybersecurity challenges can arise from seemingly simple and harmless situations.

What to keep in mind as we move further on this cyber-physical journey

In hindsight, we can say that the transition to a cyber-physical workplace has already begun, and we have all embarked on this journey in some way. The vast range of benefits brought about by digital collaboration and development tools is now clear and acknowledged by many of us. These proven benefits have been discussed in numerous studies over the past years, including our IndustryLab reports.

A recently published article in the prestigious journal Nature, written by Bloom et al. (2024) [3]  highlights the benefits of hybrid working models. The study shows that hybrid working increased job satisfaction and reduced the number of people quitting by one-third. This effect was particularly evident for non-managers, women, and those with long commutes. These positive outcomes took place without any negative impact on employees’ performances. Such findings serve as a clear reminder of the positive impact of the transition in our ways of working on diversity & inclusion (D&I) in the workplace.

We were also pleasantly surprised by another finding in our study. We found that companies that engage in corporate sustainability reporting recognize the D&I benefits of human-centric use cases 30 percent more than others. This type of reporting is often seen as a tedious administrative task by companies. However, these results show that they improve sustainability awareness in enterprises.

As mentioned in the beginning, I, for one, can easily relate to all the benefits associated with digital collaboration and development tools. For me, these are not empty words, and my intention has not been to repeat all the trendy buzzwords that we come across nowadays. I think connectivity solutions like FWA, which our industry is bringing to the market, have a key role in making all this possible. But don’t just take my word for it. More than six out of 10 decision-makers in our study agree that cellular connectivity is a key enabler for the use cases we researched. To make this transitional journey a smooth ride for everyone, enterprises, service providers, and developers need to be open to new ways of working. Even if it requires self-introspection to adjust our perceptions and address possible organizational misalignments in the process.

Sources:

[1] COVID-19 digital transformation & technology | McKinsey
[2] The value of moving to cyber-physical workplaces - Ericsson
[3] Hybrid working from home improves retention without damaging performance | Nature

Learn more

Read the full Ericsson IndustryLab’s “How enterprises create business value through digitalization – A future of enterprise study, Issue #4.2”

Read more about our research insights in this blog post “An agonizing crack about where to work is running through organizations”, authored by my colleague Jens Erler

Read more about the role of 5G in creating the future workspaces in this blog post: Can 5G create the perfect future workspace?