Work 4.0: How our Work Routine Will Change

Modern workplaces exploit the benefits of digitization, while transforming lone wolves into team players at the same time. Every company benefits from this value added and greater productivity.

Managing digitization and facing up to complexity: These are the principal challenges facing companies in 2019. And there is a particular focus on future workplace trends (Work 4.0).

Say goodbye to a purely personal mindset. The group result, the ‘us’, is the aim underlying the modern workplace.

The idea is built on forging networks between individual people in order to boost value added. One of the ways to do this is in temporary virtual groups. Within them, teams share information, work on solutions and pool their individual skills to create a better outcome.

Purpose-built tools are indispensable in this regard. Knowledge workers need to be able to retrieve necessary information as quickly as possible, make decisions and contribute actively to the company.

Virtual assistants, AI, will help these teams in future. Among other things, they will be responsible for monotonous and recurring tasks that are therefore susceptible to mistakes. This means that the actual team will be able to concentrate on the essentials – applying non-linear, creative methods to place a strong emphasis on results.

Therefore, the modern workplace is built on collaboration and will increasingly become separate from a physical location. The motto is: “Everything, anytime, anywhere!”

Time-honored IT solutions that were developed around the turn of the millennium are rarely all that much of a help for employees who have become accustomed to the usability of modern devices and applications in their personal lives. In an age of social media, big data, smartphones, tablets and flexible workplaces, PC-era solutions are no longer adequate to ensure efficient management of day-to-day tasks.

In order to achieve this goal, all channels for communication and collaboration need to be grouped together (standardization). With a history of numerous migrations and takeovers, many companies tend to have an extremely decentralized system and process landscape. In future, the goal must therefore be to deploy uniform IT systems that are built around harmonized processes.

Cloud-based services are the ideal solution in this situation, as they provision useful tools that are independent of the industry or size. Not only should they replace email, Excel and co., they need to add completely new opportunities as well.

Where this takes place, previously separate activities can be brought together, or intelligent, computer-based ‘personal’ assistants (AI) used to prepare content and therefore enhance to its meaningfulness.

Selecting the right cloud provider starts with the specific requirements and general framework conditions. In this regard, a harmonized process/IT landscape is the basis for building a viable, realistic strategy for the future. The provider is then selected, depending on the strategy and the associated structural criteria.

Work 4.0, modern workplaces or the future of work – along with the associated solutions – will not fall like manna from heaven. Neither can they be implemented as a top-down instruction. What needs to be done will ultimately involve changing the processes, reconsidering the tools and harmonizing the IT landscapes. In future, employees will be far more important factors in all undertakings. Picking them up where they are and ensuring their commitment must be prioritized as early as the planning stage and then reviewed consistently as the project progresses.

Here are the most important rules for successful implementation:

• Processes, tools and solution providers must become parts of a greater, interlocking whole
• Data silos and incompatible solutions must be eradicated wherever possible 
• Practical, sustainable solutions that deliver clear added value to the employees need to be introduced