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5 Reasons Why Your #workstyle Matters By TMCnet Special Guest Elisa Steele, EVP of Strategy and Products, Jive In our personal lives we're all storing content in the cloud, sharing and remixing it with friends, crowdsourcing answers through status posts. It's the modern lifestyle we've all come to expect - connecting, communicating, and collaborating anywhere, anytime, from any device. So it's not surprising that we want to work like we live. It's what I call workstyle. And it's already happening. People are capturing ideas across devices on their favorite apps to stay connected and then uploading and sharing their content on different networks. This technology driven lifestyle is transforming the way we all work together and how we connect and do business with customers and partners. It's driving a workstyle that embraces individuality, collaboration and transparency. Leaders can't ignore that employees are using their favorite apps in the workplace and working from just about anywhere. Why? So they can work the way they live. Improving the workstyle of your organization is critical to building and maintaining competitive advantage. Your workstyle drives your culture -- and culture is the backbone to succeeding in any business strategy. Here are 5 reasons why: 1. Greater Employee Engagement According to a recent Gallup survey, disengaged employees outnumber engaged employees nearly 2 to 1, costing the US economy $450 to $550 billion yearly. Interestingly enough, Gallup also found that 63% of "engaged" employees -- people who are involved in and enthusiastic about their work -- would keep their current job even if they won the lottery. Really? Yes, keeping employees engaged is key because engagement means you are working toward the goal and keeping culture healthy. The right workstyle drives this - it invites collaboration, establishes meaningful human connection, and supports the use of technologies that best enable success. Employees are inspired by a common purpose, take pride in their contributions, and feel like they matter. They're more likely to do their best work and accomplish great things! 2. Connected Customers & Partners = Higher Revenues Customers and partners want to be connected to and involved with the companies and brands they admire. They want to listen, participate and engage in a rich community environment. A workstyle that supports this also drives significant business results: Customers who are fully engaged with brands represent an average 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth. While actively disengaged customers represent a 13% discount on the same measures. Is your company driving premium or competing on price? Staying engaged with your customer community is the core to the answer. 3. Millennials Won't Work Any Other Way Today, millennials make up 36% of the U.S. workforce and by 2025, they will make up 75% of the global workplace. As the first generation to grow up using computers their entire lives, they expect to be as productive, creative, and connected at work as they are in their lives overall. If their workstyle imperatives aren't supported, they'll ignore IT policies and figure out how to make work happen the way they want and need. A supportive workstyle, alternately, results in a unified workforce and fewer headaches for IT. 4. Improved Productivity, Customer Satisfaction McKinsey Global Institute found that knowledge workers spend the bulk of their time - up to 28 hours per week - doing tasks that could be accomplished more efficiently with better communications and collaboration tools. That's a lot of wasted time. With a better workstyle, that number decreases tremendously. Additionally, companies have improved productivity by 15%, reduced call volumes by 26%, increased sales win by 12%, and improved customer satisfaction by 25% by having a technology strategy that is truly people-centric. 5. Greater Competitive Advantage Companies supporting smart workstyles have reduced sales on-boarding by 50%, enabling new reps to approach customers and close deals sooner. Marketing campaigns reach prospects faster. Every area of business improves, your competitive advantage strengthens and your business outperforms others. A connected and collaborative workstyle is one of the most effective ways to engage employees, nurture strategic partner relationships, and stay directly involved with your customers. If your organization isn't working on a better, more competitive workstyle, now's the time to start! I'd love to hear about your organization's workstyle in the comments below and share best practices for communication and collaboration! If you'd like to explore this topic of workstyle, please join me by subscribing to this blog. In future posts I'll feature C-Suite leaders and business influencers about their workstyles. We'll learn how they inspire teams and establish great cultures; how they overcome challenges and increase morale, and how they build long-lasting bridges across the C-suite, all key to transforming the way they work. |