In 2018, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, published a global study of how digital tools shape working life. In Asia Pacific, 67% of respondents said they believed the traditional office would become obsolete because of advances in technology. The figure came from a survey of 7,000 employees in 15 countries that compared people in heavily digital workplaces with people who had less access to workplace technology.
The study was released under more than one title. Aruba’s own press release was headed “Beyond Productivity: The Human Side of the Digital Workplace Quantified”. The report itself appeared both as Digital Revolutionaries Unlock the Potential of the Digital Workplace and as The Right Technologies Unlock the Potential of the Digital Workplace.
What the study set out to measure
Aruba wanted to know whether the benefits of digital workplaces went beyond efficiency. It sorted respondents into two groups. “Digital Revolutionaries” worked in fully enabled digital workplaces where new workplace technologies were in widespread use. “Digital Laggards” had less access to such technology.
Aruba said the gap between the groups, in both performance and sentiment, was wide. It also warned that companies lagging on technology risked falling behind competitors and failing to attract talent. The same study found that more digitally capable employees took greater risks with data and information security.
Findings on satisfaction and development
Revolutionaries were 51% more likely than Laggards to report strong job satisfaction, and 43% more likely to be positive about their work-life balance. Reports of the motivation and company-vision gaps differ by version. The text of the study as circulated put the gaps at 56% and 83%, while a regional write-up by IntelligentCIO gave 60% and 91%.
On professional growth, 65% of Revolutionaries said digital technology had helped their development, against 31% of Laggards. Asked about adopting new work skills, 72% of Revolutionaries reported a higher ability, against 58% of Laggards.
On output, 73% of Revolutionaries reported a positive effect on productivity, and 70% said collaboration had improved. Among Laggards, 55% reported improved collaboration.
Automation drew little resistance. Aruba reported that 71% of respondents would welcome a fully automated workplace within five to ten years, despite the usual worries about job security.
Asia Pacific: appetite for technology and doubts about the office
Respondents in Asia Pacific were keen on more technology. Aruba reported that:
- 98% thought greater use of technology would improve their workplace.
- 70% said their company would fall behind competitors if new technology was not introduced.
- 67% believed the traditional office would become obsolete.
- 75% said their employer had invested in digital workplace tools in the previous year.
Interest in newer technologies was smaller. Smart building tools that automate temperature and lighting drew 14%, voice-activated and wireless AV drew 16%, and custom corporate mobile apps drew 11%. Most respondents expected digital technology to make the workplace more efficient (63%), more collaborative (53%) and more appealing (52%).
The security trade-off
Awareness and behaviour pointed in different directions. Some 56% of employees said they thought about security often or daily. Yet 73% admitted to risky behaviour such as sharing passwords or devices. Over the previous twelve months, 25% had connected to potentially unsafe open Wi-Fi, 20% reused the same password across applications and accounts, and 17% wrote passwords down.
Aruba concluded that employers had to take advantage of new tools while limiting these habits.
Aruba’s recommendations
Aruba made three recommendations. The first was a digital workplace strategy, drawn up by IT working with business managers, end users and other stakeholders. It would move beyond established technologies to tools such as smart sensors and custom mobile apps that personalise the workplace.
The second was to build collaborative digital workspaces. These would extend beyond the head office to remote workers, partners and customers, so that IT planned for a working environment without borders.
The third was to build security into the design from the start. That meant allowing for human error as well as malicious actors, and looking to emerging networking, cloud, AI and machine-learning technologies to cope with change.
Comments from partners and Aruba
Joseph White, then Herman Miller’s director of workplace strategy, design and management, said workplaces were moving towards human-centric design. He argued that this depended on combining technology, furnishings included, with the cognitive sciences, and that it could help organisations attract and keep talent.
Francisco Acoba, then a managing director at Deloitte Strategy & Operations, argued that the workplace was becoming experience-centric. He said IT systems, building systems and furnishings had to work with people, and that employees who were uncomfortable in a space would eventually leave it.
Janice Le, Aruba’s chief marketer, said employees carried consumer expectations to work. She described a “Smart Digital Workplace” in which human-centred design met IoT and building automation. Examples included connected furniture, lighting that adapts to the user, and buildings that adjust energy use to employee patterns. Le said Aruba’s own offices served as a test bed, and that the company had seen faster hiring and higher offer-acceptance rates.