Beyond borders: uniting a hybrid workforce

Working in the modern world comes in many different shapes and sizes. No longer confined to desk work of the past, working can be in a warehouse, behind a shop counter, in the field or even in the comfort one’s own home.

This is especially evident in Australia, where recent studies have shown that despite recent calls by some organisations to return to the office, we have become a leader in hybrid work — with 34% of Australians working in a hybrid environment and one in two of every workplace in Australia offering a hybrid work opportunity, according to a recent report.

But what does this mean for organisations, whose operations cannot afford to be affected by an increasingly disparate workforce?

The hyper-connected worker

We live in an age where connection is key. No longer is remote access solely reserved for the Outlook mobile app or the VPN of a white-collar worker. From field service maintenance workers to large-scale asset engineers, it has become the industry standard to be able to access large-scale data systems from wherever the worker needs it, however they need it.

As such, a hyper-connected worker is someone who has access to everything necessary to them, meaning they have the capability to access necessary information from every facet of a company in real time.

We recently acquired Poka, whose suite of solutions has transformed the way frontline workers learn, collaborate and problem-solve wherever their work takes them, to enhance our ability to deliver the tools required for the modern worker to be connected to the systems and solutions they need to do their work to the best of their ability.

Our recent acquisition of Poka has been driven by this growing necessity. From a practical level, the capability of allowing workers to share data to their organisations seamlessly allows for more streamlined operation and true end-to-end insights that are rooted in evidence, benchmarks and immediate results.

Picture a field service worker working on a large-scale telecoms asset in rural New South Wales. While out in the field, at the touch of their fingertips they have access to detailed data and information about that particular asset and its maintenance history — as well as the ability to upload collected information and data on this site visit. This data feeds directly into an end-to-end infrastructure that allows operations managers the visibility and the integrity to make key decisions with the trust in the evidence they have obtained.

While this is one example, this process is not exclusive to one industry or organisation but can be used across any industry to help improve productivity and make processes more efficient, making it the perfect solution for hybrid working.

Unified systems

A connected worker is only as efficient as the system that they use. With ERP, EAM, FSM and a number of other three-letter acronym systems available to the modern enterprise, a fragmented system can become cumbersome, inefficient and inaccurate in providing the data-fuelled insights that business leaders need to make decisions.

An organisation needs the base platform and a whole-of-company adoption to make these solutions tick.

A unified system that houses all these technologies under the one roof provides a single source of truth, which provides both workers an efficient UX, while providing business leaders with true end-to-end insights.

But it doesn’t end here. True data visibility allows organisations to properly maintain their assets, to ensure that they are performing optimally, without downtime, and safely.

The significance of unified systems has been historically underappreciated with companies not realising the immense benefits that can be had through them. However, with the current shifting zeitgeist with the rise in hybrid working, organisations are seeing greater movement to the merging of the physical and digital worlds; in this move a connected worker and system is a vital role.

The power of AI

The adoption of artificial intelligence has become an important presence in streamlining operations through the managing of administrative tasks, allowing workers to be more efficient with their time and focus.

But this adoption can become the difference between survive and thrive, with ever-increasing machine learning capabilities learning and adapting to meet the organisation’s bespoke needs in the lowest amount of time — with a level of preciseness and efficiency giving organisations a significant leap in their operating capabilities.

Australian organisations are at the precipice of immense change and opportunity. Being ahead of the curve in digital transformation, and embracing the technologies available — whether it be a hyper-connected workforce or channelling the power of AI — will dictate performance and market competitiveness both today and tomorrow.

It’s time to embrace change and make the workforce of tomorrow a reality for today.

Image credit: iStock.com/celiaosk