Digital-first: How 2020 redefined the workplace

“More than 20 percent of the workforce could work remotely three to five days a week as effectively as they could if working from an office.” 

• What’s next for remote work: An analysis of 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, and nine countries, McKinsey, 2020‍

2020 redefined how we do work, accelerating the trend towards remote work. 

As entire companies and teams went into rolling lockdowns, we were forced to adapt to the systems which were generally reserved for innovative and internationally disparate startups. 

Zoom became the norm and has redefined the meeting. We learned to work when it was needed, with new tools and digital-only workflows. With our phones and laptops within reach, it taught us that we can successfully operate under wildly different circumstances than we were accustomed to.

But with the dust settling, it’s time to capture the lessons learned and create systems that facilitate this new way of working - for heightened productivity in the forever changed workplace. Can your employees operate effectively remotely? They certainly would like to. 

“Over half of employees (55%) would prefer to be remote at least three days a week once pandemic concerns recede” 

• PwC’s US Remote Work Survey, 2021

We need to have systems in place to ensure we’re catering to our employee’s desires to WFH - to both attract and retain talent. 

We need: 

• Systems to be secure
• Available in real-time
• Without one-way push processes (like email)
• Reduce the number of manual workflows required to be effective
• Reduce between-app switching
• Easy collaboration at the core
• Share files securely and with different audiences 
• And have enterprise data available within just a click or tap

This isn’t too much to ask from modern business systems and applications. And an employee app is a critical piece of your digital workplace landscape.

An employee app is an integral part of your digital workplace

An employee app is a core component of your digital workplace; a part of the IT systems and applications that allow work to flow seamlessly between people and the heart of your workplace data. 

The digital workplace breaks down silos, organizes people, teams, and data, and allows for the type of collaborative work that could previously only be done in person.

A strong digital workplace, centered around well-organized data and user roles, combined with overlays for management and work - including an employee communications platform and app - is your ticket to enhanced productivity in 2021 and beyond.

Why an employee app? Because we don’t always have our laptops available at a moment’s notice. But our phones are always within reach, even if we’re just grabbing a bite or scooting down to the shop. By going mobile, you free employees from the bounds of their laptop, allowing them greater physical freedom while at the same time they can still get work done when needed.

Increase productivity through an employee communication app

What does your current internal communications setup look like? 

• Does your team still rely heavily on email? 
• Do you have an intranet homepage that displays workforce-wide news updates? 
• Do you still have to call people for a quick chat, or even run down to their office? 
• Is there Teams, Slack or Hangouts but not everyone uses them all the time?
• Are some or all of these only available from a desktop or laptop?

Mobile-first communications are how your employees are operating in their personal lives. Messaging apps like text messaging, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram have become how people communicate with their friends and family via their mobile devices. These are their preferred and comfortable methods of interaction. On top of this, people interact with their (and others’) personal data through social media; these mobile applications have become collaborative spaces. They have task apps to stay organised, and plan parties with Pinterest. 

An employee communication app should seek to mirror these familiar applications, so that employees remain engaged and at ease within your digital workplace environment. An employee communications app needs to combine functionality to be successful. If your users are defaulting back to email or phone calls then you’ve made the wrong investment. The last thing that you want is to invest in a mobile app that employees dread to use. That’s a productivity killer - not a productivity boost. 

Improve employee productivity by focusing on employee engagement and user experience for a successful employee communications app rollout. Reach employees in the way they’re comfortable with.

CentricMinds provides its own native iOS and Android app with all communication securely managed from your own private cloud  

While you could allow employees to communicate over a secure channel that’s free and they are comfortable with - such as WhatsApp - that means you have no ownership over the conversations inside. There can be no central search of information within groups. When an employee leaves the company that data is lost.

Instead, you want your communications managed internally, you need ownership over that data and the infrastructure. 

The CentricMinds employee app ensures secure conversations and communications across devices, whether company owned or BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). The data is securely managed through your own private cloud - without any third parties involved.

CentricMinds gives you the ability to brand the CentricMinds employee app as your own

Why would you have someone else’s logo branded all over your team app when you can have your own logo, color schemes, and more? 

Software white labeling is the process whereby you’re provided with a working application on which you can then add your own branding, making it appear as your own, internally-produced app. And that’s what we’ve done with CentricMinds mobile app. 

It makes your employee app look that much more professional to your employees, and reminds them that they’re an included contributor to your company’s digital ecosystem.

CentricMinds employee app supports secure file sharing, realtime chat, task and workflow management with an integrated staff directory

The CentricMinds app isn’t just for secure instant messaging.

We’ve developed an app that you can use for:

• Secure file sharing
• Workflow management
• Notifications
• Task management
• Project conversations and data sharing
• Team directory

Connected to your underlying document libraries and internal files, employees are able to access work and news instantly, providing and receiving updates in real time. It’s simply a smarter way of doing business.

The CentricMinds app is user-friendly, with an intuitive look and feel

When employees pick up the CentricMinds app they don’t need hours and hours of training to use it. Our app is clean and modern, makes use of familiar layouts, workflows, and ways of organizing data. With employee experience at its core, employees can get to work in minutes - and it feels effortless.

Put productivity into your employees’ pockets with us

We’ve made the CentricMinds employee app readily available for organizations to take for a test drive themselves. Head over to our Work Apps section where you can download the app for iOS or Android.