Partly as a result of coronavirus, modern working styles have received a huge boost. Nobody looks sideways at colleagues who work remotely anymore. But how do you formulate a clear vision of modern working and the modern workplace? My tip: start with yourself. Start with your organisation’s core values.
Figures from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) show that working from home is now twice as common as it was before the coronavirus pandemic. That’s why it’s important that you as a company develop a clear vision of the modern workplace right now. How do you really put your people first? How do you enable them to do their best work? What equipment, applications and collaboration agreements do you put in place so that your employees can relax and fully focus on their work, with proper support?
Your vision is not a document that the IT department draws up. It’s something you do as a team, working closely with HR, for example, and definitely involving the MT. In my opinion, a vision like this must always start at the core. What are you here on earth to achieve? How does your company fit into people’s lives? What are your values? The answers to these questions form the foundation of a strong vision of modern working. They form the basis for every decision you make about hardware, software and collaboration.
Does that sound a bit vague? Then I would like to make it clearer to you based on our own five core values: together, enterprising, results-oriented, passionate and mindful.
Together
We work together. With each other, with colleagues. With customers and with partners too. Modern technology makes this really easy. Discussion, working together on documents and sharing knowledge is easier than ever thanks to solutions such as Microsoft Teams. It doesn’t matter whether customers or colleagues are working from our office in Den Bosch or at home.
That said: in our offices in the Netherlands and Belgium, we offer every opportunity to physically meet and enjoy working together. Ctac’s offices also need to be a social meeting place, with cosy corners and good coffee.
Enterprising
As entrepreneurs, we think in terms of opportunities. This demands a modern workplace that breathes life into new initiatives, innovation and growth. That means two things.
First of all, it means that employees don’t have to spend a disproportionately part of their time resolving malfunctions and problems. Colleagues are given help quickly in the event of problems. That’s why we have a smoothly running service desk that is ready and waiting to help colleagues wherever they are.
We also need to make sure that all our employees know about the capabilities of the solutions they work with, their benefits and what the organisation expects of them, so everyone starts from the same point and knows where they need to go. Ctac does this by ensuring thorough onboarding, and by organising regular functional training.
Results-oriented
At Ctac, we want to achieve results. We want to help our customers achieve results. This means that every part of the IT landscape must work with the other parts like the cogs of a well-balanced Swiss watch. From our servers and networks to our security, storage and management systems, from laptops to tablets and smartphones. Everything needs to be able to connect with everything else to work together seamlessly and achieve the results we want to attain.
Passionate
We are passionate about what we do and how we do it. We are constantly seeking that vibrant, natural energy that makes things appear to happen effortlessly, naturally. Our modern workplace contributes to a sense of flow where ambitions, professionalism, experience and enthusiasm combine. How? Simply by making it easy to connect and collaborate with each other. But also by empowering people to learn and grow. This is how we move forward together.
I expect the new Microsoft Viva platform for Employee Experience in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams to play an important role in this for us and for other companies. Viva empowers people and teams to get the most out of themselves by bringing together communication, knowledge, learning and insights and making these part of the daily workflow.
Mindful
We are mindful of and accept our responsibilities and run our business in a way that supports people, society and the environment. This is another important aspect of modern working. Modern working reinforces this value in many ways. By making remote working easy, we can work together to travel far fewer kilometres. Because we at Ctac have also started to work much more flexibly, this will also ensure a better work-life balance for colleagues. This is another part of modern working, and should be part of your vision, too.
