Skip to main content

Digital Dexterity: Exploring the New Ways of Work

As more progressive business leaders choose to support mobile, team-oriented and non-routine ways of working, an increasing number of them are looking for assistance in adopting digital workplace technology. But why are they searching for actionable information and qualified guidance?

According to the findings from the latest Gartner survey, only 7 to 18 percent of organizations possess the 'digital dexterity' to adopt New Ways of Work (NWOW) solutions -- such as virtual collaboration and a mobile workplace. Furthermore, it's already apparent that forcing employees to accept rigid and inflexible workplace mandates are a recipe for poor performance.

Ongoing Change Reshapes the Workforce

According to the Gartner assessment, an organization with high digital dexterity has employees who have the cognitive ability and social practice to leverage and manipulate media, information and technology in unique and highly innovative ways.

By country, organizations exhibiting the highest digital dexterity were those in the U.S. (18.2 percent of respondents), followed by those in Germany (17.6 percent) and then the UK (17.1 percent).

"Solutions targeting new ways of work are tapping into a high-growth area, but finding the right organizations ready to exploit these technologies is challenging," said Craig Roth, research vice president at Gartner.

In parallel, the survey found that workers in the United States, Germany and UK have, on average, higher digital dexterity than those in France, Singapore and Japan.

Workers in the top three countries were much more open to working from anywhere, in a non-office manner. They had a desire to use consumer software and websites at work. Some of the difference in workers' digital dexterity is driven by cultural factors, as shown by large differences between countries.

For example, population density impacts the ability to work outside the office, and countries with more adherence to organizational hierarchy had decreased affinity for social media tools that drive social engagement.

The youngest workers are the most inclined to adopt digital workplace products and services. They have a positive view of tech in the workplace and a strong affinity for working in non-office environments. Nevertheless, they reported the lowest levels of agreement with the statement that 'work is best accomplished in teams'.

The survey also showed that the oldest workers are the second most likely adopters of NWOW. Those aged 55 to 74 have the highest opinion of teamwork, have progressed to a position where there is little routine work, and have the most favorable view of all age groups of internal social networking technology.

Embracing vs Resisting Workplace Change

In contrast, workers aged 35 to 44 were at the low-point of the adoption dip, potentially feeling fatigued with the routines of life as middle age approaches. They were most likely to report that their jobs are routine, have the dimmest view of how technology can help their work, and are the least interested in mobile work. Moreover, larger organizations on average had higher digital dexterity than smaller ones.

"Embracing dynamic work styles, devices, work locations and team structures can transform a business and its relationship to its staff. But digital dexterity doesn't come cheap," said Mr. Roth. "It takes investment in workplace design, mobile devices and software, and larger organizations find it easier to make this investment."

Leaders that insist on a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to NWOW are doomed to fail.

Popular posts from this blog

Industrial Cloud Computing Apps Gain Momentum

In the manufacturing industry, cloud computing can help leaders improve their production efficiency by providing them with real-time data about their operations. This has gained the attention of the C-suite. Total forecast Industrial Cloud platform revenue in manufacturing will surpass $300 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of 22.57 percent, driven by solution providers enhancing platform interoperability while expanding partner ecosystems for application development. ABI Research found the cloud computing manufacturing market will grow over the next decade due to the adoption of new architectural frameworks that enhance data extraction and interoperability for manufacturers looking to maximize utility from their data. Industrial Cloud Computing Market Development "Historically, manufacturers have built out their infrastructure to include expensive data housing in the form of on-premises servers. The large initial upfront cost of purchasing, setting up, and maintaining these servers is

AI Semiconductor Revenue will Reach $119.4B

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) and/or the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) will guide Generative AI initiatives within the large enterprise C-Suite. They may already have the technical expertise and experience to understand the capabilities and limitations of Gen AI. They also have the authority and budget to make the necessary investments in infrastructure and talent to support Gen AI initiatives. Enterprise AI infrastructure is proven to be expensive to build, operate and maintain. That's why public cloud service provider solutions are often used for new AI use cases. AI Semiconductor Market Development Semiconductors designed to execute Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads will represent a $53.4 billion revenue opportunity for the global semiconductor industry in 2023, an increase of 20.9 percent from 2022, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. "The developments in generative AI and the increasing use of a wide range AI-based applications in data c

Demand for Quantum Computing as a Service

The enterprise demand for quantum computing is still in its early stages, growing slowly. As the technology becomes more usable, we may see demand evolve beyond scientific applications. The global quantum computing market is forecast to grow from $1.1 billion in 2022 to $7.6 billion in 2027, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). That's a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.1 percent. The forecast includes base Quantum Computing as a Service, as well as enabling and adjacent Quantum Computing as a Service. However, this updated forecast is considerably lower than IDC's previous quantum computing forecast, which was published in 2021, due to lower demand globally. Quantum Computing Market Development In the interim, customer spend for quantum computing has been negatively impacted by several factors, including: slower than expected advances in quantum hardware development, which have delayed potential return on inve