The COVID-19 pandemic still remains an unknown that will impact our lives for the foreseeable future. At the moment many organisations are tentatively reopening their offices but ensuring there is social distancing in place and usually with far less people actually working there. In practice many employees continue to work remotely (both by choice and through their employers guidance), but the situation remains one that is highly changeable, with the possibility of local or even a national lockdown at short notice for the coming months.

The digital workplace and its constituent tools can help organisations to navigate some of the trickier challenges around reopening offices and physical workplaces in several different ways. In the longer term, with scaled-up remote working likely to continue and difficult economic conditions, there is likely to be a longer-term need and desire to reduce office space.

In this article were going to explore the different ways the digital workplace can assist organisations in the difficult transition many currently find themselves in, but also support longer-term ambitions to reduce the size of offices.  Often the related apps and capabilities help both scenarios. Lets explore ten key areas where digital workplace tools make a difference.

1. Clear and trusted communication channels

Having clear, trusted communication channels that can deliver real-time updates to all staff has been critical in keeping employees informed and up to date during the crisis. This needs to continue as physical workplaces relay up to date information about different locations, for example if they are open, have had to reclose or have other critical updates. In the longer term, to successfully reduce office space, having clear, real-time information for visitors about a location will be essential, as generally more planning will be required by a user to ensure there is adequate space and equipment for their visit.

2. Advanced remote collaboration tools

It goes without saying that the digital workplace needs to continue to remote working with tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. In the longer term to support a reduction in office space, more advanced digital collaboration tools may be needed to support some of the deeper collaboration that goes on within teams and projects, for example the use of whiteboarding.

3. Survey and screening tools and related dashboards

At the moment the safety, health and wellbeing of employees is paramount. Different survey and screening tools can allow employees to help to determine or inform of their need to self-isolate if they get COVID symptoms, and therefore their ability to work at a physical location or otherwise. This can have a knock-on effect on the ability or desire of others to work at a location. Dashboards that display information can also help in planning space utilisation and to identify likely trends.

4. Meeting room booking, desk booking and shift management

One of the major impacts of using office space in the current situation but also going forward if office space is reduced is for there to be more planning; employees can no longer just turn up and expect a desk to be available. This is already the case with many organisations that have already introduced activity-based working. Similarly, meeting room booking also needs to be planned far more carefully, not only to ensure rooms are available but also to provide the cleaning operations that may be required in between meetings. Therefore, systems that support remote meeting room booking, desk allocation and perhaps shift management are required to ensure these processes can happen.

5. Team scheduling

Another aspect of planning a visit to the office may also be to see who else is going to be there, for example needing to be able to coordinate different members of a team so that they are all coming into the office on a given day. Therefore, some kind of team scheduling capability in your digital workplace will also be useful where employees can clearly see who has booked to go into the office.

6. New meeting room support

When you scale up remote working, you need to account for more virtual working spaces within the office to allow staff to conduct virtual meetings with their colleagues who are not in the office. This may mean the need for a rethink or increase in meeting rooms with virtual meeting capabilities, or ones that better integrate with the collaboration tools used by employees working from home.  The use of more voice-activation to control or request equipment that helps reduce the need to touch screens may also be useful; we can see more Alexas in meeting rooms for example.

One of the challenges to navigate here is how to create informal places for impromptu virtual meetings involving more than one person. For example, three people want to go and find a comfortable place for an impromptu meeting. They then want to bring in their colleague who is working from home. How do they do that outside booking a formal meeting room which may not be possible? While the pandemic rages, impromptu meetings may be less than ideal, but going forward creating space for informal and impromptu virtual collaboration will be a challenge for office design.

7. Enterprise contact tracing

Enterprise contact tracing that helps to identify any staff who may have come into contact with a person who subsequently develops COVID symptoms so these staff can then self-isolate, is a hot topic at the moment. Several apps are being marketed with this capability and this may prove to be very valuable in helping organisations and employees safely return to scaled-up physical working in the coming months.

8. Flexible wayfaring tools

As employees return to work, there may be considerable changes that have taken place, for example in reducing space, or in relocating functions, or in new flexible areas. Having a wayfaring tool or office map integrated into the intranet or on an app that allows users to find how offices have changed and where particular facilities are now situated can add real value. In the longer term, wayfaring functionality can help to support a more flexible and streamlined approach to office space that for example responds to seasonal fluctuations or business need, without having to acquire permanent office space.

9. Learning platform

In the short, medium and long-term, the way we work both remotely and within the office is likely to transform. There are change management aspects to consider. Here a good learning platform accessible by everybody and ideally on mobile devices can be useful in helping employees learn about new ways of working, as well as important procedural information that can support safety, health and well-being.

10. Office space utilisation tools

Tracking movements within the physical workplace and measuring the utilisation of space and meeting rooms helps real estate professionals plan the optimum use of office space with a view to supporting employees in their work and collaboration, making better use of space, and identifying opportunities to rationalise space. Here a variety of tools can help, including the use of Bluetooth beacons to monitor movements, use of pressure pads and other sensors to measure footfall, and using meeting room and desk utilisation software to check occupancy.  Information generated about meetings and interactions from Microsoft Graph can also be very powerful, while Power BI can also provide useful dashboard and data visualization capabilities.

In using these sorts of tools, it is critical to ensure users data privacy is not compromised, and that any employee concerns are addressed.

 

Harmonising the digital and physical workplace

The harmonisation of the digital and physical workplace is an ongoing theme in the digital workplace world. As the role of the office evolves in both the immediate and longer term, it is clear that the digital workplace plays a critical role in managing and reducing current office space. If youd like to discuss how the digital workplace can support your longer-term physical workplace strategy, then get in touch.

Bots have long passed the novelty stage and are now delivering business value for employees; they are becoming an established part of the digital workplace and are increasingly commonplace both in commercially available products or integrated into different apps and platforms.

The number of bots is likely to increase as bot frameworks become more widely accessible and no-code or low-code solutions emerge; here, the release of Power Virtual Agents into the Microsoft 365 Power Platform is likely to be the most significant, allowing non IT-professionals and citizen developers to configure simple bots through a highly intuitive interface.
One of the great things about bots is they can be accessed through numerous different applications and platforms, but commonly are found on Microsoft Teams and even through the intranet. Here, a bot might be accessible from an intranet toolbar or even the footer. Bots usually also work well on mobile devices.
With bots becoming established in the digital workplace and employees starting to engage with them more as the user experience and business relevance improves, it is worth thinking about the different types of bots for your business and some of the associated use cases. Note that in this article we are only covering bots that are intended for employees rather than external-facing bots aimed at customers.
First, lets explore the different capabilities of bots. Note that a single bot may actually cover one or more of these capabilities.

Six types of intranet bots

1. Finding information

Most bots are set up to find information based on questions and keywords entered by users. The bot recognises information may be a on a particular topic or even connect to a wider search, such as the employee directory; bots can also return external information such as the weather. Often the bot may refine an information request by asking relevant questions to get more information, effectively refining the search based on the trigger phrase entered by the user.

2. Forms and workflow

Bots can be used to request information from employees that can then trigger workflow, for example requesting annual leave or ordering business cards. Approval then might be given by a line manager. The bot can request information from the user in different ways, for exampling presenting a complete form or asking separate questions to the get the required pieces of information. This can involve different questions depending on the answers by the user given at each stage.

3. Simple transactions

Bots can usually perform simple transactions that also involve other applications or even multiple applications. For example, a bot might be able to log a ticket in an IT issue ticketing system such as Zendesk and then also send a confirmation email to the user at the same time. Simple transactions may involve integrations with different applications.

4. Triggering and tracking a process

Sometimes a bot can effectively trigger and kick off a longer process and then keep a user informed about its progress, for example either responding to further questions or even notifying them of progress. For example, if a user does logs a request with an IT helpdesk, the bot might be able to provide up to date information on the progress of the request on demand, or through notifications as different stages of progress are reached.

5. Nudges, reminders, notifications and suggestions

Some bots will also send messages and reminders unprompted to users in their chat feed, making suggestions, remind them of actions to be carried out or notifying them about important information. The user may be able to then interact with the bot to complete an action or find out more Where a bot can add value is when it starts to make suggestions based on information about the users situation. For example, if the bot knows a user has just changed their role or business title, it might suggest an employee updates their person profile.

6. Handover to live chat

Some bots are able to be used in conjunction with live chat so, for example if an issue cant be solved by the bot and requires the attention of a human being, the bot can seamlessly handover the user to live chat for issue resolution. The agent will then be able to see the previous conversation, and also should have basic user information too, such as their location and department, all of which provide important context for resolving the issue efficiently.

Six uses cases for intranet bots

All of these bot types and capabilities either on their own, or in combination, can support some key business use cases. Lets explore six of these.

1. HR and IT helpdesk: employee self-service

Employee self-service empowers users to complete simple transactions and find out information, particularly relating to IT and HR issues. When a bot is used as the first entry point for IT or HR helpdesk questions and requests, it can help to drive self-service by linking to information to resolve issue or providing the capability to complete transactions. This takes pressure off busy IT and HR helpdesk support teams, but also makes life easier for users. For example, using a bot on your intranet or in Microsoft Teams means it should already know all your user information (Name, Location etc.) that otherwise you might have to explain over the phone to a call agent. Your issue may also be easily solved with a FAQ that the bot can send you too, again saving the user considerable time.

2. HR or IT helpdesk: automation

A bot can also help drive HR or IT helpdesk automation, for example allowing a person to make simple requests that can be carried out there and then, such as unlocking a mobile phone, changing a business title in a system, accessing a particular application, or topping up funds to pay in the staff canteen. When previously manual processes are automated via a bot they can reduce the time spent on the transaction from minutes to seconds and also reduce the chance of errors; when these efficiencies are repeated across an entire organisation the value the bot delivers is considerable.

3. Enterprise or intranet search

A bot can be an interesting interface for particular enterprise or intranet searching because it can help and encourage users to refine searches based on different criteria or return different types of content based on their preferences. Sometimes the advanced search screen on an intranet can be off-putting or daunting for users; it can also be impossible to use on a mobile device. A bot interface can make advanced searching more effective and also possible on a mobile device, particularly for firstline employees or those outside the office.

4. Learning and development

A bot can work very well relating to an individuals learning and development options, especially when it is integrated with a companys LMS system. For example, there is a very useful bot embedded into LMS365, a learning platform we help clients to implement. A bot can deal with simple requests and return personalised information on a persons training record, for example telling them the upcoming courses they are enrolled on or the mandatory learning they still need to complete. The bot can also help uses to query a course catalogue and then organise enrolment, also adding a calendar entry to Outlook. Bots can also deliver training suggestions and reminders.

5. Change management

A bot can effectively support change management initiatives, particularly by providing information relating to a particular initiative. For example, a bot can work very well in answering questions about an upcoming or current organizational change such as an office move or a company merger. A bot can also be used to answer questions relating to changes to remote working brought about by the current crisis.

6. Digital assistant for employee onboarding

A bot with multiple capabilities can be positioned as a digital assistant that can support employee onboarding, helping new hires orientate themselves when they first start working for a company. A bot can act as a point to ask questions and link to essential information, but also help employees complete some of the key transactions and processes that need to take place. When the bot also issues reminders, notifications and suggestions, it can also help ensure new starters complete all those tasks that need to be done at different times; these notifications will also be personalised to the individual. The bot can also be branded and even named, to make it more friendly and engaging.

 

We love bots!

Here at Content Formula we love bots and were getting more and more interest from clients. Bots continue to get better and better and are delivering value for both users and the digital workplace teams. If youd like to discuss how bots can work for your business, then get in touch!