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What makes a modern workplace attractive?

 

How will we work in the future? How much, where, and when? Even today, the answers are wider-ranging than ever before. Variety and flexibility are the watchwords of the workplace of tomorrow, and they will continue to grow in importance. Future-oriented enterprises are adapting accordingly—and providing their employees with an appropriate environment.

 

Pictures: Vitra

 

Collaboration is no longer defined by in-person meetings and documents shared by e-mail. Meetings have become video conferences, presentations and screen-sharing ensure information is shared, and results are made available directly in cloud apps. It’s also true that a modern workplace is a key way to retain or attract employees. In order to stay attractive, more and more companies are reflecting on their workplace design, employees’ work-life balance, agile working, and compatibility of family and professional lives. These factors are crucial, especially for young people choosing where to work.

 

The topic of the modern workplace is therefore automatically high on the agenda for HR or development departments. Companies are devising modern room layouts and concepts, fostering flexibility in the workplace and investing in innovative technologies with the aim of making their employees feel at home at work, while reinforcing exchange of knowledge and experience and boosting potential. It’s about fostering a creative atmosphere. The digital workplace should enable employees to work together, wherever, whenever—from sales and product management to logistics, purchasing and services.

 

“In our experience, the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues or in interdisciplinary teams boosts employer attractiveness. Young applicants especially value the flexibility to choose when and where they work, and modern technology plays a key role here. Fundamentally, all employees expect a workplace that’s at the cutting edge,” says Regine Viehofer, Team Leader, Human Resources, Bechtle AG.


The aim of the modern workplace is to make employees feel at home at work, while reinforcing exchange of knowledge and experience and boosting potential. Therefore, companies are devising modern room layouts and concepts, fostering flexibility in the workplace and investing in innovative technologies.


 

The modern workplace at Bechtle.

How does the Bechtle modern workplace look? Employees can access data, applications and systems across a variety of end devices whenever and wherever they need to, making communication with colleagues and across teams extremely fast and hassle-free. Every Bechtle employee also has access to collaboration tools that smooth the way for teams to work together even across distances.

 

These include video phones, whiteboards, and the Web-Ex Meeting Centre which all facilitate online discussion of presentations and documents. Cisco Jabber lets employees chat with one another. Modern devices and programmes deliver exceptional usability, while tailored security concepts protect data from unauthorised access.

 

The intranet is another central communication platform at Bechtle, allowing an exchange between colleagues. It uses on Microsoft SharePoint, delivers news and updates on the company, is the ultimate reference, and hosts many helpful tools for every day work.

Flexible working hours is now something many companies offer. In combination with the option to work on-the-go, this can be a decisive in the competition for talent not least because a healthy work-life balance is gaining in importance for many employees. Combining professional, family, and private life boosts the connection between employees and their company,” testifies Jasmin Ganßer, Team Leader, Human Resources, Bechtle AG. For this reason, Bechtle incorporates childcare during the school holidays and a comprehensive healthcare offering into its corporate healthcare management.

 

 

 
A guiding hand into the digital workplace.

Technical advancements are changing the way we work together, and more options are leading to private and professional lives merging. Does this properly define the workplace of the future? Or is the definition wider? The fact is, companies that want to up their digitalisation game more should always ensure that users understand and accept the new technologies.

 

Employees’ needs should always be the central focus, the offering meet the various requirements of the target group, and employees be guided through the transition with training and programmes. Otherwise, your new, expensive technologies could go barely used.

“We no longer have to accompany our employees through digitalisation, it's now more a matter of guiding them through the digital world of work. We’re already there and so no longer see it as our main task to bring employees’ mindsets around to the digital transformation, rather how we can help them understand their new digital workplace better,” says Thomas Erfort, Head of People Development and the Academy, Bechtle AG.

 

Bechtle provides many training courses that support working in the digital world, from effective and efficient working with collaboration tools and handling social media, to self-management and self-leadership. The Bechtle Academy was founded in 1999 and offers a wide range of training programmes to complement custom training at company headquarters.


Companies that want to up their digitalisation game more should always ensure that users understand and accept the new technologies.


 

Learn at your own pace.

Bechtle’s learning management system, iLEARN, has been providing Group employees with a digital training platform since October 2016. It features a wide spectrum aimed at both newcomers and IT professionals, and courses are available in up to ten languages and in 14 European countries. Thomas Erfort: “iLEARN ensures that our employees at all branches have access to holistic knowledge and stay at the cutting edge of technology. The courses can be taken anywhere, any time, and at your own pace, meaning we have a very high satisfaction rate.” The aim is to keep expanding and building on employees’ existing expertise.

 

“The digital working world will also mean that learning and training will need to adapt. Shorter inputs, more readily accessible knowledge, social learning, at-desk training, and concrete application instead of knowledge transfer are all exciting elements in conveying content in a way that speaks to our target group. With our iLEARN platform, we have a solid foundation that we can continue to build on.

 

People Development is favouring a blended learning approach more and more, enabling Bechtle employees to learn with a mix of in-person and digital learning. “There is a great deal to do in all these areas over the coming years. Companies that value a positive corporate culture and invest in modern working and training will secure future success and gain the competitive edge as employers in a highly changing environment,” Thomas Erfort is convinced.