The digital workspace has remained a constant for employees during the transition to work from home by keeping changes in the employee experience to a minimum. Work as we know it has evolved, and the “moments that matter” in an employee’s experience have changed. Instead of commuting to the office every day, working from the same machine and going home, employees are working from home, maybe from a corporate-issued device or from a personal device during flexible hours as they are juggling the demands of work and family. Employee experience during this remote work transformation continues to be paramount. In order to minimize business disruption, there are a few things employers can provide that help the workforce stay productive, no matter when and from what device employees are working from.
VMware’s digital workspace application, Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub, gives employees access to apps, people, the intranet, company communications and more, all with SSO, so they can stay connected, engaged and productive.
Let’s take a look at how the latest release of Workspace ONE helps employees, no matter when and where they are working.
The digital workspace should be personalized
The digital workspace should not be generic, or one size fits all. Likely, you have a number of different roles in your organization, who are motivated differently, care about different types of programs and events, and work with different apps, teams or systems. As such, the view for employees should not be a generic list of applications, corporate communications and workflows. With the latest Workspace ONE SaaS release, Intelligent Hub now has a dedicated tab called “For You”. The new framework for “For You” will allow employees to simply review and act on the notifications and business processes that apply to them.
Another great way that organizations can provide curated information to employees is by customizing the Home tab in Intelligent Hub. This allows you to point employees to a single page, either the intranet page for company information, or a page with recommended and required trainings and continuous learning programs so they can stay up to date. See more on that here.
With Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub, employees are just a click away from getting the personalized information across key business systems in a single location, available on any device, in any location.
The digital workspace should be engaging
Communication and employee engagement are critical to the success of a remote work program. Organizations are re-thinking the way they communicate with employees. Intelligent Hub has customizable options that allow you to engage with your employees in different ways, all right within the application they are already using. With video becoming a key component of executive communication strategies, the intranet is a great place to host these, and employees can easily access them from the customized Home tab we described above.
Workspace ONE Notifications are another key way to engage employees. The “For You” section of Intelligent Hub intuitively allows employees to access and triage their company notifications. And it is easier than ever for admins to create custom notifications. With the notification builder, easily create and preview notifications targeted at custom groups, upload your own icons, choose the right delivery priority for the message. Urgent notifications will invade the user’s screen – these should only be used in rare circumstances. Priority notifications get an elevated view and will nudge the user if they’re in the Intelligent Hub app during receipt. Regular priority notifications will appear in chronological order, newest first.
These updates to Workspace ONE notifications have allowed employers to engage their workforce with timely updates about the business, key HR initiatives, available resources, system outages and more – no matter whether or not the employee has access to email.
The digital workspace should be actionable
Employees don’t simply want another place to go to see information but not be able to get work done. With Intelligent Hub, work is made simpler. By integrating notifications with third party business systems through Workspace ONE mobile flows, employees gain access to business process tasks alongside other corporate notifications in the “For You” section of Intelligent Hub. We have continued to build out the catalog of workflows that can be deployed to employees so they can triage and act quickly, without having to move to a different device or open several applications. In addition to ITSM integration, Workspace ONE offers additional manager and business process approval flows such as approving access to OneDrive or SharePoint content, Concur T&E reports, Workday PTO requests and many more. Admins can setup these workflows, and employees choose which they’d like to opt into, further personalizing the digital workspace.
The philosophy of Workspace ONE has always been consumer simple, enterprise secure. Both of these are more important than ever in the new world we are living in where remote work is continuing to grow. To stay productive, employees want to be able to work in the way that fits their current situation, which may mean a personal device. Employers want to protect their critical data as the security perimeter has changed and built-in security is needed.
Organizations who are leveraging Workspace ONE today can learn more about deploying the For You tab with notifications and mobile flows here. See our latest demo of the experience for your employees as well.
If you’re interested in trying out the full Workspace ONE experience to see how it can empower your workforce, check out the free trial page here.
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