The digital workspace solution helps to retain talent and provides a flexible working culture for the employees of an organisation.
THE digital workspace is still an emerging concept but highly favourable across industries.
It is not only a technological revolution but fundamentally a cultural and organisational transformation to meet the changing needs of the working world.
The learning curve for organisations from the respective industry in adopting the digital workspace is steep, but the journey is fascinating especially for the manpower and talent involved in the process.
Four speakers shared their thoughts on the topic during The Star Outstanding Business Awards (SOBA) Lab webinar entitled “Future of Work: Reinventing the Digital Workspace”.
Moderator and Talent Corp Malaysia Bhd (TalentCorp) vice-president of group research, development and policy Mahuran Saro Sariki kick-started the discussion regarding the ideal digital workspace.
Panellist PKT Logistics Group Sdn Bhd chief operating officer Jason Cheah opined that an ideal digital workspace would entail a general digital platform that allows employees to get important information for right decision-making and perform their duties anytime, anywhere.
“It will also allow each member of an organisation to get the latest information or data required to increase operational efficiency,” he said.
“It can support the flexible working culture where each worker can work outside the office or has a working time in line with the operational needs,” he shared.
Mahuran: The government does not provide grants to companies which practise a digital workspace, but there are two incentives given for this aspect.He explained that “it will have a safe platform where all personal confidential information or companies are protected from cyber-attack or misuse by certain quarters”.
Fellow speaker, Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) information technology section director Jamaluddin Abdullah said such digital workspace refers to certain digital environment with particular features –it enables communication and engagement among the workers (such as video conferencing); provides access to facilities and collaboration tools (such as calendar sharing, file sharing and more); promotes sharing of information and knowledge, agility and mobility; and incorporates a system with applications for business use.
Fellow panellist Credit Guarantee Corp Malaysia Bhd (CGC) chief technology and operations officer Yushida Husin said an ideal digital workspace is a working environment that grants flexibility to workers to get talent from various backgrounds and personal needs in order to conduct their job productively and effectively irrespective of their locations.
“The technology helps us to retain talent, to be flexible and relevant in the financial ecosystem. It is about people, process and technology,” she said.
Fellow speaker, RHB Bank Bhd SME Digital Banking squad lead Zilhazran Md Hamzah shared that an ideal digital workspace would empower employees to work together at any location, regardless of time and can connect with each other to achieve the organisation’s goals.
Yushida: It is about the people, process and technology.
“This move will let us increase productivity, improve employees’ satisfaction as their employer trusts them to do the work, and complete the tasks without being in the same building as others,” he said.
“There has been strong demand for a video conferencing licensing tool and VPN connection during the Covid-19 pandemic to have a safe connection when accessing the bank internal application.
Zilhazran: An ideal digital workspace will empower employees to work together at any location regardless of time and can connect with each other to achieve goals.“Microsoft Teams allows us to link data, documents, presentation decks and photographs for easy sharing. Employees can work on projects together regardless of their physical location. Presentation slides could be directly edited by others to encourage the spirit of teamwork,” he said.
Zilhazran explained that RHB has assisted small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) in bolstering their financial positions by providing over RM12bil in repayment or payment assistance in the lockdown period during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This initiative was executed by our staff in a work-from-home (WFH) arrangement. We found that we could still deliver the work and have our value proposition to the customers, as long as we have the tools, access, data, technology, trust, positive attitude and flexibility to WFH,” he highlighted.
Asked on the challenges faced by the companies and talent in promoting the digital workspace in the organisation, Cheah said it involves changing the perception of employees on its advantages, costs and to convince the management on the new working ways.
Jamaluddin said the challenges before the implementation of the digital workspace relate to getting an allocation, identifying products or solutions suitable for the business and availability of infrastructure.
“Challenges faced in the digital workspace implementation include ensuring its implementation meets the deadline and allocated costs or budget, as well as ascertaining the provided solution fulfils the requirements.
Cheah: It will also allow each member of an organisation to get the latest information or data required to increase operational efficiency.“After implementation, business owners have to ensure the solution provided is stable and operates well, and is fully optimised by the users,” he said.
For Zilhazran, the challenges are the lack of cloud adoption due to sensitive customer data, internal and external threats such as hacks, malware and user mistakes; less networking and preference to physical human interaction for business opportunities; and reliance on physical paper and wet ink signature than e-signature due to legacy practice and legal regulations.
To deal with various challenges, Yushida said the top management has to be committed to the implementation of digital workspace.
She said an awareness has to be extended where workers are more alert on cybersecurity when remote working and training should be given to all employees for the optimum use of technology to ensure productivity and safe online working practices.
Zilhazran said improving communication in the organisation and upgrading technology for storing of customer documents can overcome these challenges.
“We have to invest in a digital dashboard to monitor work progress. We have to adapt to an agile way of working in order to respond to changes in the marketplace or feedback from customers quickly.
Among others, he said, “Investing in a JIRA software development tool is recommended by agile teams.”
Cheah said by implementing digital workspaces, companies can reduce operational costs and increase competitive advantages through the use of digital workspace automation.
Jamaluddin: We have to be brave enough to change so as not to be left behind.
“The transformation is necessary for all types of businesses. We just have to do it,” he said.
Jamaluddin said: “We have to be brave enough to change so as not to be left behind. To achieve success, we have to leave our comfort zone and change according to technology (advancement) as it could be relevant.”
Yushida said digital workspaces would promote a flexible and productive working culture regardless of locations and encourage talent development.
On his expectation, Zilhazran said the organisations need to evolve to keep up with the ever-changing demands of their workforce.
“We need to break down barriers between people, workplaces and technologies as well as to empower employees to be productive and creative wherever they are,” he said.
“Introduction of robust metrics from the human resources section can help monitor employee productivity and track their delivery status,“ he shared.
Zilhazran advised: “Invest in digital tools that make tasks visible in one place – this makes collaboration easier.
“Embrace digital trends so SMEs can invest more time in business expansion activities and enhancing operating standards.
“Build a digital platform that integrates more options. One that combines an accounting payroll connectivity, payment gateway, cash management, while providing a holistic ecosystem proposition for business owners.”
Among others, Zilhazran said the government has introduced various initiatives to promote digital innovation, including the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“SME owners need to participate and take advantage to increase their digital capabilities in terms of supply chain and eCommerce.
“Bank Negara also provides an automation and digitalisation fund, where RHB is one of the banks willing to provide financial assistance to the SMEs that want to upgrade their infrastructure,” he added.
“We need to move forward and digitise our operations,“ he said, adding that the SME owners also need to improve their skill sets and learn new things through free courses available in various platforms.
The next SOBA Lab will be held in DoubleTree by Hilton in Johor Baru on Sept 5 from 8.30am with two panel discussions for topics entitled “Adapt and evolve to build a more resilient supply chain in 2022” and “How to recession-proof your business with better cash flow management”.
SOBA 2022 is organised by Star Media Group (SMG) with CGC, Digi, PKT Logistics Group and RHB Bank Bhd as the main sponsors, TalentCorp as a co-sponsor and Matrade as the official trade promotion partner.
Supported by Bursa Malaysia, it is audited by BDO with 988 and Suria as official media partners.
For more information on SOBA 2022, call SMG Events at 017-231 1789 or visit www.soba.com.my.
