The Digital Workplace – How will businesses adapt to the future workplace?
By Felix Ozimek, FRTG Group
After working for a BIG4 – Auditing company, specialized in indirect taxes and technical transformations in the tax field, Felix joined FRTG Group for a year bring a new perspective and great spirit with it. Digital native, entrepreneur and truly passioned about tax law, Felix is responsible for knowledge transfer and special tax issues, especially in VAT, at the head office in Düsseldorf. His ambition is to provide each person in the organization as well as within the client base with top-notch knowledge to enable success and growth for all parties involved, while his clear target is to do so while accelerating digitalization.
Top tips top to leverage the digital workplace
1) Foster digitalization in your organziation as well as within your stakeholders. Leading the digital transformation may need resources however can significantly optimize your ways of working, your business operations and ultimely your success. However, to enable so it’s fundamental to own the right infrustructure and invest succifient resources in traning all stakeholders involved.
2) Leverage digitalization in your favour by getting access to continuous learning and recent updates. The biggest advantage of digitalization is the ammount of information, the accessibility and the speed of it.
3) Create your own digital tribe. Don’t loose the connection, on the contrary, leverage all the the possibilities given by the digtalization and get know even better your colleaugues and clients. Ultimately digitalization is a process which has started and is unstoppable. Are you ready to lead the digital transformation?
Whereas the Corona crisis is affecting the life of us all, primarily in a negative manner, after a deeper look it is possible to spot a significant advantage generated by this Global pandemic: the acceleration of the digitalization, especially within the business context.
However, what does digitalization really mean and what our its major implications in a business context?
Digitalization in the workplace can be a synonym for agility and flexibility – important assets in an increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world. Thus, it is not anymore, a matter of whether becoming “digital” bur rather how fast and how best?
At FRTG group we are frontrunner in digitalization an achievement also sealed by DATEV, the leading accounting and auditing software company in Germany. Thanks to digitalization we boost an innovative business model and ignite a digital mindset and spirit. Our aim is to continuously find better and fastest solutions for our Clients. With such mindset we switched to a flexible model of remote and in person workplace. Such hybrid model allows the employees to become more productive, thanks to the gained flexibility, and gain all the advantages of the home office and our clients and business partner to decide for their favorite ways of working. To enable such system, we heavily invested in all infrastructures and necessary team training to transform our Company into a leader in digitalization, withing the tax consultancy. The ultimate goal of our accelaration of the digtialziation is to optimize our ways of working, our business operations and ultimely the success of our company and clients.
While the industry and the world are craving for more digitalization, how are the Tax authorities reacting to such unforeseen acceleration? Unfortunately, the speed of this exponential acceleration is faster than the speed of the adaption adopted by the regulatory system. Furthermore, whereas the digitalization offers infinite opportunities, still strict privacy rules and data protection law are in place which still only can apply to the traditional workplace. While we wait the government will accelerate its speed to a more digital system, at FRTG group we observe the strictest data protection law and thus, as said before, we apply still an hybrid model which allows us to flexibly switch between a conventional workplace as well as a fully digital one to leverage the advantages of both ways.
Another important fact to consider is that digital transformation goes on at different speeds also among the Clients. Especially in a diverse Client portfolio like ours, where you may find LME as well as SME, digitalization might not be high on the agenda of smaller business. That is why we are fully equipped to accompany our Clients, regardless in which phase of the digital transformation they might be or which infrastructure they might or might not have. That said, we obviously, foster and promote a culture of digitalization since we strongly believe that the players that best will be ahead of such megatrend will most likely succeed, especially on the long run.
One of the biggest advantages of digitalization is the access otherwise not accessible knowledge and the speed to gain it. Thanks to our fully equipped digital-ready workplace, and culture of continues learning, we promote among our employees and business partners access to global and online seminar, also called “webinar”.
Yet, what is the price to pay for all those advantages? In a conventional business environment – when in contact with colleagues, as well as with external parties or clients – there are plenty of opportunities for spontaneous talks, bonding to get to know better the other person. These “small talks” moments may not turn-around the cash flow of a Company immediately, however it’s a known fact that those moment are crucial for trust-based relationships and often times also for synergies which ultimately bring to a more added-value transactions or win-win situations.
When switching to a digital workplace these are among the 1st thing someone may lose. How to counteract such big downside? As simple as it sounds, the most important thing in a business context is to get to know your team, your line manager, your clients. While a meeting should always stay efficient in length and organization – especially in a digital workplace – it is still fundamental to plan also in a remote meeting, enough times for the “ice-breaking” talks and or for usual ear whispering. Thus, how to best achieve that? A great, yet simple advice is to use the webcam during meetings to engage with the audience and to build a true relationship with the team inside and outside an organization.
Furthermore, another important downside of a digital workplace is the lack of spontaneity, which ultimately may lead to isolation of lack of creativity or motivation. Since in a digital workplace we may have different working hour and – let us be honest, no one can really knock on your door – we promote a virtual culture of such behavior which is texting on chat, encouraging phone calls or even better videoconference. Thanks to that, our team is strong and united more than ever, ready to face the challenge of this volatile, yet leading the digital transformation in the business of accounting consultancy.