Have you ever thought about the digital culture of your organisation?
Your business’s digital culture is how you use digital tools and technologies within the workplace. That could be in terms of collaborating with team members, how you use it for communications, both internal and external, how you use it to do reporting and other ways in which you implement digital solutions as a company.
There are so many different ways within businesses that we can use different pieces of software and different digital technologies that it’s hard to imagine a workplace that doesn’t use some form of digital tool or technology.
So why do we need to think about our digital culture?
That digital culture can be an incredibly positive culture. It can be a place where everyone is comfortable with the technologies used and where they feel they’re used in a way that aids them in their role and helps them grow the business. But digital culture can also be negative. It can stop them being productive and hold them back from performing well in their role. It could make it tricky to collaborate and communicate.
A digital culture can go one of two ways and it’s really important as a business that you outline what your digital culture is and how to use that digital culture to advantage rather than disadvantage. There are many digital tools and technologies that can be hugely transformative and increase productivity, particularly now in this hybrid way of working where many companies have people working from home and others in the workplace. In this scenario, digital tools are something that can be an amazing collaborative tool in helping bring workforces together, increase their engagement and hopefully increase their productivity.
It’s also worth discussing that in many organisations there is a negative digital culture. This could look like constant notifications, team chats running in the background, emails and messages popping up while trying to complete your work. This is hugely disruptive and limits focus and attention and, ultimately, productivity.
It’s also easy to be constantly plugged in to a screen, with limited switch off time. Implementing an enforced lunch hour, encouraging getting outdoors during the working day and running face-to-face meetings instead of online ones can make a huge difference!
When we’re plugged in all the time it really holds back our productivity, focus and attention and can be really demotivating. This includes outside of contractual work hours, where employees are encourage or feel they ‘should’ be logging in and responding to emails. This is a particular problem in working from home and knowing when to stop. Employees plugging in in the evenings, weekends and when on annual leave, leads to increased stress, less work-life balance and lowered productivity.
In the UK, they have been testing the four-day week and many of those firms testing it have decided to continue as they have seen no change or even an increase in output, despite people working fewer hours!
How do you work out the digital culture in your organisation? Surveys and focus groups can give a good indication of digital culture across the organisation. You can also use digital tools to assess how long employees are spending online. Once you have a better idea of the current culture, you can then start to make changes.
If you would like to find out more about digital culture and how I can help you assess and change your digital culture, get in touch with me here.
