Say that again? Top digital workplace podcast episodes of 2022

Pop in your earbuds, settle into your comfiest chair and get ready for three of our most informative digital workplace podcast episodes of 2022. On the podcast, host Weston Morris, who directs global strategy for Unisys’ Digital Workplace Solutions, speaks with industry experts to explore a wide variety of modern workplace topics. (And if you haven’t bookmarked the Digital Workplace Deep Dive podcast yet, do it now so you don’t miss out on future episodes.)

While it was difficult to narrow down our favorites, we chose three podcast episodes we thought offered some of the most helpful tips on addressing digital workplace challenges. Listen for the first time or enjoy an encore performance and prepare to be inspired as you strategize the future of your workplace.

#1 – Mastering organizational change with a data-driven strategy

Our top podcast pick of 2022 is near and dear to our hearts for two reasons – first, managing change effectively is essential to adapt and thrive as an organization. Second, this episode allows you to not only hear the discussion – you can also watch as our speakers share tactics and strategies for managing change in a companion LinkedIn Live session.

On this episode, Unisys’ Kristine Krueger, Ph.D., and Dave Hamshaw discuss the latest data-driven organizational change management (OCM) techniques that can optimize the results of a new product rollout. When done right, OCM can encourage employee adoption and even shift company culture.

They told the story of a global Unisys client that replaced multiple unified communication and collaboration (UCC) platforms with one streamlined UCC platform, Microsoft Teams. One of the main objectives was to increase employee collaboration, so getting all end users comfortable with the platform was a priority. Four data-driven OCM techniques boosted user adoption for this client:

• Training portal: A training site within Teams encouraged everyone to use the platform instead of being taken outside of the Teams environment for training.
• C-Suite buy-in: C-Suite executives at the company adopted the platform from the beginning and encouraged other employees to adopt it, too.
• Gamification: Quizzes encouraged participation by asking if employees had opened Microsoft Teams, reached out to a colleague on Teams or called a customer via Teams.
• Champion program: This client picked users in different geographic regions, of different seniority levels and in different business units to act as advocates for the platform.

“Ultimately, it comes down to understanding your end users and how the change is going to affect them,” said Krueger. “Equally important is being able to take the data you’re seeing and adjust.”

#2 – Top 3 tips for effective collaboration in the hybrid office

This podcast is the second half of a two-part series on effective communication and collaboration in the digital workplace. Morris brought together Unisys’ Rich Owen, Brandon Long and Kevin Peters for this conversation, which focused on collaboration.

Collaboration can be divided into two areas: synchronous collaboration, where people are engaged together on a project in real time, and asynchronous collaboration, where people are working on the same task but across time zones and at different times rather than via real-time connection.

For either collaboration scenario, common challenges include:

• Discoverability: Can employees find the documents or tools they need?
• Access: Do they have proper permissions to edit a document, open a folder or perform other required tasks as part of their jobs?
• Knowledge: Do they know which teams serve what purpose and the organization’s naming convention? The latter is often overlooked but helps with discoverability.
• Desire: Do people want to use the tools you provide and are you giving them enough reasons to use them? Addressing this issue can support change management.

Our experts then offered strategies to improve collaboration among employees, executives and IT administrators. One strategy is to alleviate stress for employees—put simply, set them up for success by making things easy from the beginning. Owen remembers when Teams was first introduced. A general channel offered fields to include a team description, details on the responsibilities of team members, naming convention and how to best collaborate with the team. “Just a little bit of housekeeping in that aspect, I think, would do absolute wonders,” he said.

Don’t miss part one of this series, Is effective communication in the hybrid office possible?, to hear a conversation focused on communication, including who is most at risk of a poor communication experience – someone in a home office or someone returning to a physical office.

#3 – The ROI on DEX – Is it possible?

Employee experience has been a frequent topic of conversation on the Digital Workplace Deep Dive podcast. But what’s the ROI of digital employee experience (DEX) management? Mark Banfield, the CEO of 1E, developer of the DEX management platform Tachyon, visited the podcast to offer his insights.

DEX – giving people the tools and technology they need to do their jobs and making them easy to use – has been vital ever since the emergence of technology in the workplace. With hybrid work, tools and technology essentially become the office. This raises the stakes if your employees can’t use them effectively. To ensure that your DEX supports your team members, ask yourself: How do we onboard employees? How do we train them? How do they collaborate with colleagues? All of these experiences are digital.

Employee experience is everyone’s responsibility within an organization – including C-Suite executives and board members – and should be top of mind when introducing new technology. During the podcast conversation, Banfield shared the ROI of Tachyon customers that implemented DEX management strategies:

• Six times fewer disruptions
• 56% improvement in employees’ remote work experience
• 33% higher employee satisfaction
• 62% employee retention rate

He also shared the DEX stories of two 1E customers – a telecommunications giant and a major pharmaceutical company. Check out the podcast to hear those stories and more.

If you’ve got time, we’ve got content.

Want more workplace content highlights from 2022? Check out 7 Unisys blog posts that had us buzzing in 2022. Bookmark the Digital Workplace Deep Dive podcast and reach out if you have questions about Digital Workplace Solutions from Unisys and how they can support your workplace transformation in 2023 and beyond.