As organizations embrace the future of work, they are looking to better leverage technology to attract top talent, enhance employee engagement, and experience and empower their workforce to work in new and more productive ways. In our never-ending question to power a better way to work, Citrix is partnering with leading futurists and research firms to identify the attributes of high-performing organizations and project how the future will work.

First, we have teamed up with Jacob Morgan, one of the world’s leading authorities on the future of work, to explore findings from his recent examination into how top-performing companies unite technology, physical space, and culture to deliver best-in-class employee experience and productivity.

We caught up with Jacob in this short video interview to get his insights on the future of work and how technology will help shape it. Jacob’s research revealed technology heavily influences the employee experience, which in turn affects overall workforce productivity and business results.

To dig into how technology is impacting the way work is done, Citrix also partnered with Wakefield Research on a survey focused on the future of work. The study results found cloud-based apps can spur productivity and enable the flexible work environment required to attract top talent and keep employees engaged and satisfied. This is likely why 57 percent of office professionals at companies with a flexible work environment are currently using cloud-based apps, compared to only 38 percent of companies that do not offer flex work options. This data highlights the value that technological tools deliver and affect workforce productivity, experience and overall value to the business. It’s clear, for forward-looking companies that are welcoming the future of work, technology is no longer just about the external customer experience. It’s also a critical element of employee engagement and employee satisfaction.

We asked Jacob to delve deeper into how your technology decisions will impact employee experience and the future of work. In an exclusive article summarizing his findings, Jacob points to the technology trends that will affect employee experience most: cloud, security, analytics, user experience, and automation. According to Jacob, organizations must harness these emerging technologies to “unlock business value in the form of innovation, improved customer satisfaction, and higher revenue and profitability.” Specifically, Jacob identifies cloud-based applications and infrastructure as the central nervous system of high-performing organizations because such services unlock key components of a high-performing work environment, such as flexible work, communication and collaboration at scale, and real-time engagement.

Jacob identifies three things employees care about most when it comes to technological tools:

Universal access: Whatever technology your company selects, it must be available to the entire workforce and not only to a small group of beta testers. Testing can still be a part of the technology deployment process, but once it is rolled out it should be companywide. Simplicity: All technology must be easy to use so the workforce can be more productive versus a challenging tool that may take away from getting work done. Clarity: Having a clear understanding of how the tool will be used is critical to meeting the needs of the workforce.

Jacob’s key takeaway: To remain competitive and attract top talent, organizations must continually evaluate and review the types of technology used by their workforce. Beyond the assessment, collaborating closely with various parts of the organization can help create the right tools that will deliver a positive employee experience.

For proof, look no further than Citrix customer Chevron Phillips. The company’s workspace strategy puts the employee the center of IT delivery. By adopting unified and personalized digital workspaces, Chevron Phillips has given more than 5,000 global employees the technology they want to use to get work done anywhere in the world, on any device, at any time. The payoff — improved employee experience and increased productivity.

At Citrix, we are dedicated to powering a better way to work by delivering digital workspace that gives employees unified and reliable access to the apps and information they need to drive innovation, engage customers in new ways, and be productive — anytime, anywhere. By working with industry experts like Jacob, we continue to monitor technologies and trends that are shaping how the future works.

Read Jacob’s contributed article, “Humanizing the Workforce with Technology.”

