A long-term client of Innovation Visual; Unily recently held their biggest digital workplace conference yet; Unite. Taking place in New York, some of the Innovation Visual team were lucky enough to attend Unite. It was certainly a jam-packed couple of days with knowledgeable and inspiring keynote speakers presenting. 200 attendees from leading brands around the world gathered to network, share ideas, discuss challenges and learn about digital workplaces and the future of work.
Read on to discover our key take-aways from the two-day event.
Key Take-aways from Unite 2019
Discoverability and search
Unite explored discoverability and search advancements in-depth. People want information and content instantly, so ensuring your digital workplace has sophisticated search functions should be a key part of your intranet design. Millennials for example create their own problems by going too fast and not paying attention to content in the eco-system. They use search as a way in which to find content easily. Unite talked about Unily’s new search center – a sophisticated search tool and discoverability enabler allowing users to find things they didn’t know exists and making the most of the content you already have. Digital workplace search capabilities can enable people to do their jobs better; by reducing the time they spend searching for information. Four areas for better motivators and discoverability include; content strategy, not bringing in junk data sources, domain support and UX and design.
Benefits & Engagement with a Digital Workplace
The conference further explored how to engage employees with a digital workplace and how your digital workplace can be used most effectively. For digital transformation in a business, cutting edge technology is required and a digital workplace should be a part of a wider program of change.
Firstly, a business needs to create a place where people are proud to work but a digital workplace can increase employee engagement and has a direct business benefit. It was reported at the conference that a digital workplace can lead to a 43% reduction in staff leaving and a direct increase in productivity as it gets employees interested and engaged with the business at a deeper level. It makes previously isolated employees feel embraced by the organisation with customisations available dependent on the user’s needs with a digital workplace accounting with 30% of all internal communications.
Remote-working and flexible working is on the increase and a digital workplace can help with this too. It can be challenging to engage with remote workers and with 85% of workers reported to work out the office during their working week; desktop is irrelevant. If people are out of the office, then intranet design on mobile should be the priority.
A digital workplace is never finished. For increased adoption and higher engagement, evolving your intranet and measuring success is a must.
A Keynote Talk from Seth Godin
At Unite 2019, American Author and former dot com business executive Seth W.Godin gave the final, inspiring talk of the event, He explored how technology and internet enables the impossible and changed the way we work. Key points included:
- Selection and choice aren’t an issue for consumers
- People like doing what other people do
- Creativity is about not being afraid to fail and take risks
- You can’t make change with everyone agreeing.
Looking forward to Unite 2020
After a successful Unite 19, Unily will be holding the conference again in 2020. For the second year running Unite 2020 will take place in New York. Unily promises the event to be an experience, not just your standard conference. It is destined to be bigger and better than the year before. Unite 2020 will delve into the workplace of the future with keynote speakers providing attendees with their own vision on what they think it will look like. Speakers for 2020 include Casey Neistat; a filmmaker and entrepreneur with millions of Youtube subscribers and Anne Lise Kjaer; futurist, entrepreneur and author.
Find out more information about Unily's digital workplace conference.
