94% of ANZ organisations ahead of the game in workplace transformation

Australia and New Zealand are leading the world when it comes to workplace transformation strategies, according to a report released today by Infosys.

The digital services company conducted a survey of 172 executives from organisations with over USD$1 billion in revenue across Australia and New Zealand and found a massive 94% of ANZ organisations have workplace transformation strategies in place.

This is higher than in Europe (89%) and the United States (71%).

Infosys says places with higher instances of workplace transformation usually also indicate better staff wellbeing and business outcomes.

The business case for workplace transformation is also more evident in ANZ than other markets, says Infosys.

The report indicates CEOs in the ANZ region are more likely to be involved in the ideation and implementation of the transformation strategy.

Almost 7 in 10 ANZ executives (69%) said their CEOs were the most influential person in this decision-making process, almost double the response from executives in Europe (37%).

According to the survey, the main reasons for ANZ organisations adopting workplace transformation solutions and technology was to improve productivity (65%).

Other rationales for adoption include:

• Increase employment productivity (28%)
   
• Increase collaboration across teams (40%)
   
• Improve employee experience and wellbeing (38%)
   
• Reduce in the churn of employees (35%)
   
• Help build a competitive advantage (33%)

The research found that businesses in ANZ place high importance on the physical transformation elements of workplace transformation compared to other markets.

Co-working spaces were especially popular across industries in the region, as well as the implementation of smart building technology and hot desking.

However, while the vast majority of the ANZ organisations are currently progressing their workplace transformation journeys, only 17% have completed implementation.

Despite being largely united in committing to workplace transformation, implementation strategies differed, and executives reported feeling apprehensive about how best to roll out the transformation.

Infosys says this could be attributable to a lack of organisational readiness and maturity levels of their businesses.

Specifically, the biggest apprehension local companies have before initiating workplace transformation is finding the right selection of tools and technology to use, as reported by 72% of respondents.

The most popular communications tools used by ANZ firms are Skype (72%), Teams (70%) and WebEx (67%), and the most used collaboration software was Asana (71%), Yammer (66%) and Slack (64%).

Other concerns included the need to establish a team to drive the initiative (59%) and perceived continuous reliance on external service providers (56%).

Getting buy-in from all parts of the organisation was also a significant challenge for almost half (49%), followed by organisational set-up (41%).

To overcome this, 70% of ANZ executives in the survey confirmed they had engaged an external service provider to assist with their workplace transformation.

"It's pleasing to see senior executives from Australian and New Zealand enterprises leading from the front when it comes to workplace transformation," says Infosys SVP and head of ANZ Andrew Groth.

"The C-Suite leaders I speak with across all industries recognise the critical importance of not only developing a holistic strategy across digital, physical and cultural elements, but implementing those plans with steadfast leadership."