The Rise of the Knowledge Worker
Knowledge-worker jobs that require critical thinking, intuition, and organizational skills to perform diverse, unstructured work are increasing throughout the global workforce as automation continues to eliminate repetitive function jobs. Knowledge workers can improve their efficiency and productivity with the right digital structures. According to Graham Long, vice president of enterprise business at Samsung (UK & Ireland), “while technology is certainly a productivity enabler, it’s clear that [small and midsize enterprise] owners and employees are struggling to unleash its full potential. Businesses need technology that is easy [and] secure, and that their workers feel comfortable and familiar using.”
Our View: Without documented data on the use of people and technology resources, CIOs do not have the evidence they need to demonstrate the strain on IT and the need for increased staff or budget to cover demand. Create a resource strategy that not only demonstrates the work that IT does, but also maximizes IT’s capacity by optimizing the pipeline to get as many IT projects complete as possible. Build clear reports on IT utilization and productivity and leverage these in critical business and finance conversations. Learn more about how to increase the productivity of your IT knowledge workers using our research, Five Secrets to Optimize Your People, Technology, and Budget.
Employee Engagement Awards 2017
The Employee Engagement Awards & Conference will be held at The Morgan MFG Innovation Lab in Chicago on June 8, 2017, and it will provide a platform for industry experts to debate and challenge their thinking on the best employee engagement practices. The Employee Engagement Awards (the first and only global dedicated Employee Engagement Awards & Conference business) are held with the goal of inspiring and educating people to reshape the way organizations think about and engage people to achieve their purpose.
Our View: Use our Engagement Program Plan tool throughout the process of improving employee engagement to build an action plan for your project. Document the priority engagement drivers, the initiatives that were selected during the focus groups, and the individual project plans for each initiative.
Modern Business and Data Transformations
Modern businesses and their data needs are set in an environment that is continuously changing. This means IT and other business leaders must be continually improving data gathering methods, analytics approaches, business processes, and bi-directional connections between people in their organization.
Our View: Organizations need to focus on the basics of infrastructure flow mapping and transaction profiling to establish a relevant baseline before engaging vendors. The chief enterprise architect needs to be involved in the transaction mapping process and help establish a common frame of knowledge for all members of the application and infrastructure teams. Learn more and Establish a Program to Enable Effective Performance Monitoring.
The Lift: Playing an Invisible Instrument
Air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which the “musician” pretends to play an imaginary guitar. It may sound too absurd to be true, but the world championships for air guitarists have been held since 1996. This year’s Air Guitar World Championships will be held in Oulu, Finland, from August 23–25, 2017.