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We are learning to combine and recombine the physical and the digital in new ways. The buzz is around an emergent metaverse but we already live hybrid lives and work is no longer rooted in any single space, but in largely digital networks of relationships and responsibilities.
As a result, the physical office, or 'physical headquarters' is being re-imagined less as a place of routine and obligation than a repository of company culture and values. Corporate giants, including Twitter, GSK and KPMG, have radically down-sized their HQ, with more employees now working remotely. These new offices emphasise free-form flexibility, offering hot desks, cocoons and collaborative hubs. However, too few companies have given thought to the workings and architecture of Digital Headquarters. And given that so much work and collaboration now happens—and company culture lives—in the digital space, that seems like a failure of the imagination and an invitation to operational chaos.
Designing the right Digital HQ is crucial to building engagement and efficiency as the mechanics of our working lives are radically re-engineered. And it demands more than duplicating the workings of the physical workplace in the digital space: it means refocusing infrastructure and investments that have allowed teams to continue to operate over the past two years and realising the full potential of hybrid working.
The design and operation of a Digital HQ has to square a circle. Most workers enjoy the freedom and flexibility that remote and hybrid working offers, but they have also missed in-person workplace collaboration, conversations, and a lived sense of shared purpose. Slack has risen to that challenge, throwing away legacy templates from the physical world to reimagine work and define the Digital HQ.
Already the leading collaboration hub, embedded in work cultures around the world, Slack has designed the Digital HQ around three pillars: creating a workplace and culture free of silos and closed spaces; creating systems and tools that are truly flexible and inclusive; and automating away time-sucking tasks and bureaucracy, freeing up time for deep work and collaboration. These elements combined mean the Digital HQ is enabling organisations to get more value from their existing software investments and be more productive.
The building blocks of this Digital HQ already exist, the trick is configuring them in a way that works for different business models and company cultures.
Slack Channels are the ultimate silo buster, a truly open space that makes collaboration simple, fluid and real-time. It is also a space that can be opened to partners, clients and customers, engaging them in powerful new ways. Slack Huddles meanwhile untether teams from the rigid and unrelenting stack of scheduled video conferences—meaning they can collaborate and contribute wherever they are. It leaves space open for sudden inspiration and serendipity and frees people virtually boxed in to have the ad-hoc conversations that used to take place desk-side.
Work and life are no longer understood as large, distinct chunks of time, but as a complex map of roles, routines, responsibilities and relationships, constantly reconfigured. As the Digital HQ, Slack works with—not against that complexity. It means that no one is left behind or disadvantaged by remote working; rather they are given the space to shine and succeed.
The move to remote and hybrid working has also increased the possibilities for collaboration between teams working in different time zones. It has seen more introverted employees, often drowned out by extrovert colleagues, flourish. And 'asynchronous' collaboration means that team members in different places and different time zones, or just managing the responsibilities of family life, can do their best work at the best time for them.
Using Slack Clips, team members can quickly create short and easily sharable audio, video and screen recordings to showcase work, present ideas or create deep-dive updates.
The defining purpose of the Digital HQ is creating an attractive and engaging work culture, where purpose is shared and felt. And that has to be the priority for any business looking to retain and attract the best and the brightest. But it also does the hard work of increasing efficiency and productivity.
To help drive efficiency, Slack is in the business of saving workers time through automation. Slack’s Digital HQ and tools such as Workflow Builder make it easy for teams to create no-code workflows, empowering everyone across an organisation to automate in ways that work for them.
This new model Digital HQ has already been stress tested and tailored to fit. London-based investment company Man Group is no fintech startup. It first opened for business in 1783 but it has proved agile enough to survive and prosper, embracing all kinds of new technologies along the way.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many of the technologies and platforms the Man Group was using proved too fragmented or unsuitable for a remote workforce. It adopted Slack Enterprise Grid to maintain communication lines with teams at home. The success of that adoption led to creation of a Slack-based Digital HQ.
"We needed a way to make decisions quickly, respond to challenges, and unite as a team in a shared, transparent, digital headquarters," says Tom Price, the Man Group's Chief Technology Officer. "That’s why we quickly made the call to go all-in on Slack, and we shifted the entire workforce over in less than two weeks."
Price says despite this rapid transformation, teams quickly understood how Slack Channels created more inclusive and open communications and a greater sense of shared culture. He says teams have also quickly learned the value of Workflow Builder to automate routine tasks
The Man Group is a large, complex multinational financial services company with 19 offices around the world, so data protection and security are a priority. But Price insists the move into its Digital HQ was swift, seamless and watertight.
“It might seem like an intimidating prospect but moving beyond legacy tools like email is transformational,” he says. “You’ll break down silos, unite your team, and boost your security. Employee and customer experience will benefit from that increased agility, and you’ll have a stronger culture as a result.”
Food delivery giant Deliveroo meanwhile quickly proved the potential and positive value of its Digital HQ. At the onset of the pandemic, the company committed to distributing 500,000 free meals to frontline health workers. As more of the newly remote Deliveroo head office team became part of the mission, ‘pinned’ messages and bookmarked files in the Slack channel meant they could instantly get up to speed and contribute.
The Deliveroo team soon outpaced that initial target and ultimately delivered more than one million free meals. Berenice Cowan, Head of UK Expansion at Deliveroo says,“We couldn’t have executed this initiative over email—too clunky. Or over the phone—too messy. The only way we could have done it was in Slack.”
The dedicated Slack channel also became a space for health workers to post notes of thanks. The Deliveroo initiative is proof that the new Digital HQ can mean more than efficient workflow and seamless communication, it can provide a sense of mission and purpose and the tools to make positive change.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
