The digital workplace: new technologies, same old story?
Swiss companies make less use of new technologies and work more traditionally than is commonly believed, says Gudela Grote.
Airbnb, Uber and bitcoin are based on business models that are striking fear in the hearts of traditional service providers. 3D printing and all-electric cars are disrupting the conventional manufacturing industry. Ever more work processes are being automated and, in the long term, entire professions could become redundant. This is leading to considerable uncertainty among both executives and employees.
But what does the situation in Switzerland actually look like? How much change has already happened? What still has to happen for the Swiss economy to be in a position to exploit the full potential of digitalisation – and make up the loss in productivity recently reported by the OECD? What consequences will this have for decision makers and employees?
Use of cutting-edge technologies still limited in Switzerland
The first representative survey on digitalisation in companies in Switzerland (see box) revealed that use of the latest technological developments such as the internet of things is still limited, while investment in digitalisation – measured as a percentage of total gross investment – even fell from 22% (time span 2003 to 2005) to 16% (2013 to 2015). Also, the way companies work remains largely traditional: 70% of the companies in the study reported that they do not offer a mobile working option, while 52% do not allow their employees to work from home. Even group work is absent from 27% of companies, and in more than 80% of companies, employees are rarely given the power to make decisions.
?Most people require a certain amount of stability to be creative. ?Gudela Grote
Internal targets over competitive advantage
However, this is not true across the board: large companies in the modern services sector and in high-tech industries tend to be more progressive when it comes to digital technologies. These companies also make more frequent use of agile work structures with flatter hierarchies, mobile and flexible working, and decentralised decision-making. But even these companies mainly use digitalisation to meet narrowly defined internal and efficiency-oriented targets, rather than (as one might expect) to boost their market position. And these targets are often not fully achieved – a failure primarily attributed to a lack of employees with the necessary professional skills.
Much ado about nothing?
The Swiss economy is fundamentally characterised by high stability, and the employment level is higher than it has been for a long time. So is all this fuss about digitalisation just much ado about nothing? Not entirely. There are already discrepancies emerging between the technical skills required in the workplace and the skills taught in the Swiss education system. Also, instead of simply seeking to make existing processes more efficient, companies need to identify the next wave of innovation anywhere on the globe as early as possible. In a fast-paced, digital world, it will also become increasingly important not only to react to the innovation of other companies, but also to put pressure on others by being a first mover. Here, it is important to consider that most people require a certain amount of stability to be creative. Instead of frightening employees with vague announcements about major changes, companies should actively involve them in shaping the digital transformation.
Gudela Grote wrote this article together with Nadine Bienefeld. It has also been published in Neuer Zürcher Zeitung.
About the study
The digitalisation survey was conducted in autumn 2016 by the Chair of Work and Organizational Psychology at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Zurich, the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), School of Applied Psychology. A total of 1,183 companies took part in the representative study (response rate 30.1%). The survey was based on the KOF enterprise panel, which is a stratified random sample of Swiss companies with more than 20 employees from the manufacturing, construction, and service sectors. Stratification refers to 34 industries and within each industry to three firm-size classes (small - medium - large, whereas all large-scale enterprises are included).