Australian Enterprises Embrace Workplace Innovation as Pandemic Disrupts Job Markets, Employee Expectations

Many Australian companies plan to continue using hybrid work models after vastly expanding remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report published by Information Services Group, a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

“The employee experience will play a central role in the Australian workforce of the future”

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens Future of Work Services and Solutions report for Australia finds companies want to bring in-person interactive activities such as negotiations, staff training, coaching, brainstorming and collaboration back into the office while allowing employees to do computer-based work at home. The changes in policy reflect a broader rethinking of how Australian enterprises operate and establish their company cultures, ISG says.

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“The employee experience will play a central role in the Australian workforce of the future,” said Lisa Borden, partner and head of ISG Australia-New Zealand. “Employers will seek to attract and retain talent by offering mass personalization and the freedom to work anywhere, at any time, with seamless security.”

A growing number of Australian employees are demanding a work-from-home option as a condition of employment and even leaving their current jobs for the freedom of a hybrid work model, the report says. Coming just as immigration sharply declines due to COVID-19, this trend has contributed to major skills shortages in many areas, especially technology fields such as cybersecurity. Meanwhile, the completion of the National Broadband Network, which gave all Australians access to high-speed Internet service (albeit of varying consistency), has allowed more workers to leave cities for rural areas, increasing the pressure on companies to introduce remote work options, ISG says.

The pandemic drove many of the nation’s companies to accelerate workplace innovation, the report says. Work-from-home requirements heightened the unique challenges of employee engagement in Australia, where workforces are highly diverse and multicultural, relatively well-educated and dispersed over wide areas. Traditional in-office methods of achieving engagement, involving face-to-face events and celebrations, were no longer possible. Under the new conditions of the pandemic, videoconferencing collaboration has effectively replaced many of these approaches and brought together even more inclusive teams, according to ISG.

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Digital workplace transformation services will be essential as both the pandemic and technological innovation impact the Australian job market, ISG says. While the COVID-19 crisis dramatically reduced in-person customer service employment, innovations such as lean manufacturing and centralization of business processes have begun to affect other fields, including computer-based office work. Business and government leaders will need to carry out strategic workforce assessments as part of these transformations, the report says.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens Future of Work – Services and Solutions report for Australia evaluates the capabilities of 28 providers across three quadrants: Workplace Strategy Transformation Services, Managed Digital Workplace Services and Managed Employee Experience Services.

The report names Datacom, DXC, Fujitsu, IBM and Infosys as Leaders in all three quadrants. It names TCS, Telstra Purple and Unisys as Leaders in two quadrants, and Accenture, Atos, HCL, Tech Mahindra and Wipro as Leaders in one quadrant each.

In addition, Orange Business Services, Telstra Purple and Wipro are named as Rising Stars – companies with a “promising portfolio” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition – in one quadrant each.

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