Offices as we once knew them have irreversibly changed, with rapid evolution primarily enabled by digital innovations. But at the heart of it, it is people who are driving the change and it is because of employee priorities that new workplace paradigms are now here to stay.

In the new world of work, mobile-first, always-on solutions are commonplace. People want them and tech teams have been rising to the challenge of successfully delivering them. Expectations are thus driving the modernisation of the workplace. The personal cubicle, adorned with family photos and meaningful mascots, has been relegated to the status of quaint relic. Even hot-desking is being phased out. And hybrid work environments — the talk of the town mere months ago — have been swept away by nebulous discussions that seem more suited to the art world than the business community. The workplace of 2023 and beyond is more of a concept — built around flexibility, personalisation, and inclusiveness.

So, how do we accommodate the talent-bearers of tomorrow? Technology, that’s how. But not just more of the same. Here are the three essential digital platforms that will deliver the workplace concepts that the modern Middle East professional has come to expect.

1. Always On, Self-service HR

Consumers expect self-service systems — apps that are a few swipes and clicks away from what you want — movies, flights, groceries, and the rest. And as employees, these individuals expect the same self-service at the office, wherever or whatever that may be. Barring a few laggards, organisations have ditched paper in favour of digital alternatives. And yet, even this may not be sufficient, Excel just won’t cut it anymore; unstructured documents are even more cumbersome.

So, the 2023 employee will book a vacation (flights, hotels, waterparks, mopeds) with a handful of screen-taps. Can you imagine their reaction if they must then spend half a morning filing the paperwork for the associated leave? Employees expect agility and flexibility and research shows that over half (56%) of MEA employees could probably be dissuaded from actively hunting for new jobs if their company invested in automation. Self-service modules are a great way to deliver such innovation to them. Beyond their happiness (and resultant productivity) is a range of other benefits to the business, including streamlined processes and data from business intelligence — insights into work patterns and common grievances; insights that are all but impossible without digitisation.

2. Modern performance management

Quiet quitting (doing the absolute minimum required to fulfil your contractual obligations), and career cushioning (having more opportunities in the pipeline so you can quickly resign if your employer pushes you too far) are doing the rounds as the talent industry buzzwords of the year. Countering them is not easy, especially as managers have less face time with their team members than in the days of the cubicle.

But there is an answer to many of the problems we now face in the hybridised, indescribable, ever-changing workplace of the future. Digital performance management brings objectivity, precision, accuracy, and speed. Employees have a positive experience. HR has a positive experience. And the business has all kinds of positives, not least the growth of its workforce and their capacity to innovate.

With digital performance management, metrics, agreements, who said what at meetings — everything is in the open. This is crucial for the hybrid world where teams are scattered to the four winds. Everyone has an unassailable source of truth, leading to more rational and balanced decisions and a greater acceptance of outcomes. In an environment where events are recorded rather than perceived, decisions based on those events are trusted to a greater degree. Trust leads to motivation; motivation leads to productivity; productivity leads to profitability. But in a recent Bayzat survey of UAE businesses, 72% said they either do not have a formal performance-management process in place or have yet to digitise it. Clearly as a business community, we need to do better.

3. Enterprise Super apps

The super app is fast becoming the core expectation of the digital-native set. According to one survey, some 59% of millennials expect their employers to offer mobile-optimised tools. Super apps can consolidate multiple apps for both customers and employees. The business ecosystem is easier to support, and costs diminish, so benefits all round.

The rise of the super app is happening already, but it is set to accelerate. Nine of every 10 UAE organisations offer some kind of mobile app, but the sheer number and scale of such offerings is becoming overwhelming for DevOps teams. So, consolidation of platforms into super apps is appealing. Users get more uniform experiences and technical staff can be more agile, extending the app in a rational and manageable way.

Apart from saving time and cost, super apps for employees can have positive impacts on their engagement and boost collaboration. They can also be integrated with digital performance management for a furtherance of transparency.

The future, today

Evolution, revolution, call it what you will; we are in a time of change, and we need to respond or be swallowed up by the moment. As we get close to the end of the first quarter of 2023, we often obsess about when to zig and when to zag. What did I do wrong in the previous year, and will I get it right this year? Digital platforms shield us from the perils of guesswork and standardise everything we offer to employees into a single space. It is not business as usual. It is not more of the same. It is the future, today.