Todd Gerber

Aug 17, 2022

Hybrid work has changed the game for employees and businesses everywhere. Now, as some return to in-person meetings and events, they need technology to move with them. Here's how organizations are leveraging tech to support workers — wherever they are. In today's hybrid workforce, employees are expected to be productive no matter where they are. As more organizations embrace a new culture of "work from anywhere," employees are reaping the benefits of living and working wherever they want — and in many cases, productivity has improved as a result . But it wasn't always so easy to stay this productive, especially before the COVID-19 pandemic when employees had to travel from their homes to offices, meetings, and events daily. Many wasted time printing, signing, and scanning documents and faxing or emailing them to colleagues or customers. When COVID-19 forced people into lockdown, organizations had to find a way to quickly and securely modernize their processes. But today, even as many workers resume business travel or return to offices, few pine for the old days of toting stacks of paper. Now that a number of workers have transitioned to digital document workflows, here are a few lessons to improve the employee experience and make work more collaborative. 1. Embrace standardization Many organizations find it challenging to standardize content tools and practices. For instance, design professionals may choose one set of tools, while back-office teams might prefer another. With this technology free-for-all, workers won't know which tools to learn or prioritize. "Collaboration tools are meant to help workers become more efficient, but they can end up doing more harm than good if they're not standardized," said Todd Gerber, vice president of Document Cloud product marketing at Adobe. Instead, he recommends thinking about technology in relation to existing processes and considering how it might impact employees. "Good technology alone cannot solve a culture or process problem," Gerber said. "But when these products are paired with process and culture changes, that can help drive productivity and innovation." Standardizing technology from the top down helps employees understand which tools they should be using, instead of wasting time guessing. It also improves cross-team collaboration and communication because everyone is using the same technology to communicate. 2. Invest in change management If the COVID-19 pandemic taught business leaders anything, it's that change is a constant of modern life. To be successful, humans must adapt to a series of ever-evolving environments. And the workplace is no exception to that rule. Whether it's a change in leadership, a company acquisition, or a pivot in marketing strategy, businesses are always evolving. To support a thriving organizational culture, businesses should invest in a comprehensive change management plan. However, when such changes require workers to pivot to new ways of working or shift their day-to-day, business leaders must find ways to make the transition as painless as possible. For example, when it comes to equipping end users with new technology or services, Gerber recommends setting them up for a successful transition by investing in training tools. 3. Know when tech helps — and hurts — your organization Not every technology solution will be right for your organization. When choosing enterprise-wide tools, Gerber said leaders need to recognize how and where new technology can contribute to their goals — and whether it can effectively meet their needs today and in the future. Courtesy of Adobe Adobe Acrobat, for example, is one solution continuously evolving to meet the growing demands of its users. Today, it enables workers to compare multiple versions of documents and collect reviewer feedback without consolidating separate PDFs. Documents appear reliably on any mobile or computer device, offering a secure and predictable way to access documents in the office, at home, or on-the-go. While PDFs were once static documents, today, artificial intelligence is helping to improve accessibility and readability, which allows people to consume content more efficiently. The dynamic text-resizing capability in the Acrobat mobile app removes the manual work required to make a document accessible. As digital document workflows become more sophisticated, so do solutions that create, edit, store, secure, and distribute them.