Business continuity still trumps employee safety

ServiceNow proposes a “work survey” to illustrate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world of work and innovation opportunities

ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW), a leader in digital workflows, has proposed a job survey, which is one of the most comprehensive studies to date on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global work world and the opportunities it brings. Their creation is In order to meet the new wave of digital innovation, this will affect the company and employees. European business leaders and employees agree that technology can enable new ways to work faster, and digital transformation will accelerate innovation.

“Today, people are more and more aware of what the future of work is like.” B saysSick McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow. “Digital workflow is the way of working in the 21st century. There is no turning back, because digital transformation will only accelerate. New ways of working will become the norm, and we are at the peak of an unprecedented wave of workflow and workplace innovation.”

The job survey involved 9,000 executives and employees in various industries including finance, healthcare, telecommunications, manufacturing, and the public sector.

Main European data:

• 92% of executives (including global and European executives) said that the pandemic has forced their companies to rethink the way they work.In Europe, 83% of employees (87% worldwide) said that the company can create better ways of working to deal with crises
• 92% of executives and 86% of employees said their company was able to adopt new ways of working faster than they thought
• The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced operating expenses of European companies by 90% (88% globally), creating opportunities for investment in digital transformation, R&D, marketing and other growth initiatives

Companies have innovated rapidly and need to keep up

In Europe, nearly half of executives (47%) and more than half of employees (55%) believe that the transition to the new normal will be more challenging than the initial shock of the pandemic. The fact that many companies have digital flaws complicates this challenge, with 94% of executives still using offline workflows, including workflows involving document approvals, security incident reports, and technical support requests. Progress has been made, but after months of remote work, 61% of executives and 62% of employees across Europe stated that their company does not yet have a fully integrated system for managing digital workflows.

Although it has adapted to the pandemic, there is little confidence that companies can transform quickly

According to 83% of employees in Europe, the new system developed and implemented as a result of emergency management creates new and better ways of working. However, if new changes occur, these same systems are also vulnerable to attack, and most executives and employees have noticed that key business functions (such as customer service, human resources, and finance) will not be able to adapt within 30 minutes. In case there is another crisis. This shows how powerful digital transformation is needed across the enterprise.

Today’s success means being better than the competition and adopting a distributed work model faster

100% of executives and 94% of European employees agree with the benefits of remote work, but the challenges are becoming more apparent. Executives (93%) and employees (78%) across Europe are concerned about how telecommuting will affect the business from now on.

• Executives pay more attention to production or service delays (54%), while employees pay more attention to input and collaboration between various business areas (47%)
• Employees said that the biggest benefit is that avoiding business travel saves time (61%), while executives believe it is using technology to improve team efficiency (50%)

Personal safety is paramount: to resume work in the company, employees must feel safe

52% of employees in Europe believe that their companies will pay more attention to business continuity than their workplace safety. Surprisingly, 37% of executives have the same idea. Even if the company strives to put safety first, many employees (43%) and executives (32%) do not believe it is possible to take all necessary steps.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing companies across Europe to change at an unprecedented rate, and many companies even think this is impossible“. He has announced Filippo Giannelli, Manager of ServiceNow, Italy. “There is a lot of discussion about adapting to the new normal, but the reality is that for most companies, there is only the present and the continuous changes that follow. For European organizations, the key challenge will be to balance the need to maintain business continuity by meeting the individual needs of employees, and to ensure that they are all digitally compatible with all future changes. The key to establishing this balance is to focus on the work that needs to be done digitally, no matter where it is.

More information about the “job profile” study can be found on this link.