The Huawei study dedicated to digitalization and its impact on the workplace is based on the actual experiences of employees, and not on an arbitrary count of technology. Titled “Digitalization and its impact on the workplace”, it provides the results of a survey of over 13,000 employees in 7 countries (China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States). There research was conducted by Dr Schneider, in collaboration with YouGov.
Use skills
Anna Schneider, Professor University of Applied Sciences of Trier (Germany)
This study highlights the transformative impact of digitalisation on the nature of work in different international contexts. As digitalization accelerates, organizations must adapt strategies to utilize the skills employees already possess and leverage the latest technologies, or risk being left behind.
Key insights
From the research conducted by Dr. Schneider, three main findings emerged. First, Chinese companies rely more on digital tools in the workplace than those in other countries surveyed. An ever-improving broadband infrastructure combined with a population and businesses that embrace new technologies explain the position of vertex of companies in China in the survey. Increasing levels of digitalisation in businesses are creating new opportunities for a more agile workforce.
Huawei and the impact of digitalization
The established routines of European companies further limit the use of digital technologies. Human-machine interaction (IUM) is a particularly illustrative example revealed by the investigation. The IUM is becoming more and more intuitive thanks to the evolution of touchscreens, large language models and virtual/augmented reality. However, in some European countries, more than half of IUM takes place on physical keyboards, even in the most digitalized workplaces.
Increase communication
The second key finding is that a higher level of digitalisation in the workplace stimulates 20% greater knowledge exchange within the workplace compared to companies with a lower level of digitalisation. The availability of digital tools greatly facilitates remote and flexible communication. Additionally, advanced digital tools enable superior internal access to stored knowledge.
Huawei and the impact of digitalisation in the workplace
And this via intelligent search algorithms or applications that simulate the functionality of social networks. For companies that adopt them, new interfaces, based on large language models, could to accelerate further the ability to access and exchange knowledge.
Advanced and virtual interfaces
Finally, for the future development and success of digital transformation, digital skills and new ways of interacting with computers will be two decisive components. In all countries surveyed, the use of advanced and virtual interfaces in the workplace is significantly lower than in private use. Participants uniformly predict that this gap will increase in the next 5 years. Enterprises often encounter considerable inertia in adopting new interfaces. This is caused by the longer life cycles of professional equipment and the lack of resources to retrain employees.
A Huawei investigation into the impact of digitalization
The survey indicates that this last aspect may be a much less serious problem than generally claimed by companies. Compared to the companies in which they work, individuals are more ready to welcome new interfaces. In fact, they tend to be very confident in their ability to use touch, voice and gesture-based interfaces, regardless of the degree of digitalisation of the workplace. According to Huawei, the study sheds light on the urgent need for policy action and investment in areas that can accelerate a comprehensive upgrade of digital technologies used in companies. And thus ensure that digital dividends are shared inclusively.