Dive Brief:
- Today's workforce is more connected, collaborative, and dynamic than ever before. But these connections have created an unprecedented degree of workplace complexity that's adversely impacting business success, according to a survey from SAP and Knowledge@Wharton.
- The Simplifying the Future of Work survey, which included 700 respondents from a variety of industries, found that corporate inertia, lack of clear prioritization from top management, and underutilized technology solutions are the reasons for a jarring disconnect between what companies say and what they actually do about business simplification.
- While simplifying business is a growing strategic imperative for today's companies, many leaders just do not align their actions effectively with their stated goals of simplifying business processes, decision making, and technology.
Dive Insight:
Complexity's negative impact on business success remains common, but not inevitable, according to the Simplifying the Future of Work survey co-sponsors.
"The first way to reduce complexity is to devote serious time and resources to solving the problem," says Morris Cohen, a professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School. "The survey results show the lack of attention that complexity has received. This lack of attention cannot continue any longer."
Stefan Ries, chief human resources officer at SAP, adds that HR leaders must refresh strategies, streamline processes, and embrace new technologies to focus on long-term growth.
"Companies should no longer accept inefficiencies, but challenge the complexities that increasingly permeate today's workplaces," he says. "Simplifying is the new imperative."
