How teleworking has accelerated digitisation and influenced the SaaS rush
Like many companies, Taleez has been affected by 2020. As a very small business specialising in recruitment management, our commercial activities had previously enjoyed stable growth. In 2020, there was first of all a slowdown in March, then an acceleration in September which has not stopped since.
The slowdown made sense: the sudden slowdown in the country's economy pushed recruitment to the back of the agenda and halted many HR projects in companies. On the other hand, we were (pleasantly) surprised by the acceleration in September. Since then, there has been a certain sense of urgency among our prospects: they have more mature projects and want to put them into practice quickly.
Of course, recruitment is picking up again. Yes, we have concentrated our efforts on educating and developing the tool, the brand and our reputation in the meantime. But is that the only reason?
My ego would tell you yes, but my reason sees things differently.
With the pandemic, the confinements and the introduction of forced teleworking when the job allowed it, the digitalisation of working methods has gone from being a strategic issue to one of survival. And in the midst of all this, software in SaaS mode (I'll come back to this term a little further down), like Taleez, has come up with the right answers to what have become burning imperatives.
In this article, I take a look back at a trend that companies that want to remain competitive should not ignore.
In 2020, teleworking accelerated digital transformation
Since the end of the 1990s in France, companies have been venturing into the digital world at their own pace, like strolling down a long, quiet river.
Then, in March 2020, the lock-in was pronounced and most employees were no longer able to go into the office; teleworking became THE solution for maintaining business. At that point, digitalisation becomes a rafting descent down raging rapids. There's no longer any question of paddling with the current: if you want to survive, you have to keep up.
So we find equipment for everyone, then start installing essential tools to communicate and stay in touch. When you're teleworking, and you can't see anyone, team cohesion becomes a priority. It's no coincidence that the number of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet users exploded during the first lockdown.
The strategy at that point was to set priorities to maintain the activity that could still be maintained.
Subsequently, this course of action evolved. Companies were encouraged to continue teleworking until the pandemic had been contained. And then we start to notice that those who were already interested in teleworking, and who had a mature digital strategy, are doing better overall than those who had to take it up in a hurry.
I would say that this is when everything changes: from the summer of 2020 onwards , demand will pick up again from online software publishers (and not just those that enable better communication). After all, since teleworking is here to stay and the companies that succeed are those that place digitalisation at the heart of their strategy, we might as well do as they do and set up a sustainable operation!
With a year's hindsight, we can say that the forced teleworking brought about by the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the digital transformation of French companies.
Teleworking and digitisation: what are the challenges in 2020-2021?
Digital transformation is often reduced to the adoption of digital work tools, but it is in fact a global reflection on the way in which technological developments :
- contribute to the transformation of work ;
- influence the company's offering; and
- make customer relations more fluid.
In this article I'm only interested in the digitisation of working methods linked to the massive development of teleworking, but all these subjects are quite closely linked. Digitalisation can even be motivated by other objectives, such as the need to improve project management, for example.
As far as working methods are concerned, digitisation is no longer just a matter of using an office suite and an e-mail address, as was long thought to be the case (which was tantamount to transposing our "paper" practices onto IT tools).
Today, it's all about taking a step back from the way things currently work and looking at its shortcomings, both for business productivity and for the employee experience, and then asking ourselves how digital technology can help us to do better.
The digital transformation needed to introduce teleworking involves looking at the following issues in particular (depending on your company or business, you may identify others):
- human: creating/keeping a link between employees, encouraging cohesion, opening up areas for exchange, etc. ;
- managerial: having a productive team, working together, allowing everyone to find their place, supporting changes in the business, building trust, etc. ;
- operational: ensuring that everyone has the right working tools, making sure that data is accessible, implementing 100% digitised and fluid processes, etc.
For each of these challenges, SaaS tools have an answer to offer, and seem to have won companies over.
Booming SaaS tools: a response to the teleworking issue?
SAAS tools (for software as a service) are tools that can be used online. They are not installed on your computer; you access them via the Internet and have a secure account (like your inbox, for example). Specialised SaaS tools can be found for a wide range of activities: HR management, payroll, project management, communication, customer support, sales management, recruitment management, etc.
Many companies in the sector have expressed their views on the subject: demand increased sharply during or after the first containment period. I don't want to reduce digitalisation to SaaS tools, but I don 't think it's a coincidence that this trend coincides with the introduction and extension of forced teleworking.
By virtue of the fact that they are hosted online, they already address an issue that comes directly to mind when we talk about teleworking: How can I access my tools from home if I can't connect to the company's secure network?
A SaaS tool can be accessed from any computer as long as you have an Internet connection. For this reason, all the data stored is centralised and easily accessible. However, the security and confidentiality of this data are issues on which the company's responsibility and credibility are at stake, so they are taken very seriously. This is, of course, a valid question, and you should not hesitate to ask your technical department to find out if you have any concerns.
In terms of usage, SaaS tools have exploited the possibilities offered by the Internet, and there's more to come:
- Many of them are collaborative, allowing you to work on the same data in real time . Like, for example, when several people are working on the same Google Doc file.
- The culture of user experience (UX) is central to this sector, which means that the market is full of tools that are easy to use and designed with the user in mind.
- Updates are frequent, bugs are quickly corrected and user needs are taken into account.
- Customer support is often very accessible, and it's easy to find someone to answer any questions.
- They offer more flexible subscriptions than traditional software and are often less expensive.
In my opinion, all these features are a direct response to the challenges of teleworking and make online tools a very interesting response to the development of such a strategy.
Although it may still be complicated to envisage 100% remote working for everyone over the long term, I think it's an organisation that shouldn't be overlooked if you want to remain competitive in the recruitment market. Especially since the majority of French people have had access to teleworking. Here's why:
- The current health situation and ecological issues are leading more and more people to question their urban lifestyle. Coworking spaces are springing up in rural areas, and new generations will soon be finding jobs that give them access to the best of both worlds.
- And while many will want to stay in the city, the "9-5 office day" model is increasingly being called into question, in favour of a more flexible organisation of work (time and place of work). According to an Avaya study, 49% of French people are in favour of a hybrid working model.
More than just a necessity linked to the health context, teleworking responds to a real social aspiration, and digitalisation is going to become essential for companies. Especially if they want to recruit talent whose day-to-day activity could take place, or already does, in front of a computer. Not to mention the fact that your new talent has grown up with computers. It's a safe bet that they'll be more attracted to companies that are interested in the possibilities offered by new technologies, than to those that are still dragging their feet.
To put it simply: for me, the company of the future is digital.
Article translated from French