New Google Workspace Frontline: This is how working on the front line will be in the post-COVID era

Technology is facilitating the growth of companies from all types of sectors, making them competitive on levels that were unimaginable until now. The expertise of those who have seen the way of building new lines of business in technological solutions and boosting their companies through providing their teams with effective collaboration tools has been key.

After the initial impact of COVID, companies are now seeking to turn the new methods of working, that they adopted purely to survive, into effective strategies and processes that make their companies withstand and grow. In response to the new reality, in October Google launched Google Workspace, a set of business web applications, an evolution of the former G Suite, which combines electronic messaging and collaboration tools. Now, it has taken another giant leap forward with the launch of Google Workspace Frontline, so that communication and collaboration are genuinely within the reach of all members of the company.

Work today: Google Workspace

According to a recent study carried out by Gartner, 90% of leaders surveyed opt for a hybrid model of working, which combines teleworking methods from home with attendance at the traditional place of work at company headquarters.

This reality still presents many challenges for companies in terms of security, technological infrastructure, etc., but also – and no less important-, in terms of team coordination and connecting employees with the organisations.

Google Workspace was born to respond to all of these challenges. Google has been committed to making this transition to new forms of remote working easier for companies, offering a flexible cloud solution which seeks to achieve the concept of ‘equitable

collaboration’. This philosophy involves strengthening the connection between the people in the companies and increasing their well-being within the company, no matter where they are.

Companies like Sony Pictures Imageworks or Airbus already enjoy Google Workspace, but there is no need to look for references of companies with employees in the tens of thousands. The power of this solution is that it is within the reach of companies of all sizes and sectors. And if there is one type of organisation in which Google Workspace is a real treasure, it is in companies with front line workers.

This is how working on the front line will be in the post-COVID era: 4 keys

For these workers, Google has announced the launch of Google Workspace Frontline, a solution designed to offer companies with front-office employees a platform that serves as a communication and collaboration channel with corporate teams and which is completely secure, even from their own personal devices.

This set of tools is aimed at companies with front line workers. In particular, companies with key workers which may range from health professionals to warehouse or supermarket employees.

If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that companies’ strength primarily resides in the professionals that work in them. But COVID has also exposed the shortcomings of large distribution companies, for example, where many employees provide their own collaboration tools through their personal mobile devices.

With Google AppSheet, no-code applications can be created so that front line workers can digitalise and streamline their work, whether this is, for example, to collect data, notify security risks or manage customer requests. Google Workspace Frontline closes the gap between corporate workers and front-line workers providing them with secure access, on any device, to the information they need.

In the post-COVID era, front line workers will at least have access to:

• Instant collaboration business tools
• Secure internal communication solutions
• Portals where key documentation for them to perform their work is shared
• Tools to create personalised applications that aid the execution of their tasks

Here are the 4 keys of working on the front line in the post-COVID era

1. Security

Without a shadow of a doubt, another of the lessons from the pandemic has been the need to reinforce the security of companies’ IT systems. Companies’ boundaries have been blurred, each employee works from a different place – often changeable- and this forces organisations to guarantee the security of information. Cloud platforms enable administrators to control access and safeguard that information.

2. Time management

Another key to working in the new reality is that we have all learned to value time more and the challenge now is to adjust business processes to gain more of it, to be more efficient and that this has an impact on employee well-being. In this sense, Google Assistant is the tool that enables workers to have a complete overview of their calendar and access meetings or information needed for their day-to-day work from this same point.

An interesting trend is that the new hybrid ways of working are causing many workers to distribute their working day into several sections of between 2 and 4 hours. This forces companies to provide tools that allow them this flexibility, and that they control this change at the same time, so that work-life balance is possible and doesn’t reduce productivity for the company. In this regard, Google has announced new functions that allow workers to share their working hours or indicate their availability, etc. But, in addition, from Google Workspace it is also possible to book in Focus Time for important tasks, which allows people to minimise distractions, limiting notifications during these events.

3. Equity

At Intelligence Partner, as specialists in Google technology, we are also committed to what the company, Stanford, calls “equity of collaboration”. We believe this concept will be the key in the next few years in front line companies, since the well-being and productivity of employees from companies with field and mobile workers depends on it.

Offering frontliners the option of holding meetings from mobile devices with the same capabilities as if they were in an office, or allowing them access and editing in real time of documentation or reports that aid their work collaboratively, wherever they are, will be key.

4. Flexibility towards change

A few lines above, we referred to the lessons that we have all taken from the pandemic on a business level. Flexibility, a concept that has resonated in business areas for years, has become a forced reality. However, it will continue to be key in the post-COVID era.

This is something we have been working on for a long time in companies with front line workers. Offering solutions that readily expand or that can be limited according to changing needs is nothing new and, in this regard, Google’s solutions have always been pioneering.

Do you want to know how Google Workspace Frontline can help you? Contact us to explore together the best way for your company.