Workshifting – Workplace as a Service

Workshfting is a term used by Citrix to describe the fluid movement of your workspace (projects, documents etc.) across the multiple modes and devices you have: Laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.

For example you work on your home PC and then travel to a client site, meaning you’re mobile for some time and then within a Wifi zone for another. You want your current files consistent across each of the devices, not tied to them.

Workforce 2.0 – Cloud Workers

Being able to achieve this ‘workforce agility’ is a key component part of a Workforce 2.0 strategy, referring to the holistic modernization of workplace culture and technology, and should ideally be one of the benefit outputs of the Shared Services Canada initiative.

As explained here Ottawa needs a ‘Cloud Worker‘ strategy, and in this Public Policy Forum research the Government of Canada is another organization that has recognized the need for this type of modernization.

It recommends they follow the private sector in the adoption of dynamic approaches to organizational models and methods of office working, but likely many large enterprise organizations it faces much ‘baked in’ resistance.

Culture is as important if not more so, as much of this change is at a broader social maturity level where ‘old fashioned’ organizations will stick with rigid employee policies with regards to flexitime, working from home and so forth.

With so many of the workforce now used to employers who have embraced the change then this is a harmful position, as it will turn off many of the more talented and young candidates, who do have options for more enlightened organizations.

The management guru thought leaders in this area include Thomas Malone and his ‘Future of Work‘ book which explains these changing dynamics, and the grand master himself Charles Handy who predicted ‘Portfolio Working‘ many years ago.

Workplace as a Service

Technology is the other half of this equation, and really Cloud Computing represents this equally global shift, where the IT industry has moved on from the client/server era when staff were ‘tightly coupled’ to their desktop PCs, through the Internet and now Cloud age.

Now many people are very active and comfortable with multiple modes of work (mobile, home-based, office etc.), are skilled with many devices (tablets, PCs, laptops) and build project networks across multiple online communities, blogs and wikis.

‘Workplace as a Service‘ is a solutions program to embrace this capability.