How Work is Changing
The world of work is changing and the days of a ‘job for life’ are over.
How Work is Changing
The world of work is changing and the days of a ‘job for life’ are over.
Research from LinkedIn found that its most recent graduate users can expect to have at least three different jobs in the first five years of their careers, twice as many as people who left university in the early 1990s.
Also, more businesses rely on a more flexible workforce made up of short-term staff, contractors and part-time workers. Equally, even staff staying within the same business can expect to see their job function and location change more often than in the past.
All of this puts different demands on office technology. With people moving more rapidly between jobs there is no longer time for lengthy inductions and training.
There is also a generation change. Younger staff make different demands on technology and how easily and quickly they can learn how to use it. They expect business hardware to work just like the technology they’ve grown up using. That means technology that works in a similar way to mobile apps, using an easily-understandable interface. They do not expect to have to learn how systems work or connect to each other.
Instead, business hardware and software needs to be intuitive. Systems need to work with mobile devices without complicated syncing or pairing procedures.
FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s new multi-function devices (MFDs) all embrace this change by following four basic rules:
- The way you interact with the multi-function devices is based on smartphone and tablet interfaces. There are no complicated drop-down menus to select or long text-based options.
- All the different options and functions have an associated graphic on the touch screen. There is no need for menus to read.
- Instead of old-fashioned control panels with lots of buttons, there is now a simple screen and single home button. Users can see graphics for every function they need on one screen and scroll just like on a smartphone.
- Users will find it easy to move from machine to machine, or learn to use an upgraded machine because there is a consistent look and feel across the whole range.
The MFDs can be accessed with almost any mobile device. They also have an icon for instant access to cloud services.
The devices will wake up automatically when someone stands in front of them. The new usability enhancements include light and sound notifications for different events.
It all adds up to a user experience that feels familiar and intuitive from the first time it is used.
It is impossible to guess exactly how the office of the future will change. But the best technology will provide the flexibility to move with the times and the evolving needs of staff. Whatever the future looks like, it seems clear that we will all need technology which is as easy to use as possible by as many people as possible.
More information on how FUJIFILM Business Innovation can help your organization evolve to deal with these changes is available on our product pages.
