Technology advancements are now accelerating faster than our ability to adapt, leaving a huge gap in digital skills. A recent Microsoft study has revealed that 82 percent of UK jobs already require digital skills, and that 69 percent of leaders feel their organisation suffers from a digital skills gap, even though 59 percent of employees believe in the importance of developing their digital skills.

The skills gap is only getting wider. By 2025, there are expected to be three million new tech jobs in the UK, and 60 percent of employers are expecting their reliance on advanced digital skills to grow in the next five years. In effect, organisations hoping to grow and remain competitive in the future need to build a workforce that is equipped to fill these roles and thrive in a digital world of work.

Yet many employees don’t have the skills they need to perform their role currently, let alone in the future.

Demand for digital skills also goes beyond the technology sector. A recent employer survey by the Learning and Work Institute found that the proportion of employers who saw basic digital skills as important for employees was particularly high in certain sectors – including media, marketing, advertising and PR (100 percent), IT and telecoms (99 percent), and finance and accounting (97 percent).

However, even in the industry with the lowest proportion – manufacturing – nearly nine in ten (87 percent) employers said that basic digital skills were important for their workers.

So, what more can businesses and employers do to ensure that we have a steady supply of tech talent joining the sector? And, importantly, how can Microsoft help?

Introducing the Microsoft Connector Community

Whilst many business leaders recognise that their organisation is facing a skills shortage, the challenge often comes in knowing what to do about it.

At Microsoft, we believe that part of the answer to tackling the UK’s digital skills gap is collaboration. Bringing together organisations from across the public and private sector to work collectively and deliver tangible benefits to the prospective careers of young people, while driving growth and innovation across the economy.

The Microsoft Connector Community, part of the Microsoft Apprenticeship Connector, is designed to bridge the digital skills gap. It nurtures a connected community of businesses and organisations that collectively leverage their brands, reputations and resources to address the need for digital skills in the workforce and connect talented individuals to opportunities.

We believe that taking a collaborative approach ensures a steady and well-equipped technology talent pipeline. This is essential to addressing the skills shortages faced by employers today, as well as mitigating future shortages.

I’d like to share my thoughts on how this could work:

1. Creating a connected talent ecosystem: When employers work together to support, empower and inspire young people, rather than bombarding them with too many competing options, we all benefit. By using the Microsoft Apprenticeship Connector to advertise digital vacancies, digital skills bootcamps and opportunities for learning and training, we can create a highly visible and inspiring platform that enables young people to find the opportunities that are right for them. In addition, by pooling vacancies across one platform, with a single access point for roles, we can recycle and share talent. We can also signpost applicants towards other vacancies and employers, even if they have been unsuccessful in applying to a different company.

2. Simplifying the talent pipeline: We can help simplify the technology talent pipeline by reimagining how we advertise digital vacancies and training opportunities. For example, we can reach a larger and more diverse pool of candidates by simplifying the language that we use across our digital vacancies. This might increase engagement with candidates from non-conventional technology and digital backgrounds – allowing us to widen our talent pool and employ people who bring a unique and diverse perspective to the sector.

3. Leveraging expertise and insight: A coalition of like-minded individuals enables us to learn from one another’s expertise and experience, helping us to identify, profile and address the systemic issues that are stifling the UK’s economy. What’s more, the Apprenticeship Connector can also support business leaders and employers to better understand the social impact of the work that they’re doing. With demographic and geographic insight, we can identify and better target under-represented and under-served groups.

Building a Connector Community in Greater Manchester

As part of Microsoft’s UK Get On commitment, we’re committed to helping 30,000 people find jobs in the technology sector in Greater Manchester.

I recently had the pleasure of joining colleagues in the region for an event focused on building a connected talent system, as part of National Apprenticeship Week. After the event, I caught up with Greater Manchester Regional Lead, Marie Hamilton, for her take on how the introduction of Microsoft Connector Community could empower the next stage of the Get On campaign in Greater Manchester, and across the UK. Marie said:

“Greater Manchester is now the fastest growing technology hub in Europe, but to maintain this growth, we need to build a skilled and sustainable digital workforce. Working collectively across sectors and industries, regionally and nationally, allows us to understand and measure the skills gap, as well as enabling us to build a shared plan to tackle it.

Our National Apprenticeship Week event demonstrated huge enthusiasm for using the Connector Community model to further the progress made by Get On – as shown by the attendance from not only our largest private sector customers but also across the public sector, academia, central and local government”.

Marie Hamilton, Greater Manchester Regional Lead

What’s next?

Over the coming months, Microsoft will be holding a series of regional roundtable events to help businesses and organisations understand more about the Microsoft Apprenticeship Connector, and the Connector Community.

To find out more, please visit the Microsoft Apprenticeship Connector platform.

Microsoft Get On

At Microsoft, we believe everyone deserves access to the skills, knowledge and opportunity needed to achieve more. Through our Get On commitment, we’re helping 1.5 million people build tech careers and connecting 300,000 to tech job opportunities.

You can find out more by visiting our Digital Skills Hub, where you’ll find a host of information and resources designed to provide business leaders and employers with insights on how to close the UK’s skills gap, harness new technology and drive innovation.

You can also explore Microsoft Learn, which has an array of certifications, modules and learning pathways designed to help business leaders to upskill employees, as well as supporting individuals to take control of their careers and build vital digital skills.

Find out more

Microsoft Digital Skills Hub

Microsoft Apprenticeship Network

How Microsoft is connecting jobseekers to employers

About the author

I am the UK Apprentice Lead for Microsoft in the HR team. Working with apprenticeships since 2012, I have also worked with SMEs creating, designing, and delivering large corporate apprenticeship programmes. My role at Microsoft is all about creating and developing an apprenticeship strategy that supports our UK business and delivers an exceptional experience for both our apprentices and our business.

The post New connections: how we’re bridging the UK digital skills gap appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Using hard data as a starting point, we explore the changing world of hybrid work. Guided by our own experiences of neurodivergence and disability, we debate how a more collaborative and accessible approach can drive efficiency across the public sector. In most cases we find that it can be done using technology that governments already possess.  

As a former policy advisor with hands-on experience of shaping equality legislation, these issues are all very close to my heart. 

Aligning leaders and teams to make hybrid work, work

The first episode of the Public Sector Podcast Series, season four, is The Future of Work – Facing the Hybrid Challenge. In it, Microsoft’s Henry Rex, industry advisor, and Rakhi Sachdeva, modern workplace specialist, discuss findings from the latest Work Trends Index report. The numbers reveal a significant disconnect between managers and teams around attitudes to remote working. 87 percent of remote employees reported feeling confident in their productivity at work, while only 12 percent of managers felt the same way about the performance of their remote teams.  

Managers can benefit from investing more trust in their teams and using soft skills to ensure that everyone gets access to the vision and culture of the organisation, which is key to productivity. Helping staff learn new skills ‘on the go’ improves both retention and productivity. We also discuss how a more flexible approach to work can empower individuals who have differing needs to be more effective. Building trust between management and staff enables everyone to align around the public service mission; as Henry Rex points out, people often join an organisation for the money, but stay there for the culture.

Neurodivergence and the innovation challenge

In episode two, Innovate Together, Microsoft account technology strategist, Andrew Boxall, talks about managing change in government and how it can enable staff to embrace more productive and collaborative ways of working. Along the way we discuss our shared experiences of being neurodiverse in the workplace, which provides insights into the challenges of data-driven innovation. 

Addressing bias and differing learning styles enables public servants to collaborate better across organisations. The Innovate Together initiative, supported by Microsoft, aims to accelerate innovation and best practice sharing across the public sector. Trailblazers like Norfolk County Council provide an inspirational example of how advanced techniques such as robotic process automation can drive efficiency.  

Success depends on leaders who set an example and have the initiative to share their learnings. All our guests agreed that making better use of existing tools is a great way to achieve incremental efficiency gains in government, and start building confidence. 

Extending accessibility and inclusion to drive productivity 

In episode three, Accessibility, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, I speak to Maria Grazia Zedda, senior EDI manager at HS2, who is severely deaf. Maria Grazia speaks movingly about overcoming the challenges of disability and hardship when she arrived in London as a young woman. London is also where she found support on her career path and discovered her vocation, improving accessibility in the workplace for everyone. These uplifting experiences are captured in her first novel which is to be published in her native Italy. 

Maria Grazia welcomes the adoption of new technologies that enhance accessibility and inclusion, such as minicoms and auto-captions (Live Captions in Microsoft Teams), the use of which was accelerated by remote working. The momentum now needs to be maintained so that inclusion becomes a fundamental principle of the workplace and the built environment. 

Explore episodes from our previous series 

Our previous three podcast series provide fascinating insights into how efficiency in the public sector could be improved with fresh thinking.  

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season One

In Public Sector Podcast Series – Season 1, guests discuss how citizen services can be enhanced using new digital technologies. Further episodes explore the challenges of managing security across government in a digital world, and overcoming the barriers to legacy estate reduction. Hindsight is also explored as a means of understanding past mistakes and improving government performance in the future.

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season Two

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season 2 builds on these themes, looking at how citizen identity in government can be managed simply and securely. The challenges of hybrid work, and the uses of geospatial data science in the context of the government’s levelling-up agenda, are also up for discussion. A highlight from series two is the episode that draws lessons from the Environment Agency’s experience of digital transformation. Cross-government data sharing also comes under scrutiny.

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season Three

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season 3 digs deeper into data sharing and how citizens engage with government. We assess the government’s Green agenda and the challenge of data literacy in driving innovation across the public sector. And what, we ask, do young people think about entering public service? We devote an episode to figuring out the changing face of apprenticeship in a hybrid world.

Find out more

Successful trial of the Microsoft and Socitm Change Agent programme

Our innovation – Norfolk County Council

Microsoft 365 Collaboration Blueprint for UK Government – Microsoft Industry Blogs – United Kingdom

How the public sector can streamline operations and innovate with intelligent automation – Microsoft Industry Blogs – United Kingdom

About the author

Aaron has worked at Microsoft as an industry advisor for central government for the last four years. Before that he spent twenty-five years in the public sector across a number of departments, in both central and local government, leading on technology policy and strategy. Most notably, he worked on the creation of the Equality Acts (2006 and 2010), the Public Sector Equality Duty and the translation of the EU Accessibility Regulations over to the UK. Outside of his day job, Aaron lectures on accessibility, inclusion and neurodiversity at local institutions and across the wider tech sector.

The post How to make government more effective in a hybrid world: podcast series appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

We’ve always had accessibility standards ensuring we use closed captions and subtitles but we needed to think beyond that. Like many organisations, our accessibility journey is ongoing. It adapts as we learn and get feedback from our employees, partners, and customers. As Storytelling & Digital Destinations Lead, I continually challenge myself and my team to reimagine our websites, pushing to create great experiences that everyone can access.

Through our AI for Good cohort, we were made aware that for over 70 million Deaf people globally, their first and preferred language is sign language. Sign languages are structured differently from spoken and written language. As a result, some Deaf people have difficulties understanding content in written form. Many rely on friends and family to access the information they need. For example, getting a COVID vaccination is not a simple task when booking and follow-up information is in written text and healthcare staff are wearing facemasks (reducing the ability to lipread).

Despite our focus on accessibility and ensuring all content has subtitles and closed captions, this identified that our content was still inaccessible to a broad group of people.

“BSL is not the same as spoken English or written English, says Tim Scannell, Signly ambassador. “A lot of companies say English is good enough, because they think that Deaf people can understand English like a first language. We’re trying to show that the Deaf grassroots BSL community don’t necessarily understand English well.”

As part of the Deaf BSL community, Tim and Signly have been researching into the impact of the lack of BSL services. “They [BSL users] would always talk about having to bother somebody who is hearing that they knew.” Tim says. For some, this may be the children of Deaf adults, which then changes their relationships and increases stress and anxiety for both. “It also took Deaf people sometimes long time to understand.” For example, if a hearing customer had an issue with their bank, they could go into the branch, or call and get it sorted quickly. “A Deaf customer, however, will go into the branch and the bank would give them written information to read, or they [the bank] wouldn’t know about booking an interpreter or very rarely that would happen. But most don’t know how. They just apologise and say they couldn’t. A Deaf person just wants better communication.”

Learning about Signly

Technology has the power to help everyone. Therefore, it’s clear that we need to make sure that no one gets left behind. That’s why at Microsoft, we’re always looking at ways we can improve accessibility.

We were introduced to Signly when they became part of our AI for Good programme. Instantly, I knew they’d be a key partner to help us further our inclusion goals.

What do Signly do? Their technology translates written text to sign language. It removes this barrier, making content more accessible and is all run on Azure.

“A lot of firms think about just providing the typical accessibility features and think it’s okay, and it’s always because of the wrong perception that Deaf people are okay with English,” says Tim. “If people only think about the options they’ve set up. That’s not going to work. They need to think sometimes outside of the box.”

And Signly thinks innovatively. Signly allows users to self-serve, view or request sign language translations on webpages. The AI for Good programme helped Signly scale their app. Lloyds Bank became the first UK organisation to offer a translation website in British Sign Language.

“Signly covers the fixed information you have on a website so that you make less calls to need an interpreter,” says Tim.

With only around 1000 interpreters in the UK, it’s important we use technology to assist them in their roles while empowering BSL users. Both the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) express how machine learning or AI signing avatars should not be used when the information being delivered is live, complex or of significant importance to the lives of Deaf citizens. Signly helps free up BSL interpreters to focus on those moments, while giving BSL users equal access to the information when they need it.

Improving access for everyone with sign language

The Microsoft Apprenticeship Network was built to help connect apprentices and organisations together. To bridge a digital skills gap, the UK needs over three million people in tech careers by 2025. Apprentices are key to this.

At the same time, we need to ensure that our new talent is diverse and inclusive. According to the NHS, people who are Deaf or experience hearing loss are more likely to be unemployed. And in employment, 74 percent surveyed felt that their employment opportunities were limited because of their hearing loss. This means we’re missing out on diverse perspectives, building new talent and driving inclusive innovation. We’re also missing out on the potential economic output. If we don’t address these employment rates by 2031 the UK economy will lose £38.6 billion per year.

The low code tech behind the solution

The beauty behind Signly is its simplicity. As a low code solution, it can be easily added to any website. You can translate the pages like we did. So, when you launch you are automatically accessible for everyone. The service also works on demand. Users can request websites to be translated when they need it.

“We use Azure to create a ‘Signing Studio,’” explains Mark Applin, Signly CEO. “It grabs the English straight from the website and fires it straight into the teleprompter for the Deaf translator working from a home studio.”

From there, the video goes back to Azure, and straight onto the web page. And when you update your website, a notification is automatically sent to Signly to update that section. This means all your users are getting the right information at the right time.

The BSL user experience

When Tim showed the website to other BSL users, he said they were amazed and relieved. As one Signly user said: “Wow. That’s wonderful, that’s really beautiful. I’ve had a problem with all kinds of things, whether it’s doctors or banking and nobody will help me with the English. And I don’t know any of that in English… I have to go to Citizen’s Advice. There’s just barriers everywhere. All the companies just won’t help you.”

“People were getting emotional just to see something in their language.”

– Tim Scannell, Signly ambassador

The future of our accessibility journey with sign language

Working with Signly has shown me the massive opportunity it has in democratising access to everyone. Our values are right there on our website. We aim to help everyone achieve more. And we want to not just talk the talk but to walk the walk. Signly helps us achieve this goal. This is the start of a journey. This pilot is a good first step to see how we can scale the technology across other websites. In the future we can even perhaps scale it to our partners and customers.

“I think with Microsoft being such a massive leader, it could have a huge impact on so many other firms and organisations and what can be done. Every website should have sign language content. It makes deaf people feel accepted,” says Tim.

Another Signly user agrees with Tim. “It [BSL on websites] would be a massive benefit. Less stressed, I’d know how to communicate. I wouldn’t constantly have to ask what does this mean, what does that mean. It would give us equality. I can learn at the same time.”

How Signly could transform other industries

It’s also a great opportunity for the public sector to deliver important information to BSL users. For example, the NHS could use it to provide fixed information around vaccinations, as suggested by a Signly user: “They [The NHS] send me a leaflet about the vaccine, and I said, ‘I just can’t read it’. I’ve not had any information about the vaccine. I keep saying ‘where is the interpreter?’ They’re all wearing masks and I can’t lip read them. If I had a bad reaction, I don’t know what to look out for.”

Media companies can also leverage the technology, to provide more equitable access to news and content. “You miss things on the news…The BBC website should have sign language on the news [page]. And the NHS,” adds a BSL user.

Your accessibility journey will be constantly evolving as you learn. It’s important to remember that implementing inclusive designs in your services and products is not a ‘one and done’ job. It’s a continuous process that you must update and approach in new ways. And working with companies like Signly, you can easily scale out these innovations. This endeavour is a stepping stone for us at Microsoft. It’s one we are proud of and hope to expand on.

Find out more

Learn more about Signly

Our accessibility commitment

Help Signly and take part in their social impact research

Resources to empower your development teams

Accessibility fundamentals

Learn the basics of web accessibility

About the author

Great stories demand heroes, emotions, and insight. As Storytelling & Digital Destinations Lead at Microsoft UK, Victoria Oakes places these principles at the heart of Microsoft UK’s content output. In this role, she drives to unify messaging and content across Microsoft using insights at the heart. Through her passion for engaging copy, visual storytelling, and data-driven insights, she truly cares about content being useful, interesting and easy to digest. As a philanthropy advocate, Victoria strongly believes in using technology for social impact, strengthening empowerment and inclusion for all and environmental sustainability.

The post How to empower even more people by challenging accessibility standards appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

But how do you run these sessions remotely while creating that same energy? How can you maximise productivity and return on investment of time and resources? Virtual meetings tend to require more thought and planning to enable and drive business results in an engaging and inclusive way.

We consider some of the underlying assumptions around working in the same physical space to map to a fully virtual way of working model for remote creative thinking sessions.

Moving on from traditional creative thinking sessions 

It’s a general assumption that the investment of time (including travel), focus and energy is offset by generating innovative ideas. This leads to workshops and agendas which are coarse-grained, to maximise the investment in time people have set aside to contribute.

Being somewhere physically can lend itself more naturally to creating serendipitous moments and the feeling of connectedness. Yet, when organised correctly, these moments can be designed into a virtual event.

And when you factor in those other ideas such as travel, and focus, hosting a virtual event can improve those. A major benefit of virtual events is that there is reduced cost and no travel time – there may even be a reduced carbon footprint. This increased flexibility can result in increased attendance, allowing people to carve out the time and get themselves in the right headspace.

Now we have the digital tools to support virtual ways of working, it makes sense that people’s expectations have changed, and they’re more likely to expect virtual events in the future. A virtual event has the potential to be just as good as, or even more successful than a physical event.

What makes a good facilitator for a creative thinking session?

It’s important to remember that often ideation session attendees are diverse and in a lot of cases do not have close and pre-established working relationships. This means you need a good facilitator to help drive the session.

They will ensure that everyone is briefed on ground rules, agenda, objectives and required tools. Ongoing active facilitation manages the energy and focus of the group. When all are in the same physical location the facilitator can read visual cues. This needs to be done differently for virtual ideation sessions. Visible or declared accessibility needs can also be more explicit and actively catered for. We’ll go into some depth about how to manage these in the virtual environment.

How to flip from physical creative thinking sessions to virtual effectively

Examine your assumptions

• Video conferencing fatigue is real: Agendas should be much more granular in a virtual setting to ensure breaks.
• Introduce small breakout rooms to ensure everyone can share ideas.
• Establish ground rules.

Virtual accessibility

• Planning is key: Ensure you have accessibility factored in, such as automatic captioning.
• Consider everyone: Use the Accessibility Checker in your presentations and documents to ensure everyone can access them.

Virtual engagement

• Actively plan engagement: Use digital engagement tools to gamify sessions.
• Facilitate creative thinking: Implement warmups, games, and quizzes during breaks.

Virtual tools and processes

• Effective meetings take planning: Share a pre-brief of the tools and processes you will use so participants can familiarise themselves.
• Mistakes happen: Allow time in your agenda in case something doesn’t work right away.

Examine your assumptions for creative thinking sessions

When everyone joins remotely, we need to examine our assumptions of physical meetings. For example, we shouldn’t assume that all attendees have blocked out the half-day or whole day to collaborate. Conversely, we should be mindful that many will be sitting in their home office or living space. Agendas should be much more granular in a virtual setting. Allowing people the time to get away from their desk is a key part of this.

We should challenge our assumptions that workshops must be in a whole or half day event. Consider breaking up your agenda into ‘bites’. Make sure to include recap time to warm people back up. This also allows real time for consolidation of previous sessions and presentations of feedback and insights to guide the group forward.

This approach might mean more facilitation time is needed – potentially filling the time of two facilitators where one was previously enough.

Virtual inclusion

We all make assumptions of how we want to collaborate. Even if we’ve identified strategies to address our subconscious biases, inclusion requires extra consideration in a virtual setting. Virtual meetings have the potential to be a great leveller, where everyone is starting from the same place.

One useful strategy for driving inclusion in diverse groups is to task attendees to write an ‘about me’ slide which is shared ahead of the session. This can outline things such as:

• How I like to work
• My areas of expertise
• What I am hoping to get out of the session
• How I prefer to communicate

Facilitators can also use this to look at the balance of perspectives, objectives and experiences in the team. They can also allocate individuals to breakout groups to maximise diversity or concentrate expertise (as appropriate).

Another useful approach to drive inclusion is to structure your agenda around smaller group breakouts, followed by share backs with the wider group. Smaller groups still need an element of facilitation. However, generally the smaller the group the more opportunity everyone has for their voices to be heard.

Ground rules are also important to establish. Brief attendees to try to be more self-aware and to actively give each other airtime. Establish the use of the ‘Raise hand’ feature in Teams when they want to speak, for example.

In some cases, we have even seen virtual meetings become a cultural leveller, as they flatten organisation hierarchies – for example by reducing deference that team members might have for their boss in a physical setting.

Virtual accessibility

We need to actively plan for specific accessibility needs in virtual settings. In a physical setting visual cues may make accessibility needs more present. Yet, a remote setting may even be an enabler through the use of accessibility features in digital tools such as live captions. Like in physical settings, planning is key.

Virtual engagement for creative thinking

Engagement needs to be more actively planned. Warmups and ice breakers need to be more part of the agenda. Digital tools can help defend against distractions. Asking people to be present is a start. But techniques such as regular voting and gamifying participation can drive engagement. It can also help deliver feedback to facilitators on the level of group engagement and attention, and where help and coaching may be needed.

Consider side challenges – for example quizzes or cryptic puzzles, with prizes awarded to inject purpose. Creativity is your only limit. Make things fun! Equally, actively encourage breaks more regularly than you would with a typical set of back-to-back meetings.

Virtual tools and processes

There are many established design practices and tools to utilise which will help you establish the right methodology, tools and templates. Yet, we should be mindful of how these need to be modified, extended or changed for virtual meetings. Effective physical meetings require preparation. So do virtual meetings.

You’ll need to standardise the overall working method and toolset ahead of time, sharing this and encouraging people to try it out before the meeting. From a process perspective, a small working group should define the process based on objectives and create things like required templates, breakout meeting groups and process guides. And for the first time you try this, allow for things to go wrong by with extra time in your agenda – as they probably will.

Creating engaging experiences for everyone

Where do we get our best ideas from? Diverse groups where everyone has a voice to share their thoughts. That’s why ideation sessions are an essential business tool to solve the problems of today and create the opportunities of tomorrow.

And because we’ve moved more to virtual meetings, this means more people can take part, solving challenges quicker and building new ideas. When done in a clear and structured way, they can maximise human creativity and drives business results.

Creativity never needs to stop – even in a hybrid or remote working environment.

Find out more

Reimagine the new world of work

Discover how to respond to the new world of work with leadership, culture and practice

About the author

Terry Room is currently a Managing Architect for Microsoft Consulting Services in the UK. With over 20 years of technology industry experience, he leads a cross disciplinary team of consulting architects and digital advisors, with a focus on driving large scale business and technology transformation with strategic enterprise customers through the design of compelling business cases, resilient technology architectures, and transformation programmes which deliver sustainable business value.

The post How to encourage creative thinking inclusively and remotely in the new world of work appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

If I told you, that one in five of your most crucial workforce, the one who spends the most time speaking to your customers, doesn’t have the right tools to do their jobs, would you believe me? Frontline workers are the first people to see your brand, interact with your customers and ultimately, the ones who leave a lasting impression. Customers rely on the services our frontline workforce provide. Your business depends on the operational tasks they perform. And finally, your brand and reputation is based on their success.

What are you missing if you are not connecting to the people who are seeing your customers every day? A huge opportunity to innovate and improve business operations. I see Microsoft’s role as a tech provider to build the technology that helps everyone do their best work, including frontline workers. For organisations, your role is to create an inclusive culture where everyone can be at their best. Accessible tools help you foster this culture. Here’s how you can empower your frontline workforce using accessible tools.

The diversity of the frontline workforce

A billion people in the world have some sort of disability. Let that sink in.

Today, I am focussing on tools that can help those with hidden disabilities, literacy, and language. It’s important to understand that accessible tools level the playing field for all. Organisations who have improved productivity, employee wellbeing, and innovation are ones with an inclusive culture. They support their employees and give them confidence to be their best selves in the workplace.

Therefore, enabling these accessible tools is an opportunity for organisations. You are addressing challenges faced by your people. You’re also empowering them to be confident and building an innovative, inclusive workforce.

Hidden disabilities

80 percent of people who are disabled have hidden impairments. And often people don’t feel comfortable bringing them up. For example, 73 percent of people with dyslexia don’t tell their employers. But when you have accessible tools built into your systems, everyone is on a level playing field to access the resources they need in their own way.

Immersive Reader is a tool found in most of Microsoft 365 apps. For example, an employee can use it in Teams to make it easier for them to read company announcements, messages, and documents.

Literacy

According to the US National Skills Coalition, 60 percent of service sector workers have limited literacy skills. In the UK, the National Literacy Trust says over 7 million people can be described as having ‘very poor literacy skills’.

Using Microsoft Teams and Shifts on personal mobile devices empowers workers to be able to use your software in their own way. They can take advantage of accessible tools such as Read Aloud and Smart Lookup to ensure they understand the information as it’s presented to them.

Language

Frontline workers will be interacting with people from different backgrounds and with different first languages. In fact, 38 percent of people in the UK over five speak at least one other language.

Microsoft Translator is a powerful tool that can translate written text or spoken word to the relevant language.

For those frontline workers in manufacturing, 80 percent have noise related hearing loss. Enabling automatic captions can ensure that everybody gets the same information at the same time and can fully take part in team meetings.

An inclusive digital partnership

One story that really crystallises to me the impact of accessible tools on culture is our partnership with Sodexo. As the leading provider of Quality of Life services for working professionals, Sodexo wanted to offer new and innovative services to its clients. They also wanted to further develop employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Therefore, they chose Microsoft 365 to enable communications and collaboration across its business, giving these tools to frontline workers. What they saw was a more empowered team and a whole organisational culture of inclusivity and collaboration. They also saw the digital skills of their frontline workers increase. This meant that their services to their customers also improved.

How tech can drive inclusion

Organisations should want everyone to feel connected be able to collaborate and coexist efficiently. Giving people accessible tools will ensure that they have the confidence to do the job as best they can, while still feeling part of a bigger picture. They’ll be able to spend more time on value-added tasks and be more engaged.

We’ve talked a lot about how accessible tools can help foster a culture of innovation and inclusivity. But it’s important to remember that it also makes good business sense. According to the Harvard Business Review’s The Value of Belonging at Work, if employees feel like they belong, you will see a 56 percent increase in job performance, a 50 percent drop in turnover risk and 75 percent in reduction of sick days.

Take action

So now it’s time to take action. Start the conversation with your business leaders and HR about empowering your frontline workers with technology. Take some time for yourself to learn how to enable inclusive features for your employees and share this information out for everyone to do so. See what includes accessible features are built into Microsoft 365, for example by learning fundamentals and best practices on Microsoft Learn. And if you have any questions, you can always reach out to our Disability Answer Desk and we will help in any way we can.

Remember this is a journey. Listen to your employees and see what they feel they need to be able to do their best work. By including everyone in your journey you will be more likely to be successful and foster that inclusive culture you want.

Find out more

Watch the on-demand session on building an inclusive frontline workforce

Re-imagine the new world of work

Discover how to build an inclusive culture in the new world of world

About the author

Hasan is a Product Marketing Manager and UK Lead for our frontline worker business. Having been a frontline worker across many roles, his passion is helping people be their best, through the power of technology. Having emigrated to the UK at an early age, he enjoys staying true to his values of helping all people through storytelling and empowering everyone to achieve more. Hasan has held several roles across Product Management, Marketing and Retail, across the UK.

The post Empowering your diverse frontline workforce with inclusive technology appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

AI for human ingenuity

This ethos is at the heart of our AI for Good Accelerator programme, created in partnership with the Social Tech Trust, a charity that provides the investment and support needed for social tech ventures to grow and scale their social impact. It’s open to UK start-ups who are developing a solution that focusses on one of four areas: AI for Earth, AI for Accessibility, AI for Humanitarian Action and AI for Cultural Heritage.

When technology is built with inclusivity at heart, it has the ability to ensure everyone can stay empowered, especially as we rely on more digital forms of connecting. For example, Live captioning in virtual meetings can help those who are hard of hearing or are in noisy rooms.

2020 saw our world change the way we work and connect, leaning more on digital solutions. When the lockdown closed stores and in-person services in the UK, people moved to digital services. It’s important to ensure these services are accessible for everyone. Some of the members of the AI for Good cohort are directly addressing digital inclusion with their solutions.

Digital inclusion to vital services

Signly is helping people who are deaf, hard of hearing and have British Sign Language (BSL) as a first language by serving up pre-recorded, broadcast quality signed content, signed by real people, in-browser. While users can use the browser extension to request specific pages, some companies are taking the step to have pages already translated for users. Lloyds Banking Group recently asked Signly to inject sign language into their website so that deaf users had entirely equal access.

Improving communications for everyone

To reflect our multicultural society, it’s important we have the ability to easily translate information into the right language so everyone has the same understanding. Akari Translation Studio is helping employees manage workload and easily support customer’s individual needs. Users can upload multiple documents and translate it into one of 60 languages, using AI to ensure the document has the correct context. For example, a tenancy agreement can be translated into another language, as well as the communication around it.

Helping build resilience

Our increased use of technology has bought different stressors and affected people in different ways. For those remote working, they may find themselves blurring the line between work and life. To ensure employee wellbeing, it important to check up on everyone. MyCognition has built an accessible platform that helps monitor, treat and increase mental resilience. The app creates personalised on-demand programmes to help users reduce stress and improve mental health.

AI for good

These three companies are providing vital services that amplify human capability to ensure everyone is included in the digital future – a core stance of our AI for Accessibility platform.

They, along with the rest of our AI for Good cohort have two things in common: They all are creating positive social transformation and using technology to power that. GrantTree, who helps innovative UK companies find government funding, spoke to some of cohort on their What Comes Next? Podcast. Hear their stories on how they are solving some of the world’s biggest problems.

Episode 1

The start of the AI for Good series, What Comes Next? learns about how Signly improves access to websites for people who use BSL as their first language and Akari Solutions is increasing access to vital services with auto-translation. They also find out about how MyCognition is building mental resilience with AI.

Episode 2

What Comes Next? talks to Hello Lamp Post, an app that lets users interact with their built environment in order to learn or give feedback to urban planners. They also learn about how Recycleye is using machine vision to revolutionise recycling. They learn about how Baobab Connect improves access to the justice system via legal connection.

Episode 3

Learn about how BeneTalk can improve speech therapy outcomes with its unique mix of wearable app, online counselling, and eventually personalised support delivered via an AI that helps people who stutter to access training and support. Good Boost is also providing personalised water-based rehabilitation program with AI to people with musculoskeletal problems. Finally, discover how OrxaGrid uses advanced machine learning algorithms and IoT sensors to create detailed analytics about our energy networks and the demands placed upon them by next generation technologies.

Episode 4

The final episode of the series, the team learn about how miiCARE uses a combination of AI and home-monitoring tools to protect the elderly and how Ecosync harnesses AI to reduce heat and energy waste in buildings. In addition, they take a look back on the series.

Three ways you can increase digital inclusion

It’s important that whether we work remotely, or are heading back into the office to ensure we meet everyone’s needs. As part of our Resilient Operations Report, we took a look at a number of ways you can build agile teams. This included how you can ensure everyone is connected, while keeping digital inclusion at the heart:

Improve communication

Look for communication tools that let you use a mix of audio, video, and chat. That way your employees can be comfortable to communicate whatever way that suits them. Microsoft Teams has extra accessibility tools such as live captioning, screen blurring, narrations and more, to help people work in their best way.

Use tools that are accessible by design

Over 70 percent of disabilities are invisible. There’s also situational challenges that people need support or assistance for. That’s why it’s important to ensure your documents, presentations, and communications are suited for all. Have captions, providing recordings or transcripts of meetings allows your people to review and follow at their own pace. Make sure your presentations and documents are inclusive by using the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft 365.

Building inclusive tools

Building voice, vision, and other cognitive capabilities into applications will increase accessibility and usage. Your developers will be able to do this with Azure Cognitive Services.

Find out more

Resilient Operations Report

What Comes Next? Podcast,

4 skills organisations can embrace to use AI for social good

Be part of our next AI for Good cohort

Tools to empower your development team

Build accessibility into your apps

About the author

Since joining Microsoft 12 years ago, Eve has taken on numerous challenges which have continually driven her capabilities and expertise. Using her strong communications skills, she prides herself on putting customers and employees first and will always strive to ensure Microsoft’s commitment to them is met. In her role as the Responsibility manager, she creates and manages relevant CSR projects within the UK, focusing programmes where she believes we can truly deliver impact, align to our business model, and positively amplify Microsoft’s society brand. Eve works closely with key influencers across the sector, building strategic partnerships and reaching customers with relevant content that showcases the value and relevance of Microsoft technology. She manages key programmes like the AI for Good activity, Environmental Sustainability, Employee Volunteering and Giving, and Accessibility.

Eve is hugely passionate about Environmental Sustainability and the impact the ever changing modern life has on the planet. Technology has a significant role to play in reducing our impact and offering innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. She is also fascinated by the Charitable sector and the valuable contribution it makes to UK society – which is often under the radar and largely unrecognised. Coupling this with her love for technology, she is able to work in areas that keep her highly motivated and driven to exceed the targets she is challenged with.

The post How inclusive technology can improve your digital experiences appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.