Some 86% of Thai business leaders believe their employees are their greatest asset amid the need to drive digital transformation, according to a recent survey by IT giant Dell Technologies.
It is vital for businesses to support their employees by providing a hybrid work infrastructure, increasing automation to free up more time for employees to focus on what they do best, and for companies to take care of their workers, the firm said.
Anothai Wettayakorn, vice-president for Asia emerging markets and South Asia consumer business at Dell Technologies, said the pandemic sped up the need for companies to pursue digital transformation.
"This shift demands new, aligned and change-ready organisational structure and culture," Mr Anothai said during a briefing about Dell's new study, entitled "Breakthrough: Breaking through barriers to digital transformation at the intersection of people and technology".
The study was commissioned by Dell with fieldwork conducted by market research firm Vanson Bourne.
The study gauged the opinions of 10,500 decision makers in senior business roles and IT as well as employees involved in digital transformation in more than 40 countries, including 200 respondents in Thailand, from August to October 2021.
He said the survey found 86% of Thai respondents, compared with 90% in Asia-Pacific and Japan and 85% globally, said their employees are their greatest asset.
Some 66.5% of those surveyed in Thailand believed their organisations underestimate requirements for people when planning transformation programmes, while 74% are convinced their business needs to provide the necessary tools and infrastructure to work flexibly.
According to the survey, 58% of the Thai respondents said their organisations know what it takes to digitally transform the workforce.
Despite the huge progress and efforts of the past few years, the research shows there is still potential for transformation to stall as 69% of respondents in Thailand believe it is their employees' resistance to change that can lead to failure.
Some 54% fear they will be shut out of the evolving digital world because of a lack of people with the right authority or vision to capitalise on the opportunity.
Mr Anothai said despite the economic headwinds, corporations still believe IT spending is important to pursue their digital transformation journey for data analytics, cloud and security.
Thitaphon Boonprasit, newly appointed managing director for Thailand at Dell Technologies, highlighted three approaches for organisations to pursue sustainable digital transformation.
First, it is important to provide employees with consistent and secure work experiences, and provide the necessary tools and infrastructure to work from anywhere, he said.
Second, help drive productivity by augmenting human capabilities with technology tools to allow employees to focus on what they do best by reducing repetitive processes and enabling them to learn new, sought-after skills such as leadership, machine learning and strategic opportunities.
Finally, Mr Thitaphon said firms should inspire employees through an empathetic culture and utilising authentic leadership.
Dell can support businesses by enabling them to embrace the future of work, providing multi-cloud capability, data innovation and protection via modern security, he said.