Digital Workplace Transformation within Waitrose: Role in Enhancing Employee Engagement and Productivity

Unit 11: Research Project
(Digital workplace transformation
within an organisation)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
Research topic...................................................................................................................................3
Research aim and objective...............................................................................................................3
Research rational...............................................................................................................................4
Research question.............................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................................5
What is the conceptual framework of digital workplace transformation and key driver used within
organisation?.....................................................................................................................................5
What ate the significant roles of digital workplace transformation in order to enhance employee
engagement and productivity within Waitrose?...............................................................................5
What are the challenges faced by Waitrose in absence of digital workplace transformation?.........6
What are the digital strategy adopted by Waitrose in improving employee engagement and
productivity?......................................................................................................................................6
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................................7
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS..............................................................................9
Frequency distribution table..............................................................................................................9
Data presentation and interpretation.............................................................................................10
REFLECTION & RECOMMENDATION FOR ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.........................16
Reflection........................................................................................................................................16
Recommendation for alternative research methodology..................................................................16
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION...............................................................................17
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................20
APPENDIX............................................................................................................................................22
Questionnaire..................................................................................................................................22

INTRODUCTION
Workplace transformation is one of the vital business strategies which provide various
benefits to the company. Workplace transformation is a process of rethinking a working
environment which is more flexible as well as smooth. It is an arrangement of various work,
workers, technology and network which are aligned together in order to improve the
functioning of the business (Vallicelli, 2018). With the help of digital workplace
transformation companies are executing their operation in effective and efficient manner. In
the current research report the investigation is made on the role of digital workplace
transformation which increases the employee engagement and productivity. The present
research is based on Waitrose which is one of the well known retailers in United Kingdom.
The store was founded in 1908 by Wallace Waite, Arthur rose and David Taylor. It
headquarter is located in London, United Kingdom (Eden and et. al, 2019).
Research topic
To identify the significant role of digital workplace transformation in order to enhance
employee engagement and productivity within UK retail industry
Research aim and objective
Research aim:
To identify the significant role of digital workplace transformation in order to
enhance employee engagement and productivity within UK retail industry: A study on
Waitrose.
Research objective:
 To understand the conceptual framework of digital workplace transformation and key
driver used within organisation
 To identify the significant role of digital workplace transformation in order to enhance
employee engagement and productivity within Waitrose.
 To discern the challenges faced by Waitrose in absence of digital workplace
transformation

 To recommend some of the digital strategy adopted by Waitrose in improving
employee engagement and productivity
Research rational
The main rationale behind this investigation is to examine the role of digital workplace
transformation in an organisation. It has been indentified that at the time of COVID-19 the
digital workplace transformation has gained major focus and many organisation has adopted
this business strategy in their workplace. The current research will fulfilled dual perspectives
of the researcher which are personal and professional (Mitrofanova, Konovalova and
Mitrofanova, 2018). With respect to the personal perspective the existing investigation would
build various skills of investigator such as research abilities, announcement skills, analytical
skills and many others. On the other side, with admiration to professional perspective the
researcher would be able to learn various method of digital workplace transformation which
they can use in their organisation when they will be working as a manager.
Research question
 What is the conceptual framework of digital workplace transformation and key driver
used within organisation?
 What ate the significant roles of digital workplace transformation in order to enhance
employee engagement and productivity within Waitrose?
 What are the challenges faced by Waitrose in absence of digital workplace
transformation?
 What are the digital strategy adopted by Waitrose in improving employee engagement
and productivity?

LITERATURE REVIEW
What is the conceptual framework of digital workplace transformation and key driver used
within organisation?
According to the view of Turner (2019), digital transformation can be referred as a
procedure of using various technology and network in the work place in order to improve the
business operation and function. With the existing of digital technology company change and
modify their overall business surrounding so that they can earn competitive advantage from
the competitors. At the time of Covid 19 pandemic the concept f workplace transformation
has gained more importance and many organisations shift their focus to acquire the concept
of workplace transformation in their business. Some of the key drivers of digital workshop
revolution are connection and collaboration, automation, human resource, employee,
communication and many more. With the help of these drivers organisation are realign their
business function with one another in effective and efficient manner so that goal can be
attained in the given time duration (Braganza and et. al, 2021).
What ate the significant roles of digital workplace transformation in order to enhance
employee engagement and productivity within Waitrose?
As per the view of Maltseva (2020), there are various significant role of digital
workplace transformation which assists in making an effective engagement. The role of
digital workplace transformation within Waitrose is as follow:
Communication: The foremost role of digital transformation is making an effective
line of communication between the workers and staff so that remote working can be done in
efficient manner.
Realign the work: Another role of workplace transformation is align work with
technology and network so that duplication of work can be minimised as well as work can be
done in fast pace (Brahma, Tripathi and Sahay, 2020).
Employee engagement: At the time of Covid 19 it becomes very necessary to make
an interaction of employee with work. At that time digital workplace transformation play a
crucial role in making an employee engagement in efficient manner.

What are the challenges faced by Waitrose in absence of digital workplace transformation?
In the eye of Trenerry and et. al (2021), in the absence of workplace transformation
within the organisation there were many challenges which company face which impact their
productivity and performance in negative manner. There are several challenges which is
being faced by Waitrose while not having the concept of workplace transformation in their
stores.
Delay in decision making: the foremost challenge company face is making decision
not in time which impacts them in worst manner. In the absence of technology top managers
are not able to get the beneficially information at time which in other hand deal in making
effective decision for the organisation.
Lack of communication: Another challenge that company face is lack of proper
communication between the members which o the other side reduces the productivity of the
organisation. As employee doesn’t get instruction at proper time which impact the
productivity level in significant manner.
What are the digital strategy adopted by Waitrose in improving employee engagement and
productivity?
As per the view of Nienaber and Martins (2020), there are various types of digital
transformation strategy adopted by Waitrose in their workplace which help them to make a
effective employee engagement as well as increase productivity level. Some of the strategies
they use are as follow:
Remote working: The foremost business strategy that they implemented in their
organisation is adopting remote working so that operation cannot be stopped at the time of
pandemic. In this employee are performing their job outside the working space.
More It technology: Another approach was using more IT tools and equipment in
their space. In this all the work of the workers are aligned with information technology
software. Through this a proper aligned is made which helps in increasing the productivity
level (Kalitanyi and Goldman, 2021).
Some other business ways that they implemented are virtual training and recruitment process,
reducing staff and many more.