Rather, the workplace is defined by the tools you use, wherever you are.

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Companies are now partaking in five trends to close this gap, provide a satisfying workplace and deliver employees the tools they need to get the job done.

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We hope the headlines of 2012 will feature stories of what they have been able to do by not only putting people back to work, but by given them the tools of the postdigital workplace, where people again matter.

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Sharon Makin, whose role is to market Big White Wall, says the service will also extend into the workplace giving people at work the tools they need to assess their well-being and to find new ways to adapt to lifestyles where work is always present.

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Perhaps most significantly, information flows between employees, and between employees and the outside world via traditional social media tools, can create greater workplace democracy and meritocracy.

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The ease by which staff can now connect with one another via social-networking tools like Twitter and Facebook has brought similar expectations to the tools they use in the workplace.

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Personally, I'm convinced that the answer to America's immigration woes is a middle-of-the-road approach that combines enforcement measures (continued workplace raids, speedier deportations, more spending on tools and technology for border patrol agents, etc.) with guest workers, an increase in legal immigration, a tamper-proof ID card for all U.S. employees, tougher sanctions for employers and a path to earned legalization for illegal immigrants who came into the country before January 1, 2000.

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Thankfully, we have now come full circle and have the tools to once again collaborate and learn on the job with the use of advanced technology available in the workplace.

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