The workplace is forever evolving.

With the widespread use of collaboration technology and the addition of Gen Y and Gen X employees, it's knowledge workers who are driving changes in the workplace.

The emerging mantra is: Work is something you do, it is no longer someplace you go. (And if you do go to a traditional office, culture is a determining factor keeping employees happy and engaged!)

As such the definition of a workday is more flexible than ever before and employees are seeking work/lifeintegrationinstead of work/life balance.

As these dynamics shift and the proliferations of new technology becomes more pervasive, creating a successful environment for the future of work will depend on a strong relationship between IT and HR at the executive level.

This creates an opportunity for HR and IT leaders along with the CIO to evolvefromtechnology administrators to strategic business partners.

Recently, I had the chance to participate in a new Future of IT podcast with SAP's Brigette McInnis-Day to discuss how IT and HR leaders could work together in this Future of Work landscape.

Here's a closer look at how these seemingly separate departments can create significant impact in their organizations.

A relationship between HR and IT is critical to attracting and retain top talent.Today's talent pool is extremely competitive. Organizations want to hire the best and brightest talent. And, as mentioned above, the emerging workforce wants anywhere, anytime accessibility.

This demand is bringing HR and IT leaders closer together than ever before. HR needs to be a part of the design and architecture of the solutions and systems IT deploys because they are going to be the ones utilizing it across the company. Together, HR and IT can shape user experience across the enterprise in a valuable and powerful way.

Data Talks.As IT and HR leaders work together, they can stay competitive in today's marketplace by having the right information at the right time.According to Brigette, an HR leader needs to be able to make real-time decisions based on the latest trends and data. IT is an essential partner in this effort. They can help HR make better business decisions for the company in the long run.

Technology can make any organization much more flexible and productive.In my role at Cisco, I travel thousands of miles around the globe every year. But it's significantly less than what it used to be, thanks to advances in mobility, TelePresence and video capabilities. This has enabled me to work virtually anywhere in the world. This capability will only increase as IT and HR leaders work together to enable collaboration.

For more about how IT and HR leaders can develop this collaborative work environment, listen to the new Future of IT podcast episode with Brigette McInnis-Day, Executive Vice President of HR, Global Customer Operations at SAP. You can listen to the podcast episodes via iTunes.

Join the conversation,#FutureOfWork.

Additional resources:

• Read the Cisco Connected World Technology Report
• Listen to recent Future of IT Podcast episodes via iTunes
• Learn more about Cisco Collaboration.