In today’s increasingly hybrid and remote work environments, fostering a positive employee experience has become critical to success. Employers understand this. According to Willis Tower Watson’s 2021 Employee Experience Survey, “92 percent of employers say enhancing employee experience will be a top priority over the next three years.”
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no handbook for navigating the rapidly changing work landscape. Many organizations stumbled through a difficult transition. But those same organizations started to learn how to operate in the new world of moving the office experience into the digital realm. Now, leaders seek to use both technology and processes to keep employees engaged and to be more responsive to how people feel and interact when working in different settings.
Digital workplace technologies connect employers with all employees, whether they are working remotely or in the office. In this way, the technologies ensure team members have access to the tools they need to stay engaged. Strategically selected and properly deployed digital workplace technologies enhance the employee experience in the following three ways.
They Drive Efficiency and Employee Satisfaction
Employee productivity tools are frequently aggravating to use and incompatible with each other. As a result, employees have a hard time finding information and must use multiple applications to complete what should be straightforward processes.
Removing this friction is essential when people work asynchronously. Organizations must empower employees to get work done faster without experiencing interruptions when switching to different platforms to perform tasks. The solution is building a workplace specifically for hybrid and remote employees. Doing that requires permitting employees to make their own schedules and work from different locations while still having access to the communications and information they need to collaborate.
When organizations transition from disparate tools to a truly integrated digital workplace hub, technology no longer impedes employees’ ability to do great work. Everyone in the organization can easily share content and access necessary resources on demand. Well-designed digital workplaces also deliver personalized content and tools to get more done, making everyone more efficient and productive.
A seamless remote work environment centralizes the range of digital tools so employees can access materials in the context of their team or project. Enabling employees to focus on the tasks that utilize their skills and talents empowers people to do the work they feel is satisfying rather than spending their day searching for information.
From a management perspective, a fully digital communications platform helps ensure all employees have access to consistent, timely and accurate information. This increases the likelihoods that processes will be implemented correctly and that critical news is promptly distributed across time zones.
They Foster a Strong Organizational Culture
PwC’s 2021 Global Culture Survey found that “66 percent of C-suite executives and board members believe culture is more important to performance than the organization’s strategy or operating model.” The good news here is that the right technologies make it possible for everyone to contribute to organizational culture by digitizing some of the rituals of the in-office experience.
Communications and collaboration tools facilitate activities such as remote team lunches and virtual show-and-tells. And digital work experiences are expanding beyond the front office as organizations realize the need to engage all employees, be they knowledge workers with assigned desks or frontline and deskless workers. Social hubs create a virtual watercooler effect where remote and hybrid workers can communicate and collaborate from any location and even exchange content like photos that are not directly related to work.
In short, digital workplaces strengthen organizational culture by putting faces to names and helping people feel closer to each other. Collaboration is critical to a truly connected organizational culture, and employees can successfully build personal and productive relationships within a digital workplace platform. Even new hires can begin making connections across the organization from day one by engaging with forums to share ideas and information about events and clubs.
They Ensure Employees Are Heard
With so many organizations undergoing dramatic changes during the pandemic, it is increasingly essential that employees feel they can share their opinions. As face-to-face interactions became less common, employees struggled to maintain their connections with coworkers, their organizations and their sense of purpose at work. Digital workplace solutions offer two-way communication options that enable employees to have a voice.
Technology can facilitate conversations, personal connections, impromptu chats and touchpoints between coworkers. Employees can share knowledge, collaborate on projects or connect socially. These digital interactions can strengthen employee engagement, which directly and positively impacts retention and productivity.
Well-designed digital workplaces can also have a tangible impact on an organization’s bottom line. However, the tools themselves do not enhance employee engagement and organizational performance. Nor will positive effects be felt overnight. Before choosing the tools, processes and opportunities that will best solve existing problems, employers must listen to employees to better understand their needs.
For instance, a modern intranet platform can do much more than serve up work-related information. An organization’s intranet can also be a place for communicating where the organization stands on social issues, highlighting diversity and inclusion initiatives, and having conversations about how people are participating in their communities. Facilitating these kinds of communications in which the organization shares its values and employees are heard is especially valuable now. A survey conducted for the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report revealed 61 percent of employees “choose, leave, avoid or consider employers based on their values and beliefs.”
Workplace dynamics have been forever altered, for both employers and employees. During this transformative period, organizations must prioritize the employee experience and purposefully integrate the right digital workplace technologies to make life easier and more fulfilling for employees. When solutions are deliberately implemented within an organization, employees can structure their workdays in the way that is best them. Equally important, everyone will feel encouraged and empowered when they are provided with the means to contribute to the culture.
01 April 2022
Category
HR News Article