According to the Future of Jobs 2020 report by the World Economic Forum, technological adoption by companies is all set to transform skills and jobs by 2025. 84% of employers are rapidly digitalizing their work processes, including remote working expansion. With the workplace transforming at such a fast pace, one can only be ready to experience the obvious shift in the overall employee experience.
Digital HR is indeed the way to go. Not only because of the remote working situation. But also, because the pandemic has rendered it to be true – That working from home is possibly the near future. With teams working virtually for over two quarters now, AI being tried and tested and successfully blended into our operating systems, keeping the employees digitally engaged is essential.
HR has been working hard towards reducing the rate of attrition by synergizing with innovation to design personalized employee engagement models. And the shift in employee experience is a given.
Out Of Sight NOT Out Of Mind
For years humans have thrived in a physical working space. Despite all the commutation woes and the lack of desirable infrastructure, the routines of many have been disrupted. Each individual has a unique personality. But at the end of the day, living in a state of unpredictability does get taxing.
Juggling work while at home is not easy. The responsibilities amplify, the pressure starts building, and the expectations are constantly on a rise. Resulting to stress, anxiety, body aches, insomnia, and borderline depression. A 2019 study by Gallup stated that about 76% of employees have experienced work burnout at some point in their professional career. In 2020, with the sudden breakout of the pandemic, the numbers just got worse.
Is the lack of passion to work, a drop in productivity, and stagnation in performance justified then?
Interference or Interventions?
A recent survey by Slack stated that 72% of knowledge workers in the U.S. prefer a hybrid approach and the flexibility of working remotely as well as from office. Scheduling a zoom call for facilitating a digital detox may not be a wise move, but planning a random evening of digital laughter could work. Employees in the current situation globally are seeking for a sense of belonging that keeps them going. Only when organizations invest in their holistic well-being will there be a sense of reciprocation.
How does an organization then ensure workplace well-being of its workforce while working remotely?
Along with making provisions to ensure that logistically an employee is empowered to work seamlessly, organizations must up their game and take a keen interest in what the employee is ‘not saying’. Pulse surveys and recognition rewards are a given. But complementing it with a robust Employee Assistance Program is also a must. Instilling a medium where your workforce can vent out as well as share their opinions is absolutely easy with a simple technological intervention.
What Matters The Most?
With the amount of retrenchments, salary pay cuts, halts in appraisals, and internal realignments, job expectations are becoming ambiguous every day. Goal setting motivates people no longer. Achieving targets have become a hassle and cost-cutting is become the new normal thereby increasing the work pressure. In such a scenario, ensuring employee well-being at work becomes integral; irrespective of the environment that they work in.
Employee expectations are now leaning towards upskilling to ensure job security. And therefore, learning and development must be integrated into the overall employee experience. Be it learning a new life skill, learning how to enhance their leadership skills, or even learning how to better market a product.
Moreover, the organizational focus needs to shift towards ‘sensitization’. Being empathetic towards your colleagues and building your team’s resilience to collectively be productive is a necessity. If the expectations have evolved, the experience must also be transformed. Policies must be custom-made to cater to the employees and not put them in a spot. A lot of problem can be solved merely by listening to what your employee’s expect from their leaders and management. Use automation to support not to subject. A people-centric approach is what the HR must work towards building upon.
As an organization, what is it that you will invest in to ensure that your rate of attrition reduces? Does your strategy of an engaging employee experience help invoke a sense of pride to work? Time to rethink workplace efforts and create a happy and sustainable employee experience!
