What Improves Employee Experience in a Hybrid Workplace?

1. According to a study conducted by SAP and Qualtrics, more than 50% of employees said they would leave their jobs for a company that has a better work culture or employee experience.

2. Another study showed that disengaged employees cost organizations billions annually.

These and other stats emphasize the relevance of creating a positive digital employee experience, it being the precursor to higher employee engagement and retention, better productivity, employee well-being, and profitable business outcomes. Most importantly, in a hybrid workplace, where employees don’t physically meet each other daily, delivering them a wonderful experience becomes crucial.

What is employee experience?

Employee experience can be defined as the sum of all interactions an employee has with an organization. It also comprises an employee’s perceptions from when they are recruited to their exit. This experience includes everything, like the physical work environment, company culture, and the benefits and opportunities for growth and development. Employee experience isn’t just employee happiness or satisfaction. Instead, it is about giving employees an environment where they feel engaged, supported, and valued. In such an environment, employers understand the needs and expectations of their employees. Your employees need an environment that supports their development and well-being.

Elevating Employee Experience in a Hybrid Work Model

Supporting Remote Work

Since employees work most of the time remotely and work from the office only a few days a week or less, you must enable them access to the requisite technology and tools. As you provide easy access to virtual private networks (VPNs), secure networks, and cloud-based software, your employees can work efficiently and be more productive. The IT team should be ready to offer your employees the necessary assistance when they come to the office to toggle between home and office easily.

Guaranteeing Clarity in Communication

In a hybrid work model, there must be clear communication between managers and their teams. As leaders, ensure your teams understand expectations, tasks, deadlines, and other critical information. Even when you can’t meet your team members often, you can do weekly check-ins with them, hold a 1-on-1 meeting, or give them feedback requested using an employee engagement platform. On the employee front, they can see who is working on what and check if others are helping them achieve their goals, well-aligned with the organization’s goals.

Embracing Flexibility

In a hybrid working model, you can improve the employee experience by allowing them the flexibility to choose when they wish to work from home and days when they want to operate from the office. Besides days, flexible work hours permit employees to exercise better control over their work schedules, leading to less stress and more productivity. They may choose a work shift that helps balance their personal and professional lives.

Furthering Collaboration

Employees working remotely feel isolated, develop social anxiety and become depressed. When such employees visit the office and meet other members of their team or those of other teams, it becomes difficult for them to adapt to the changed environment easily and quickly. They have become unfamiliar with it due to working remotely longer during the pandemic. Technology helps to optimize communication and foster collaboration during such times. Even when your employees work from home but have access to an employee experience platform, they get the interaction they need to feel engaged and valued, supporting business outcomes simultaneously. Remember, inculcating the opportunity for team collaboration and the right IT tools to alleviate it within the workplace boosts productivity and reinforces the needed connections for team growth.

Rewarding Through Different Ways

Recognizing employees working from home and hardly coming to the office is very important. Rewarding them for their good work is crucial, as demotivated employees fail to have a positive work experience and hence, lose productivity. As a manager, you aim to keep your people engaged, which is impossible without some form of motivation. It need not be monetary all the time. Besides offering your employees bonuses, salary hikes, gift coupons, or holiday travel packages, you may tag them in the “praise wall” in your employee experience platform. You may add a team badge, such as “Team Player” or “Super Boss,” along with your praise for them to make the rewarding experience more personalized for them.

It isn’t easy to make your employees feel happy, content, engaged, valued, and productive with remote or hybrid work models in the future of work. But, with the optimum use of technology and employee engagement tools, you can elevate your employee experience in manifolds. Start your free pilot to double down on your employee experience with our experts.