The New Workplace - The 'Micro-Workplace'

Based on this trajectory we're almost at 6 seconds - well, great news!

What am I talking about?

No, I’m not talking about micro-management, micro-processors and I’m certainly not referring to?micro-inequities. I’m talking about a workplace that reflects the world we live in, and one that is designed around the state of the modern human brain, our current society, and our culture. In some organizations, this would require a complete workplace redesign as most of the traditional workplace practices were designed generations ago (by an almost unrecognizable species of humans). Yes, it sounds extreme, but in the shortest period of history, the fastest societal advancements have taken place, and our brains are constantly adapting accordingly.

I’ve spoken a lot in the past about the?mismatches in the way we work,?the processes that we are forced to follow, and the way we live. However, this idea of a ‘Micro-Workplace’ is more than just a process. This speaks to a more significant mismatch between how we experience the world and how we experience work. It’s a mismatch between how our brains work and how our brains are being forced to work — at work. The need to design a micro-workplace isn’t optional for organizations that want to thrive or even simply survive in this new world of work.

“It’s a mismatch between how our brains work and how our brains are being forced to work — at work.”

The attention span mismatch

A core part of our functioning as human beings which has been drastically impacted by recent technological advancements, is our attention span — or lack thereof. Research suggests the main contributing cause for this reduction is the overwhelming abundance of information in the digital era we live in, as well as the current form of content and its delivery. Whatever the cause, the reality is that our attention spans are shortening by the day, and this decline is unlikely to stop. Some say it’s not the attention span that is shortening, but it’s the human ability to filter noise that is getting quicker. If that is the case, then there is even more reason to be hyper-specific about designing engaging and relevant workplace content (learning, comms, surveys, etc.) to mirror our ability to digest it. In essence, as the human brain evolves (or some might suggest ‘devolves’) and consumer industries adapt — so too the workplace needs to adapt and evolve.

-----We can’t even listen to someone speak at regular speed anymore!

Why it’s critical to design a Micro-Workplace today.

Over 50% of the workforce are millennials which means soon the majority of managers will be millennials and the majority of junior employees are already Gen-Z, but within the next 5 years, Gen-Z will start to make up core teams, if not as FTEs then as freelancers. It takes time to revamp work processes and places, and change management professionals will tell you it is one of the most challenging tasks to get people to adopt a new process. However, in this instance, I don’t actually believe this (workplace) redesign will play out the same. I think this type of change will not only be warmly welcomed, but will be adopted naturally because it’s what we’re already used to outside of work. It’s our reality, which makes this more of an update than a redesign.

Gen-D for ‘Digital’

Gen Z is the first generation to live their entire lives in an entirely digital world, not knowing a world without the internet, eCommerce, smartphones, and social media. These individuals will enter the workplace with their (subconscious) expectations of how they will interact with tools and how things work in general, and those expectations will likely not be met. This mismatch will exist until the workplace adapts and is designed to closer resemble how we interact with the (consumer) world. An example from a vendor side is; we specifically use UX/UI designers who come from B2C backgrounds and have built consumer products so that their approach to designing our products is from a consumer perspective and not enterprise.

All the successful tech companies out there, leverage behavioral and neuroscientists to help design their products according to the way the modern human brain operates and best responds — the result is a hyper-engaged audience. Yes, I know there is a dark side to this which creates addiction, dependence and can even result in suicide, but imagine we applied some of these principles to the workplace in a?positive?way — to not only increase engagement but make the workplace a fun place to be in, and not have millions of people dreading Monday mornings.

The same way people will drop off a website if the page doesn’t load in an instant, or find a better e-commerce shop after the first one had too many steps to checkout — they will leave their employers if they’re forced to work in an outdated workplace environment with tedious processes that cause daily frustrations and don’t match up to the standards we’re now accustomed to.

“If you want to have a captivated workforce, create a captivating workplace.”

What does ‘Micro’ actually mean

In the context of a micro-workplace, fundamentally, it’s one that is engaging, captivating, and where interactions and experiences exist in ‘micro’ form as opposed to long-form, tedious, and boring interactions. A good example of this is taking an hour assessment and dispersing it into 3-minute micro-assessments spread across multiple intervals, or a two-day training offsite shrunk into a collection of 5-minute videos that staff can watch on-demand. Or perhaps an employee onboarding experience which isn’t an overwhelming data dump of information to be consumed in your first two days on the job but rather an onboarding experience that exists in different forms, interactions, and spread across various touchpoints (before day 1 even starts).

----Its not only the Gen-Z’s ;)

What it does?NOT?mean

I’m not saying we should ‘settle’ and lower our expectations of what competence and high performance looks like; I am saying that we adapt and improve the way we work to better resemble how we live in the real world and how our brains are programmed —?in order?to increase performance, increase efficiency, and most of all, increase ‘workplace satisfaction’. By redesigning old school processes that have been proven to induce stress amongst employees (ie; performance reviews), we can positively impact productivity and happiness by eliminating these stressful moments in our workplace.

“83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress. US businesses lose up to $300 billion yearly as a result of workplace stress.”

It’s not about trying to ‘program’ employees’ brains or create addictive experiences which lead people to behaviors that they aren’t consciously deciding to do. It’s about removing friction and improving processes and experiences. ‘Deep work’ is a concept that has improved my life and productivity drastically, and I’ve implemented it into our company as both a value and a process. Now, this isn’t a ‘micro’ concept, however it certainly is connected as it caters to the reality of a distracting workplace and the way our brains need to operate to achieve maximum productivity and creativity. In my opinion, there’s nothing contradictory about the two because it aligns with the philosophy of blending scientific research and workplace norms closer together.

----Our Slack ‘status’ option

What can you actually do?

You don’t have to be CHRO or CEO to start instigating some of these advancements; implementing elements of a ‘micro-workplace’ could start with, well, ‘micro-advancements’ — driven by managers, team leads, and even team members! This next bit however is intended for all workplace designers regardless of job title:

Key principles to have in mind when designing a Micro-Workplace

Treat employees like consumers!

The greatest HR practitioners treat their employees as their customers. Leverage the resources you have from other departments, namely product designers, marketing people, customer success etc. Their jobs are to design engaging products, campaigns and capture the attention of their respective users, while they compete with millions of other digital micro-moments. Ask a UX/UI designer to come in and give feedback on an employee journey mapping or give a (micro) presentation on design thinking etc. Remember, it’s all about ‘moments’. ‘Micro-Moments’ . Gen-Z focus groups are powerful - get them in the room and just talk to them! We can’t all afford to hire neuroscience consultants or behavioral scientists to design programs, but we can all afford to use the internet and do the research ourselves — there are resources out there for free already which can assist you in building out this program.

In the flow of work — meet me where I am.

Another engagement lesson we can take from our colleagues in marketing is ‘meeting prospects where they are’. One of the reasons we built our app on top of tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams is because that’s where teams spend so much of their time and we’re not about trying to take them out of where they already are. ‘Perflo ’ actually stands for ‘performance in?flow (of work)’ — we want to gather and feed teams with helpful nudges and insights where and when it matters.

Make everything ridiculously easy and engaging.

Remember, I’m used to Instagram, Tinder, TikTok — now I have to use Oracle? (no offense Larry mate). Everything needs to be ideally three or fewer clicks to access something, put in a request, or find a person they need. Actually, in an ideal world I wouldn’t have to click anything at all, and I would be able to use voice as I’m used to doing at home with my Alexa or in the car with Siri, but one step at a time. Content needs to be graphic-rich, personalized, interactive, and easy to consume. Video. Audio. Whatever. Make work fun, dammit! Use the latest consumer channels like TikTok, an app that is already highly engaging, use it for things like change management even.

Use Micro-Feedback to create a Micro-Workplace!

Before designing any program or product, the first step is to conduct customer research. In this context, the customer is each and every employee, and their voice matters (more than yours). The best product designers will tell you,?empathy ?is at the core of building a helpful and valued product — one cannot design with only oneself in mind as the user, whether it be a product or a workplace, especially with a vast amount of different needs and wants amongst employees. Ensuring you make data-driven decisions throughout is critical to the success of an initiative like this. If you have an idea management platform, go through it extensively and you may just find some hidden gems.

As always, test and iterate accordingly?—?the beauty of?micro-feedback?is that it is continuous and that means you have access to a constant feed of insights that allow you to constantly measure and tailor your strategy based on?data,?not?intuition.

It’s not the future of work, it’s the now of work,?there’s no time like the present (as the war for talent rages on). If you’d like to take the first step toward a micro-workplace,?contact me ?and we can get you set up in under 6 minutes to start gathering insights and suggestions from your workforce, measuring your current ‘state of workplace’ and of course have the tools to measure the impact throughout a program like this and beyond…

“Perflo gives all teams the power to implement a micro-feedback process within their teams using?Micro-Reviews ? — to measure what’s important, drive continuous improvement and deliver better results leveraging team insights.”

Bonus Tip:

Personalization in the workplace

This is a topic I’m passionate about and deserves an article of its own, however a quick shoutout to one of the most powerful engagement tactics I learned while working in mobile marketing. I’ve always been obsessed about ‘hyper-personalization’, not because I felt like it but because the data proved it worked (you can read my?article on this here ). The reason personalization is relevant in the context of this post is that “engagement increases when personalization increases’’. In order to foster a more engaged workforce, we need to design one that is hyper-personalized.