When The Dust Settles: Employee Experience and Workplace Culture

Exploring what the on-site employee experience will look like in the post-pandemic world

With a distributed workforce, it’s vital to understand that the dynamic has changed and that the traditional office or work environment has been displaced. It is now effectively everywhere and anywhere. In this type of shifting climate, creating a culture that emphasizes employee experience is incredibly challenging. How can any organization really foster a solid and sustainable work culture when everyone is so openly spread out?

Employee Experience Then… And Now

Before the pandemic, employee experience strategies were very much campus-dependent. On-site and in-person experiences were prioritized. Any perks, features, or benefits relied almost entirely on campus-centric events or activities. Think, on-site gyms and pools, exclusive cafes or eateries, dry cleaning services, nurseries, daycare opportunities, and even bring your pet to work day-style events. These types of on-site amenities mixed with food, shelter, exercise, community are inherently what gave rise to the term ‘campus’. 

Unfortunately, that’s just not viable anymore, and even if and when on-site services are provided, few workers would be able to take advantage of them, even if they wanted to. Social distancing and sanitation requirements have completely transformed the way on-site operations work.

The post-pandemic employee experience has a very different feel, and it must be handled and approached differently as a result. Here’s a great example. A recent report reveals that 50% of US employees worry about exposure to COVID-19 happening in the workplace. However, 71% have confidence that their employers will bring them back to work safely, regardless. This shows the dependency that employees (and society really) are placing on their employer’s to responsibly ensure the latter statistic becomes a reality.

Workplace Readiness Solutions Are Shaping Employee Experience

There are two key areas that most companies are focusing on during their return to work strategy planning that improve their workplace readiness:

Increased Communications

Due, in part, to the current predicament, employers are much more cognizant of sharing information to keep their employees in-tune, and they’re looking for better, more advanced ways to do that. There are many reasons why, but it can be boiled down to the association between reliable, active communications and positive employee satisfaction levels.

What types of conversations and topics companies are covering changes on a weekly basis as employee needs change. Many businesses with good work culture immediately shifted their focus to work-from-home and work from communications by sharing more support and advice for their workers on things like desktop setup and configuration tips, health and nutrition guidance, and even more personal stories that highlight influential team members.

It must always align with the way that employees process their day. But as we begin to see companies slowly roll-out phased reentry, the messaging is and will continue to change. The information must assist employees in making more informed decisions, moving about the workplace — and their homes, and staying safe and healthy.

Desk Booking

Before the pandemic, the use case for room, office, and space booking was infrequent and rather niche. The rise in social distancing guidelines and sanitation protocols have flipped desk booking on its head.

Today, desk booking is constantly requested by employers and employees alike. The use case has shifted, too, and it’s now meant to provide employers a holistic view of what spaces are being used and which need to be cleaned or serviced. The information is provided in real-time and helps manage office capacities and employee/employer habits.

Concerning facilities management, desk booking allows sanitation programs to be much more streamlined. Crews can see what spaces have been used, which have already been cleaned, and what the requirements are for the following days or weeks. Cleaning teams can deploy faster services, and balance labor and equipment based on demand. Stations can also be preemptively cleaned or serviced to prepare for future bookings.

Empowering The Workforce

What does all of this mean for the future of work? How will the landscape evolve over the coming months and perhaps even years?

For starters, every workplace strategy must emphasize spaces and how those spaces are being used. Every organization will need to invest time building a reliable, relevant floor plan. It will need to honor social distancing guidelines, while also helping to maintain general cleanliness and sanitation.

Next, on-site work will become more nuanced with certain tasks taking higher priority. What is it that teams should be doing while they’re on property, as opposed to off? Should collaborative work be done primarily on-site, and if so, what does that look like? What about personal and solo work? What will teams need to facilitate these engagements?

Finally, empowering the workforce will be critical to productive and successful operations. They will need to be able to manage variable 'office scenarios” directly from their devices. Since the office is now anywhere, employees will need access to real-time, on-demand platforms and tools that keep them connected to their workplace, and by extension the rest of their teams.

One of the best ways to achieve all of this is with the help of an all-in-one office app or mobile platform. It serves as a single, unified workplace technology platform that’s always-on, and accessible to everyone, from anywhere.

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