As the pandemic continues to leave its mark on the way we live and work, 2020 will be remembered as a year unlike any other.
When considering this changing landscape of employee interaction, we can compare today’s processes with our pre-COVID functions. Previously, new hires went through the selection process, orientation and onboarding while meeting the team along the way. Today’s process involves far fewer personal interactions. Thus, HR teams must redesign the employee journey to include a virtual experience.
So, how can the employee experience be reinvented in 2021? Here are three ways to consider:
- Shape a Winning Culture
- Connect, Collaborate and Co-create
- Invest in Employee Wellness
Shape a Winning Culture
The ongoing pandemic has been challenging for many companies, but it has presented an opportunity to strengthen workplace culture. Therefore, it is imperative to shape a vibrant and productive culture that seeks to empower and motivate employees to perform at their best.
When managing a remote workforce, office interactions are no longer available, limiting relationship building, and companies are faced with seeking new opportunities to connect with their teams. A culture of making time to meet virtually and regular check-ins with employees is crucial to ensuring team members remain motivated, engaged, and focused. Managers should aim to build an authentic culture where employees can openly speak about who they are as individuals and their needs. A culture of transparency, agility, and resilience is critical during this time, and managers must remain empathetic towards all employees.
Connect, Collaborate and Co-create
As key leaders in your organization, it is essential that active listening is practiced, and creating evaluative feedback mechanisms is vital, now more than ever before. A data-driven approach will help HR teams gain a comprehensive understanding of their employees’ sentiments. Interviews with open-ended questions are essential to gain insight, and these can be validated with the use of pulse surveys.
Pulse surveys are easy to implement and are designed to gather employees’ opinions on work-related affairs. After gaining these insights, key leaders can work closely with teams to develop employee experience models, including web portals, tools, and even workspace designs.
Invest in Employee Wellness
Many employees are experiencing various degrees of pandemic-related impacts, from being overwhelmed to being socially disconnected. As an extremely challenging time for employees, employers must address employee wellness, mental health, and overall safety. Showing empathy and making necessary resources available to support team members can help reduce their fears and build positive employee experiences.
Final Thoughts
As organizations continue to find new ways of team building and socialization, there must be formalized online connections and collaborations among their employees. These are just a few ways companies may seek to reinvent their employees’ experience, ultimately improving satisfaction and optimizing corporate outcomes.
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