Successful organisations are made not just by the products or services they offer. They are a result of happy and motivated employees who work day in and day out to achieve business goals. But in the race to meet customer expectations and outdo the competition, most organisations ignore the importance of employee well-being. Thankfully, in today’s post-pandemic era, this is quickly changing.
Employee Disengagement Is Surging in the Post-Pandemic Era
With the world crossing the 3-year mark since the emergence of the pandemic, the business environment is no longer what it used to be before 2020. Once restricted to sales professionals and field service executives, remote working has now become the global norm.
Yet, the hybrid workplace is not entirely working in favour of organisations. The post-COVID hybrid age continues to experience massive employee disengagement. Given that employees are working from different locations and time zones, using different tools, and at different paces, how can organisations ensure they are all connected? What can they do to help employees stay engaged?
Although the specific reasons may be different, most employees are struggling with distinct challenges that are severely impacting their well-being. The key factors leading to employee burnout, dissatisfaction, and disengagement include:
- Continued reliance on siloed communication tools that are slow, non-collaborative, and time-consuming
- The inability of current systems to make remote interactions seem more natural and life-like
- Poor knowledge or experience of using modern technology, making it a barrier rather than an enabler for effective communication
- The absence of a common ground that makes remote employees feel just as important and included in team meetings (and town halls) as their onsite counterparts
- Limited IT and facility staff on site which makes it hard for onsite employees to work with complex AV systems and solutions deployed in most meeting rooms
- The growing loneliness of working virtually with little or no face-to-face conversations
- Keeping up with work and deadlines using remote tools without excessive stress or burnout
The Need for Digital Dexterity
In the collaborate anywhere era, employee well-being has a lot to do with digital dexterity. The ability to exploit existing and emerging technologies to drive business outcomes plays a huge role in how productive, efficient, and happy employees are. One would assume that after 3 years of the hybrid work model, organisations would have figured out what it takes to enable this dexterity. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
In most cases, employees’ success comes down to their individual ability and choice of tools. But that’s not how it should be. If you want to grow and succeed, you need to focus on making your employees happy. Since happier people are more engaged, productive, and effective, they focus on doing things that make clients, colleagues, partners, and other associates happy. Unquestionably, this has a business impact too.
With today’s hybrid employees wanting to be more connected with their co-workers and enjoy what they do, more and more organisations are realising the benefits of digitising the post-pandemic business environment. As the line between remote and onsite working rapidly blurs, organisations must create a work environment with employee well-being at the core, including:
- Offering the right productivity tools, crafting best practices, and offering tips and tricks to enable employee (and business) success
- Moving beyond providing basic infrastructure like laptops; providing powerful technology solutions like advanced cameras and high-quality mics and speakers
- Providing recommendations on what lighting to choose or how to present in a hybrid meeting to improve confidence in communication
- Enabling today’s visual learners to engage in immersive learning experiences that are interactive and experiential
- Allowing the hybrid workforce to easily access data and seamlessly collaborate with other employees over digital channels
- Fuelling efficient conversations and boosting information retention via intuitive and effective meetings and video conferences that give every employee an equal (and fair) chance to be seen and heard
- Enabling real-time content sharing and collaborations during meetings and as a part of one-to-one communications
- Curating flexible physical and virtual workspaces with smartboards and other tools that enable an elevated Digital Employee Experience.
Enabling Employees to Work at Their Full Potential with Resurgent
In times when enterprises are struggling to hire and retain skilled talent, many business leaders are looking for ways to elevate employee well-being. While high salaries (and perks) have become hygiene factors, it’s the workplace environment you build that plays a major role in attracting new employees and keeping current ones engaged and excited.
Numerous factors drive employee well-being and performance. While some of them are very complex and nuanced, demanding great introspection and deep analysis, most are extremely clear and visible. Empowering the hybrid workforce with modern technology solutions has a high impact on how employees feel about their workplace as well as how they perform.
Modern workplace technology is causing a much-needed paradigm shift in how employees work, live, and learn. Learn how Resurgent can help you set up the ideal environment for your hybrid workforce and empower your employees to work at their full potential. Contact us today!