The tools and technology employees have at their disposal will shape much of what they experience in their work. Much like the consumer-grade technology many employees use in their personal lives, they want their workplace technology to be both powerful and user-friendly.
Research from employee experience expert Applaud identified hyper-personalized employee experiences as a key emerging trend in 2022. The report, based on insights from nearly 200 HR leaders across different industries, defines hyper-personalisation as leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time data to deliver more relevant content, product, and service information to each user. This creates increasingly engaging experiences between organizations and employees, which will ultimately help develop a more productive and motivated workforce, and increase retention.
Addressing Modern Needs
To keep pace with modern employee needs, employers are recognizing the benefits of workplace apps to enhance workplace experience and communication channels between employees. Employees who have on-demand access to services — such as workplace amenities, access control, resource booking, communication with colleagues — through a single app will be able to perform at their best in the workplace. This is because they will have the right tool to facilitate a convenient, time-saving experience which promotes choice and efficient working.
When all tools are in one place, employees can work better without wasting time switching apps or missing out on information or resources. Effective technology and tools should address the challenges employees face and make their jobs easier. This part of the equation is vital to create a positive employee experience — regardless of where work is taking place.
This is one of the key considerations in the development of tools such as HqO’s Workplace Experience App for employees which features room, desk, and service bookings through one app. The app serves to keep employees engaged by sending them important building communications, enabling them to collaborate with colleagues, and checking in with their mental health and general wellness through access to online classes and resources.
Fostering Culture
Authenticity and integrity are also important elements of the employee experience. The overall company culture will shape how engaged and satisfied employees are — and how they experience their work. Corporate culture can be described as a set of shared assumptions and values that guide what happens inside organizations — a way of working and a set of behaviors that permeate from the senior management to more junior staff.
A strong workplace culture is a powerful tool to attract and retain talent which is essential now as organizations battle against the Great Resignation. HR expert Kevin Mulchy, co-author of The Future Workplace Experience, believes that “people don’t leave jobs, they don’t leave people — they leave behaviors.”
Gallup found that companies with strong cultures outperform competitors by up to 33 percent. This is because they can engage with top talent, communicate with them effectively, and create a community where people can thrive. This is supported by findings from a comprehensive study of 1,400 US CEOs and CFOs conducted by Forbes. The study found that more than 90 percent said that culture was important at their firms, and that they believe that improving their firm’s corporate culture would improve the value of the company. Half of the leaders who participated in the study recognised that corporate culture influences productivity, creativity, profitability, and growth rates, yet only 15 percent said their firm’s corporate culture was where it needed to be.
Strong company culture is critical to building a positive employee experience, but it needs to be present right across the hybrid workforce. Leaders need to effectively communicate the values of the business to employees across a distributed landscape of work — this means they need to depend on both the physical work environment and technology and tools to build a strong, omni-present culture within their hybrid teams.
Want to learn more? Download our latest report in collaboration with WORKTECH today.
