With the workplace landscape shifting by the day, supporting business and the people who help build it, is key. Only a few months ago, work-life changed suddenly when the pandemic hit. Everyone was asked to stay put until the situation could be figured out. Organisations declared a work from home and in a matter of days employees were in their home-offices, attending to their task lists with virtual meeting rooms and communication platforms; or in other words, with high dependence on technology. This smooth transition was possible, because the IT and HR teams joined forces. If this kind of a collaborative effort can make such a big difference during a crisis, then only imagine what it could do otherwise.
Thought-Provoking Pandemic Trends
Recent studies have shown that almost 70 % of employees say that their productivity levels are no different from when they were in office. With figures that are more encouraging than ever, organisations have a lot to learn from what their employees are thinking. Are they keen on coming back to office? Do they feel more comfortable and productive as they work from home or continue working remotely? These are some of the many things organisations need to consider as internal communication tools and employee engagement are scaled up.
Thinking For Every Employee
Many things affect an employee’s productivity. Work motivation, salary, teams, job role, interpersonal relationships at the office and a lot more. Another major factor which contributes to this, whether consciously or subconsciously, is infrastructure. Office space, devices to work on, seamless and reliable internet connection, all equally contribute towards glitch-free remote working.
During the pandemic, the sudden work from home routine overwhelmed most employees. While some got used to it, many others still aren’t comfortable with the blurred lines between work and personal life. Working remotely has enabled employees to work anytime and from anywhere, with technology at its behest. At the same time, working longer hours has been a growing concern due to the fact that people tend to always be available. With a strong video-conference system, businesses are banking on it to enable important discussions and presentations. However, some employees are siting video conference fatigue while some others terribly miss meeting their colleagues and face to face chats.
IT & HR Collaboration – A Seamless Work Experiences
Each employee is different and streamlining processes for the benefit of all will require the IT and the HR teams to work together, closely. This can begin by getting to know how either team functions; HR teams by understanding how digital tools work and its impact on employees, while IT teams can leverage HR insights into building better solutions.
With the right mix, policies that encourage work-life balance can be brought into place.
Simplifying administrative tasks like scheduling emails or silencing notifications can help set work boundaries over the weekends. These are just some of the practices that can be driven depending on what employees want. On a larger scale with employee well-being as a growing concern, mental health workshops should be arranged with both teams collaborating. Parallelly, ensuring that corporate security is being taken care of amidst all this too is imperative.
The Future Workplace
COVID-19 did disrupt everyday work-life, but also created room to think for the emerging reality. With the help of internal communication tools, organisations can open conversations to ensure work life balance. Translate these learnings into thought-led processes to determine growth and the happiness quotient of employees in the post pandemic era.
