Back to the office: Using technology to smooth the transition
Organizational leaders must address how to ensure all employees can perform their roles in the best environment possible.
With the rollback of the mask mandates and the decrease COVID – 19 infection rates, companies are considering what the return to the office will look like. Companies are scrambling to find ways to keep track of the changes while managing the safe return to work and addressing the needs of employees who will remain virtual. HR professionals will have a new set of requirements on their hands but there are ways to navigate the post-pandemic office paradigm that allows better employee engagement while managing safety. Technology can help make that transition easier for everyone, including HR and employees.
According to a January 2022 Pew Research Center survey, “61% of those working from home today say they do not want to return in person to their workplace, and 38% say their office is closed.” CBNC notes this is a “reversal from October 2020, when 64% of people were working from home because their office was closed, and 36% were doing so out of preference.”
Related: How the office of tomorrow will work
Organizational leaders now must address how to ensure all employees are treated adequately and equally – regardless of whether they are remote, hybrid or in-office and can perform their roles in the best environment possible with equal access to employee-centric resources.
Along with providing tools to communicate with all employees whether they are onsite or remote, technology can manage health and wellness information when needed and provide employers a way to maintain employee engagement. It can even help employees and their families access and manage their company-provided benefits effectively.
Where to start?
Employees and potential new hires now expect their jobs to provide flexible working environments. For leaders, this means that technology and solutions must not only provide company benefit information but also allow employees to manage their wellbeing by tracking appointments, providing health-related information, and putting all of that in one place. To ensure the transition period is as seamless as possible, HR leaders must:
- Develop a “back-to-office” task force that can work with HR to develop an action plan for a return to work. This group would also seek to understand pain points among employees as they consider whether to ask employees to return to the office or not.
- Understand that communication is key. A company app for a hybrid employee population, working both off-site and on-site, is a simple solution to send health information and emergency health updates to your employees.
- Analyze the use of company benefits and encourage employees to use health benefits such as wellness programs, employee assistance programs, vaccination drives and available programs.
- Use a company app to view the status of vaccination in your organization. The app allows employees to update vaccination and test result information or apply for exemptions. Mobile apps can also show the safety index in the organization via intuitive charts and graphs. This will ensure that employees understand that the organization is doing all it can to create a safe workplace.
Increasing employee satisfaction and retention via tech
A study conducted by Green Circle Life along with an insurance company showed that the HR strategy of a popular automobile retailer in the U.S. with over 100,000 employees who used a company-branded mobile app, showed that the turnover of employees who participated in the wellbeing programs was 26% as opposed to the population who did not participate in programs to be 63%. There were also relatively fewer absent days due to sickness or disability among employees who used the wellbeing programs. Wellbeing programs, monthly healthy challenges, family participation, employee, and family rewards for completing lifestyle coaching, etc. are all proven methods where technology is leveraged to improve employee engagement and retention. An engaged employee is a “retained” employee.
When looking at how to coordinate these efforts, companies also must consider the possibility that if employees are not happy or content with their current options, they will resign. Workplace resignation rates have skyrocketed. The recorded 20-year average for workplace resignation rates was 2.9%, however, there was a record 4.3 million resignations in December 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. According to a study by Harvard Business Review about the Great Resignation, the resignation rates were the highest among mid-career employees and those in tech and health care industries.
Providing a better application for health and wellbeing services
Many people suffered physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing setbacks during the pandemic. Some people have tried to regain some normalcy, but they still need support from their employer. The employers that provide this support will see better retention rates. HR personnel should leverage technology to develop well-crafted retention programs that focuses on ensuring employee engagement through physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing programs and rewards based on employee and family participation. Giving people a way to manage their total wellbeing is beneficial for the company as well.
Technology serves the expressed purpose of meeting the employee’s needs – regardless of whether the employee is working remotely, hybrid or in-office status – while making it seamless for HR teams to deliver the information needed. When HR teams have real-time access to information and get more visibility, it creates an environment that is built on transparency, effective communication, preventive health efforts and safety compliance. This will give companies the foundation they need to build a solid work experience for all its employees.
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