With the vaccine rollout underway, the road to normality becomes a serious possibility. So we can soon start to make plans for the future but the first thing we need to understand is where precisely are we now? That’s why Ricoh undertook ‘The Conscious Workplace Survey and Report’. By surveying over 1,300 people across the UK, we have established a clear understanding of what workers in the UK have dealt with this year. This includes employees working both remotely and in the office ranging from frontline workers to c-suite managers.

The Conscious Workplace Report

Our Conscious Workplace Report uses survey data captured in September 2020. This was used to evaluate managers and workers’ experience to help identify their most significant challenges and overall employee behavioural experience. This, in turn, enabled us to highlight the opportunities we, as businesses, currently face as we plan our future.

Almost all the participants cited four common concerns:

• Happiness, motivation and productivity are significant challenges
• Existing office spaces are unsuitable for a post-COVID world
• Managers are struggling to introduce new processes and look after their employees
• New technology also caused concerns for managers over security issues and its inefficient use.

So, why does all this make employee behaviour experience such an important factor? Because every challenge facing organisations across the UK, in terms of productivity, process and wellbeing, centre around your people.

What are the challenges facing employees and managers?

We may have come a long way, but there are still many teething issues that affect our day-to-day lives. And managers and employees are on the front line of dealing with them.

Anything that changes in our life causes friction and stress. Relocation, remote working, changing power dynamics – these are all common occurrences across the country, but they’re major events which have occurred all at once. Then there are all the little things we used to take for granted whilst working in an office environment; such as conversations, micro-rewards, and collaboration ease. Now all replaced with digital imitations that sometimes don’t quite hit the mark.

Sudden changes to routines, environments and ways of working can have a big physiologically impact, which can ultimately change the employee behavioural experience, ultimately impacting wellbeing.

Meanwhile, for managers, there is an additional layer; their roles have changed drastically. Once they were focused on organisational objectives. Now they must pay much more significant consideration to their employees’ wellbeing – whilst still ensuring things get done. And this is all happening amidst huge societal change, with distressing news and uncertainty across the country.

Managing employee behavioural experience needs behavioural insight.

One of the most difficult things to replicate from our office days is social interaction – a critical human happiness requirement. It plays a huge part in peoples’ mental wellbeing. We’ve all come to understand the challenges with video conferencing, collaborating while working remotely and getting quick answers to questions you could once ask in person.

Your people can no longer easily enjoy ‘water cooler’ moments, share stories or discuss projects. And it’s much harder to receive constructive criticism, praise or positive feedback from managers. A key aspect of how we get happiness in the workplace.

Behavioural science can help bridge the gaps between your peoples’ difficulties with motivation, happiness and self-worth – both as individuals and within our teams – and a manager’s organisational challenges of the economy, productivity and process. Leading to a more positive employee behavioural experience.

How can a strategy centred around The Conscious Workplace help alleviate these issues?

Organisations have to look at how they can evolve agile working practices that cater to a blend of remote and physical workplace environments. And people are central to that. So put in place an employee behavioural experience strategy to fit a hybrid work style.

Technology
Technology is a great example of this. There are many fantastic options out there that can help your business transform to meet new challenges and opportunities. But you need to pick the ones that are right for your people, or your business will never see the full benefit. It would be best to consider how any new technology will affect your managers and your employees, and how you can help them integrate the new technology into their working lives and use it effectively.

Wellbeing
When it comes to wellbeing, it’s important to understand that the position we are in now isn’t sustainable, whether we’re comfortable working from home or not. You need to be conscious of your people’s health, productivity and happiness, and ensure you’re making critical business decisions with their future in minds.

Coming into the office will become a choice enabling aspects of flexible working to be maintained. Therefore organisations have a positive choice to cater to their needs. Making them feel valued, enabling those shared social interactions, and keeping them safe.

Get this balance right to create a positive employee behavioural experience across the organisation.

What steps do organisations need to take moving forwards?

One of the key issues to address is the disparity between IT experiences at home and in the office. Many people have found working at home to be easy; they can rely on their own setup to connect with others. But when they return to the office, they have to rely on the IT support and infrastructure there, which may well be lacking.

It’s vital that organisations look to technology that enables a seamless transition between the office and home working. And the same is true for existing processes. Scanning, printing and documentation also have to be as easily available to a remote worker as it is in the office.

And when it comes to your people, your greatest resource for identifying what you need to do moving forwards is the people themselves. The cornerstone of The Conscious Workplace is continual interaction to seek a positive employee behavioural experience. Asking them how they are feeling, what difficulties they are having, and then finding and testing the solutions to those problems to find the right fit for your organisation. 

Where can I go for more information?

To learn more about creating a conscious workplace, read our report – The Conscious Workplace.

Ricoh empowers digital workplaces by using innovative technologies and services, enabling individuals to work smarter. Our Work Together Anywhere webinar series is a great research destination for insights and to gain further understanding from experts.

 Watch past webinars and register for upcoming events here.

The post Why employee behavioural experience is key to your workplace strategy appeared first on Insights - Empowering Digital Workplaces.

2020 will long be remembered as one of the most challenging and unpredictable experiences. The spread of COVID-19 and the ensuing global health crisis impacted the personal and professional lives . The UK lockdown and need to remain in the home when possible led to the UK GDP to fall as far as 20.4% in April – the lowest ever recorded monthly drop.

How lockdown unleashed accidental innovations in home working?

The first months saw a rise in discussion of a ‘new normal’ to come. As businesses and employees began to adapt to working from home, we saw an acceleration of remote working. Policies and the adoption of technology to support these new models up and down the nation. Businesses looked to innovate to stay afloat. Whilst we learned to adapt, it has become increasingly clear that the next challenge is the evolution of our workplace.

Facing new challenges

Never before have businesses had to deal with employees being fearful of returning to work . The consideration of illness within the office has never been a conscious worry. Perhaps people had hand sanitiser during flu season. But no office would have required staff to physically distance, sit behind Perspex screens or wear masks for the safety of the team.

What will lockdown mean for the way we work in the future?

Similarly, employees are no longer reliant on the convention of the office to be productive. With many people thriving in new locations, there is a growing call to change the way we use the office.  Addressing the modern-day worker who will want to use the office as a ‘destination’ location, that is fit for purpose.

This new ‘conscious workplace’ is achieved through engagement with change, enablement through new technology, innovation and a constant state of evolution. As a result of the current climate, businesses are having to make difficult and carefully conscious decisions to guarantee the safety and well-being of their staff – both physically and mentally.

We’re not just transitioning to a ‘new normal’, but rather a new future. So how exactly do we, as business leaders, make these choices? How do we create a physical environment which still functions productively and can generate collaboration and innovation?

Enabling through technology

Enabling through technology means employees and employers can create an environment that evolves in a stable way. Supporting your business’s future recovery and growth.

Productivity in the UK was in continuous free-fall before COVID-19. The uncertainty caused by global and European political and economic upheaval meant we had seen the UK’s lowest productivity level since the 1800s. This is not surprising when you consider 80% of office workers in the UK felt they didn’t have the technology to do their jobs properly. Studies showed that 56% of UK workers believed productivity was stalling their company’s growth because of outdated tech.

The transition to remote working due to lockdown kick-started a revolution in the way we work. Businesses and sectors famed for their legacy processes.  Systems had to play catchup and lead on digital transformation projects overnight. Suddenly the projects that IT teams across the UK had been trying to instigate despite opposition, were given the green light and thrown into hyper speed.

Engaging your employees

While we champion technology at Ricoh, we know that it alone won’t solve all your problems. Instead, it’s balancing technology with people that will help tip productivity levels back up. Being forced to work from home may have been a catalyst for a vast digital revolution, but people drove the solution.

Employee experience has long been rated as an important issue among workers. In some cases, employers denied flexible/remote working requests out of concern or fear that employees were unable to do their job efficiently.

Today, many employees feel an improvement in their work and life balance. But for some, the isolation associated with working from home had led to crippling loneliness. While there is no ‘one size fit’s all’, there is an organisational need to communicate effectively with employees, engage and listen to their needs. While enabling a better and more productive way of working.

The evolution

Like everything else in existence, the office will keep evolving. Over time, your employees’ wants, values and needs will change and so too will what your business has to provide.

The workplace environment must continue to evolve. With the right blend of working, we can create environments that are productive and sustainable in the long-term. Technology and the changing needs of people in the conscious workplace will be critical to ensuring long term productivity.

Register to attend our events

If you’d like to hear more insight into why behavioural science should now be the central to your workplace strategy, you can register for the webinar here

Register for the webinar on the 19th November: ‘Why behavioural science should now be the central to your workplace strategy

Get in touch today and we’ll discuss how we can provide the perfect solution for you.

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