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By Rosemary Smart, EX Solutions, ServiceNow
Three questions to answer to ensure engaged, productive and safe employees
If the harsh reality of a global pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that the notion of a gentle transition to the ‘future of work’ no longer exists.
To truly understand how the pandemic has affected the way people work, ServiceNow recently commissioned Wakefield Research to survey 9,000 workers. One common thread to employees and executives was that a flexible working environment, with staff allowed to choose what suits them best, is now considered a non-negotiable.
Though, the same executives are anxious that flexible working could exacerbate pre-existing barriers to cross-department collaboration and are worried employees may be unable to access the information they need to resolve everyday issues.
It’s a dilemma, but a very solvable one. And as your company prepares for ‘a new way of working’, I believe there are three questions you need to answer to find a solution:
1. Do we have the right digital workflows?
Leaders across all business functions, especially in HR, are now tasked with keeping employees engaged and productive, wherever they are: those caught short risk compromising their staff’s motivation — potentially, losing customers and revenue.
The new way of working will require a technology platform that's agile enough to help maintain workforce yield - with digital workflows touching multiple departments, ensuring tasks are passed to individuals based on their job function or area of expertise.
But to ensure success, you need to create connected, engaging experiences for your employees, or they won’t be motivated to use them.
Speaking in a recent webinar, Nico Orie, VP People & Culture Function Strategy and Operations at Coca-Cola European Partners felt it was an opportunity to take stock: “We needed smart applications to look for insights in employee engagement data, so that we could create an experience for how we want people to feel.”
2. Can we deliver the right employee experience from anywhere?
In times of change like these, you need an HR service that’s always on and that follows your teams around, no matter where they choose to work from
One of our banking customers Head of HR, recently shared: “Our aim was to empower and enable our colleagues with self-service capabilities — eliminating their reliance on email across HR transactions and case management. And we’ve a tiered support model in place to make the most of our skilled HR resources when help is needed.”
With ServiceNow, employees can find answers, get help, and request the services they need through a unified service experience, using intelligent workflows across any device, whether they’re in an office or working from home. To explore the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises could get by deploying, we commissioned Forrester to conduct a study - the results were interesting, so take a look!
3. How do we ensure safety of employees — when they do step back into the office?
The simple fact is companies can’t rely on business being conducted from kitchen tables forever. But to encourage return means your workplace needs to be deemed ‘safe’.
Organisations will need digital platforms that help them quickly build “workflow applications” to solve process problems and keep them compliant. For example, we have developed a Safe Workplace suite of applications to make going back to the workplace work for everyone with a safe, employee-ready environment. Check out some steps for keeping your workforce satisfied.
Final thoughts
2020 brought many new challenges, but also significant opportunities for organisations and employees to rethink how they work. With many employees now citing an improvement to ways of working, business leaders have the chance to consider work’s purpose and how & where it gets done. For further inspiration, join our upcoming live webinar, where Angela Salmeron, Research Director at IDC and Steve O’Donnell, CIO at Coventry Building Society will share their thoughts.
