Employee anxieties to gauge before choosing a workplace experience platform
As organizations begin investing in applications to guide segments of their workforce back into the office, some employees are fretting over losing the flexibility they’ve enjoyed while working remotely. Others, however, are frustrated with working from home and are raising their hands to join the return-to-office queue.
Successfully addressing all of these (and other) pressing anxieties about the return-to-office is accomplished more efficiently with a workplace app that is all-purpose, employee-centric, and mobile-enabled.
To start compiling a list of the concerns that could keep your employees out of the office, review these takeaways from “What Workers Want This Fall,” a recent PureSpectrum survey created with their Insights Platform. A closer look at these trends provide CRE teams with the perspective they need to pacify angst about the return-to-office with technology.
Health and safety remain the biggest decision drivers
The pandemic remains a top-of-mind concern for employees when asked to indicate the reasons they don’t want to return to the office full time. Many respondents (32%) expressed concern about “new COVID-19 variants.” Another 15% admitted that they don’t think their company is taking enough safety precautions related to the pandemic.
If these employee concerns are a priority for your organization, so, too, is selecting technology that supports access control, integrated health screenings, broadcast notifications, and health surveys. These features allow CRE teams to create a safer environment for their employees and communicate precisely how and when these improvements are being made.
Productivity and family dynamics influence remote work preferences
One approach to strategizing the return-to-office championed during a recent InspireCIO webinar was to simply allow employees to work primarily where they believe they are most productive and make accommodations necessary to help them do their best work in and out of the office.
For example, CRE teams can use technology to update employees about when collaborative partners are going to be in the office. This information incentivizes members of the workforce to schedule their week according to where they’ll get the most done, and with whom.
It also behooves organizations to recognize the impact of family household dynamics on deciding why employees feel more productive at the office or remotely. After all, productivity is greatly influenced by factors like access to childcare and how well commutes overlap with school schedules.
With 41% of employees communicating that they are more productive working in an in-office environment and 20% indicating they are less productive, an employee-friendly approach will require some flexibility on the part of organizations. Likewise, the right workplace solutions must be put in place to ensure team members are able to seamlessly transition between their in-office and remote workstations.
Less autonomy encourages talent to consider new careers
While many employees will be willing to compromise some of the flexibility they enjoyed before the return-to-office, an increasing number are willing to prioritize their remote work lifestyle over their current job.
When asked if the fact that they were not given a choice about working from home made them want to find other employment, 62% said “Yes.” Likewise, 64% said that if they were required to go back to the office, then they will look for another position. If organizations feel it is in their best interest to prioritize retention, establishing options and supporting that flexibility with a mobile-enabled workplace experience app is a must.
Preventing a string of resignations is necessary to maintain productivity and keep hiring expenses under control. Recent Gallup data revealed that the total cost of replacing an individual employee can equal as much as twice that employee’s annual salary.
Resources for choosing a workplace experience app
Take steps to communicate to your employees that they are being asked to return to a safe, productive environment. Imagine the long-term benefits for morale that will come with addressing return-to-office concerns before employees take their first step back into the office.
Need more assistance selecting the right workplace experience app to handle the task? Your team will find the answers they’re looking for in The Buyer’s Guide: Hybrid Workplace Experience Apps.
You can also contact us if you need support building a custom return-to-office strategy.
