At present, two effective keys to employee wellbeing are flexibility and empathy. Apart from them, efficient technologies such as HROne also need to be a part of every company’s HR strategy today.
It is no news that the coronavirus pandemic dramatically transformed the way people worked. While meeting room discussions/meetings were replaced by video conferencing, water cooler conversations shifted to instant messaging. Most importantly, it bought fear and uncertainty among working individuals- over health and safety, jobs, and finances, which were certainly due to months of isolation as well as lockdowns.
When the whole world transitioned to remote working, businesses realized the need for new methods to engage their employees in the new normal. However, it was not that easy as companies have to take care of every employee’s holistic wellbeing requirements virtually this time. A good number of organizations chose various agile approaches to address the wellbeing needs of their workforce. From taking every employee’s opinions to redesigning wellbeing plans.
Take a look at few things companies are doing and some they can do better to make sure employee wellbeing in a hybrid workplace:
Build a Virtual Human Connection
Of late, companies have started using a number of technologies to engage more innovatively with employees. One such technology is HR software. Such systems have, undoubtedly, been a big support to remote workers. From simplifying HR processes to empowering employees, HR management systems made almost everything faster and easier during remote working.
One of the notable advantages of using HR solutions was that they aided companies to organize weekly meetings and virtual get-togethers- all virtually. Employees and leaders were able to have robust communication, sharing updates on routine matters, answering queries, and much more. To keep employees engaged, every company out there should take a step ahead and do it at the earliest possible.
Wellbeing Programs
Several companies have and continue to implement wellbeing programs for their people.
As per a latest study, over 50 percent of companies provide benefits like health screenings, health awareness, meditation sessions, and more to employees. At the same time, 65 percent of the companies find it difficult to elicit employee participation in wellness programs, only with 24 percent having an average employee participation rate (EPR) of more than 50 percent.
In order to improve EPR, organizations can acquire employee inputs by designing plans, personalizing initiatives, and using the right technology. As we mentioned earlier, many companies are adopting wellbeing platforms, applications, and gamification to deliver one-to-one expert-led coaching programs to employees.
This is the time when companies should think about their employees and invest some time to come up with efficient wellbeing programs. Also, these programs should be properly documented, budgeted for, have a team to run them, and use the right HR software as enablers.
Flexibility & Empathy
The whole concept of flexibility has been praised and practiced like never before. It was after the outbreak of COVID-19, business owners thought of making wellness programs flexible, thereby allowing employees personalization along the way.
Need to mention, leaders across industries took the lead by being more empathetic as well as transparent with their teams. Besides, leaders and HR managers were forced to communicate more often with every employee to understand the overall wellness needs. Talking about managers, they were asked to ease the pressure of presenteeism and pay attention to track deliverables v/s time spent ‘logged in’ at work. In addition, flexible/reduced working hours were prioritized to aid employees to address their own/parenting/elder care needs.
COVID-19 Support
The after-effects of the global pandemic have been such that even the toughest people required support and help in large doses. Several companies formed COVID-19 support groups. This in turn helped employees to acquire medical facilities, vital medicines, and ancillary support like home nursing, meals for patients, and much more. Without a doubt, this is one of the best ways to employee wellbeing during a difficult time. Designing a support team particularly for employees will make them feel cared for and considered that will encourage them to be their best selves along the way.
So, these are the four efficient ways to ensure employee wellbeing in this new normal.
Businesses across India are now viewing employee wellbeing through the broad lens of holistic Wellbeing. With more and more changes coming up each day, many companies are making a permanent shift to WFH, while several others are shifting to a hybrid workplace. Both ways, in-person collaborations will remain less for a long time to come. In such a case, flexibility and empathy will need to be permanent fixtures in any employee wellbeing strategy.
Last but not least, to deliver true wellbeing to employees, companies need to adopt top-notch technologies such as HROne that keep employee wellness at the core of all their decisions as well as the organizational culture.