Lessons in agility: Engaging employees through the digital workplace
November 30, 2023 / Peter Altabef
Short on time? Read the key takeaways:
- The hybrid work model is not going anywhere soon. The transformation of the workplace as a digitally-led experience has fundamentally changed employee behavior and expectations. Embracing this transformation is essential to staying competitive for talent in the workforce.
- The agile tech stack is the backbone of productivity in the modern workplace and prioritizing the digital employee experience (DEX) is vital to retaining existing talent.
- “Office” culture is about intentionally forging connections with immediate team members and coming together with purpose, whether in-person or virtually.
- Centering the design of digital workplace solutions (DWS) on the employee experience is a strategic imperative for cost optimization across operations.
In the landscape of post-pandemic business, the pivotal role of technology in shaping the employee experience surged to the forefront of discussions on optimal work models in 2023. As the landscape continues to evolve, digital workplace solutions (DWS) remain the driving force underpinning this new era of work, characterized by hybrid models and remote collaboration.
However, these solutions have done more than facilitate work across distributed platforms. They have also fundamentally transformed collaborative behaviors in the modern workplace and revolutionized employee expectations of how day-to-day work can be accomplished.
Employee experience programs meet employee engagement: A case study
Unisys takes a page from its own book as an example that illustrates successful DWS design and the impact of the digital employee experience (DEX) with the launch of our Community Month employee experience program.
Based on insights from our 2022 associate engagement survey, we identified a strong desire among our associates for Unisys to make a meaningful impact in the communities where they live and work. Unisys resource groups worldwide conduct volunteer work throughout the year, so to drive employee participation in a month dedicated to volunteer work, we decided to shine a spotlight on those activities.
We launched our Community Month program in September of 2023. Over the course of 30 days, in a remarkable display of caring for others, employees from 20 company locations across 12 countries collectively volunteered their valuable time in person and virtually to actively make a difference in their communities. The seamless integration of our "work stack” supported a positive DEX that transmuted traditional office culture into an effort that resonated authentically with our associates.
Unified communications platforms, online data access portals, web-based video tools, online project management tools, and automation tools all played pivotal roles in facilitation and mitigated the constraints that can often hinder desk-side and front-line collaboration.
Impact reaches more than community – The DEX role in retention and recruitment
The results of our new initiative enlivened employee engagement on a global scale through the bond of shared purpose. This satisfying outcome validated the effectiveness of placing employees at the center of workplace design to drive a connected office culture organically.
A noteworthy aspect of the success of this program is that our associates used the same tools and platforms integrated into our client solutions to plan, coordinate, and execute in-person and virtual activations of this global initiative efficiently.
Why is this noteworthy? The circumstances of the pandemic accelerated technological workplace transformation, but the success of distributed productivity for any business has been largely dependent on good organizational change management (OCM) practices that drive high adoption of new DEX tools or platforms.
In an era where the physical and virtual office experience has inextricably converged, DWS design – including front-end and back-end technologies – that emulates the consumer experience in connectivity and compatibility across platforms and applications is essential to foster the kind of employee satisfaction that drives retention today.
The newfound significance of DEX within the context of managed workplace services also means that organizations that embrace the agility of location-agnostic work arrangements are better positioned to engage with the expectations of top talent in the workforce.
Satisfaction by design
The future of work will be characterized by agility, seamless collaboration, and meeting the evolving expectations of employees and clients alike. As we welcome a new year, it is incumbent upon organizations to acknowledge that remote collaboration and hybrid work environments have proven their viability and appear poised to endure.
And, as the definition of the modern workplace continues to evolve, agility will be more than a desirable feature – it will become a strategic imperative for cost optimization across all aspects of business operations. To remain competitive, organizations should invest wisely in agile technology, policies, and practices that enable employees to enjoy how they work as much as the work they do.
