Corporate view – Missing “employer & employee digital connector”
Despite many years of digital reality in consumer world, companies have not progressed in digitizing employer & employee agenda. When, in the past few months 90% of staff was forced to work from home, many companies faced the hard truth – that they are severely unprepared for remote work.
Strictly from technological point of view, majority of companies are unable to connect and interact bi-directionally with their employees via mobile channel with digital employee identity and authentication independent of company or personal device. A new set of problems arises when it comes to adjusting traditional internal processes like approvals, digital signatures, tracking work hours and availability during home office times, managing number of people in the office, polls / feedback processes, or just simple thing as emergency notifications which employer needs to flash over the mobile screen of all staff. And let’s not be mistaken, this problem is not solved by connecting everyone to MS Teams call or redesigning intranet pages.
From “people” point of view, companies struggle to keep employee efficiency and engagement on pre-pandemic levels. Home office and flexible working hours, if at all available, have long been advertised as company benefits, with most employees rarely utilizing them. The prevalent view that employees working from home are “slacking off” has prevented companies from developing means to keep employee efficiency high even when employees are scattered across multiple locations. When previously, a confirmation could be “read” from a simple nod in a face-to-face conversation during the coffee break, remote work requires “read & confirm” acknowledgment.
But even the littlest aspects of work life cannot be overlooked, such as engaging with employees beyond their work duties. Gone were the times when employees casually discussed their weekend experiences over a cup of coffee in the office kitchenette. Bosses now have to go the extra mile to ensure that the company culture and sense of belonging doesn’t deteriorate beyond repair, organizing virtual events and coming up with creative ways to engage with their employees.
Many companies did great and they are proud about overcoming sudden “shut down” in their operations. However, this was crisis situation handled through crises measures. The challenge is now how to digitize employer & employee relationship moving forward as part of our “new business as usual”.
David Března
Director Digital / Corporate Advisory