In the weeks following the explosion of COVID-19 cases and subsequent work-from-home or stay-at-home orders, employee engagement issue has become even more critical. Perhaps concerns in the workplace are because the physical or virtual office itself isn’t really the problem. Could the issue actually be the health and happiness of the people inside your office that matters? Here is a list of 3 ways technology can humanize working from home during this uncertain time.
1. Improve Communications
With so many communication channels now available — email, chat, text, and so on — important information often gets lost in the shuffle. To make matters worse, everyone who is now working remotely must coordinate his or her efforts exclusively through digital means (and without the aid of face-to-face interactions).
Internal communications tools such as a modern intranet help cut through the clutter and serve as a single source of truth. Implementing a single location for all information is vital for companies. They deserve their own communication channel — one they can oversee and administer — rather than a channel that is produced for mass audiences.
2. Contribute Feedback
Good ideas thrive when information flows freely. In addition to having a platform for shared information, teams must leverage it to supply feedback and share constructive criticism.
Populating the intranet with content such as surveys or discussion threads will ensure that stakeholders have the means to express their opinions without fear of recrimination.
Decision-makers, in particular, must make it a point to solicit feedback. Nothing kills employee engagement faster than ignoring people — especially when they are talking about fundamental needs and wants.
3. Do away with Hierarchies
Companies must abandon the mentality that suggests information flows from the top down. Technology liberates information to flow in all directions — and it serves as a kind of community resource accessible to everyone.
When employees have easy access to things such as announcements, files, and reference documents, it increases transparency and keeps misunderstandings at bay.
Companies reflect the people within them for better or worse. It’s not a radical statement, even when it is coming from titans of industry — which means it is not a radical change, either.
Companies do not need to transform to fulfill their true potential. Rather, they must unlock the assets already inside the ranks. Technology has the key.
Read More: https://readwrite.com/2020/04/24/how-technology-can-humanize-workdays-and-why-that-matters/