Technologies That Improve Employee Well-Being

Every enterprise and business About Us web page is often more focused on culture and values than it is on shiny office buildings. The need to build and demonstrate a great employee experience has changed how HR operates, with employee health and wellbeing a key part of that shift.

While some firms adopt the high-road with all-remote work or great in-office perks, charity matches, days off to do charity work, and making progress in green office initiatives, for many firms, it is about making employees feel more valuable and encouraged to do more valuable work in their office time.

Increasingly, automation and bots are taking over simple tasks allowing workers to focus on the key tasks within their roles. Collaboration tools allow them to better communicate and meeting room booking systems speed up one of the more annoying parts of traditional office culture. All of these will change how we all work, HR included.

The return to work from COVID

In the aftermath of COVID-19 many businesses are tentatively returning to the office, and employee well-being at work is a key consideration. Many firms are implementing employee experience applications to score and get feedback, building up a picture around positivity and issues that need resolving.

As well as keeping offices clean and secure, the use of desk booking and hotdesk booking software will help ensure people have a suitable space to return to, and offices do not get over-crowded. This also helps ensure meeting rooms are regularly sanitized and aired to protect workers.

Companies are also moving more applications to the cloud, improving the ability to work flexibly and deliver process and productivity improvement. Office apps, video meetings, workspace management software among other solutions create a cloud suite that delivers everything workers need, no matter where they are.

While HR managers must liaise with IT and other departments to establish what services are being used, it is up to them to deliver the experience to workers.

Setting up for that first day back

HR managers must create office policies that every worker needs to follow. They must build the documentation and practical guidelines that make any office a safe place to work, collaborating with facilities and external agencies to ensure hygiene standards meet post-COVID rules.

Before heading back to work, employees will need a stream of confidence-building messages to convince them that their offices are safe. They will expect everything is in place for a strong employee experience and require HR to show strong leadership on that welcome through the door with clear signage and messaging about how to work in this new environment.

Workspace management software and visitor management kiosk systems can replace or limit receptionist interactions. And even though the environment may feel more “sterile”, HR managers can go to great lengths to put on a welcoming atmosphere.

Naturally, there will be plenty of meetings on those first few days back. While remote meetings will be preferred, even for staff in the same building, there will be some that require face-to-face time and meeting room booking systems will be key to keeping people safe.

When it comes to meeting rooms, HR managers can implement a -5 minutes rule, so people must leave a meeting 5 minutes early to allow it to be cleaned before the next event. They will need to be moving around the office to identify choke points and jams where people should not be gathering and ready with high-alert messages to help remedy these issues.

Enhancing the employee experience

Once workers are back into their regular office rhythm, HR managers can then focus on phase two of a return to work plan. If an enterprise has already embraced employee experience tools and activities, they can ramp these up.

Those without such initiatives will need to roll them out, encouraging a return to safe social activities, offering rewards across the business for ideas or observations that improve safety and the (either physical or emotional) environment.

Human resources departments can launch worker health apps and activities as part of overall wellness initiatives, Mindfulness and concentration apps can be promoted as ways to help workers feel calmer during times of stress.

Similar enterprise staples, including cycle-to-work schemes with reduced prices for bikes or other fitness equipment, can boost health, with in-office massage chairs, healthier eating services and gym memberships, once they reopen.

Finally, in whatever passes for the new-normal working environment, HR professionals must be more aware than ever of the emotional state of workers. Regular surveys through an app or intranet tool can measure how people feel. These employee mood trackers help organizations identify, to some degree, stressed workers. They can also identify and eliminate the stress triggers within the business that might cause some problems, helping to improve overall employee health.

Firms can take a more hands-on approach, taking the happiness buddy concept from startups and have people partner up to encourage them to discuss their state of mind. All of these efforts and others should result in happier workers, helping drive growth for the organization and reducing illness and worker turnover.

Every business will be stressed coming to a return to work solution. But even under that stress, the HR department and HR managers need to take the pulse of the business. They must do everything they can to improve the environment for returning workers, new hires, contractors, corporate partners and other agencies.

Fortunately, cloud applications and services reduce the stress for HR when it comes to deploying these services from office bookings to healthy living services. And, as 2022 rises into view, all HR professionals will be sharing success stories and things to avoid as the return to business normality picks up the pace.

Let us introduce you to Cloudbooking ‘s workspace management technologies to improve productivity and well-being.  Contact us now for a no-obligation product demo.