Organizations have been seeing a transformation for the past two decades, but the pandemic has accelerated the pace of change. It is the employees who make the workplace and to make organizational changes, the companies must first understand the employees perspective and their needs. Here are five such ways in which modern employees have changed and compelled firms to think about employee experience .
Deskless and remote working
Remote working shouldn’t be seen as just a “trend” or hashtag for WFH. It is the futuristic concept that’s meant to stay. Tech tycoons like Dropbox, Shopify and Twitter have announced their plan of permanent WFH setups, while Facebook said that half of its employees could be working remotely for the next decade. Remote workplace trends among employees is a massive change and is going to shape the working culture beyond 2021. A Buffer survey shows that employees do not just want to continue remote working, but also recommend WFH to family, coworkers and friends.
Growing respect for non work time
Kentik surveyed 220 network professionals to understand the challenges and struggles of employees regarding work-life balance. The survey showed 51% of employees being concerned about their work-life balance. As a growing respect for non work time, employees are showing keen interest in app blockers, end-time emails and avoiding work calls after office hours.
Modern employees do not shy away from asking questions
Millennials have a different way of working. In volatile job markets and in the face of financial downturns, employees feel particularly challenged due to fear of uncertainty. In the wake of such ambiguities employees do not shy away from asking tough questions. “How is my company performing?” “What does all this mean for the future of my company and my job?” - have become common concerns now, and employees look for clear answers on such questions.
Performance review isn’t a one-way street anymore
When companies give a monthly or quarterly performance review, the employees no longer go unprepared. The employees think about performance review as a three buckets model, where they need to understand about the work they’re doing, what they strive to do later, and the relationship they’re having with the manager. The employees need to hear out not just about how well (or not) they’re performing, but how close they’re to an organization’s expectation bar, and how high this bar is. Modern employees search for transparency in organizations.
Mix of generations
More numbers of young employees are entering the workforce today and changing the fabric of an organization. New workforce has grown up at a cusp of technological transformation and has seen the evolution, transformation and update. It also shows that the way different companies work must change. In a multigenerational workforce, organizations find it challenging to find content types and communication channels which become convenient for all, and still do not appear to be outdated.
Addressing the way employees have changed will help organizations in delivering excellent employee experience as they continue to shape their work culture in 2021 and beyond.
