Keeping people connected has been a recurring theme over the past year amidst the shift to an increasingly distributed and digital work environment.<\/p>\n
One of the ways to accomplish this is to deliver an integrated employee experience.<\/p>\n
Employees want to be engaged, collaborate, and upskill themselves. But this must now happen without the social structures of an office.<\/p>\n
According to Microsoft\u2019s Work Reworked research published at the end of 2020, 88% of leaders at large enterprises in South Africa expect they will adopt a more hybrid way of working permanently.<\/p>\n
So, even though we are starting to see more employees returning to the office, their expectations have\u202fchanged. Now, extreme flexibility will define the post-pandemic workplace.<\/p>\n
At Microsoft, we believe that hybrid work is the future.<\/p>\n
Every organisation will need a new operating model where maintaining employee engagement will be critical. Engaged employees are happier, perform better, and are less likely to leave the organisation.<\/p>\n
People want to feel part of a team, but they also want to understand what success will look like. The technologies and tools must empower them while giving them scope to grow through upskilling opportunities.<\/p>\n
Business leaders must understand that this hybrid environment is about integrating individual technologies, tools, and collaboration for a more holistic employee experience.<\/p>\n
Ensuring teams continue to feel tight-knit and connected to the company\u2019s culture will be challenging.<\/p>\n
It is therefore essential for organisational thinking to change to better understand the requirements of a hybrid environment, the expectations of employees, and how to integrate this to deliver on a better employee experience.<\/p>\n
It is a case of bringing this experience into the tools that employees use and tying human resources into the entirety of the business.<\/p>\n
Part of this move towards empowering workers involves centralising the employee experience and enabling teams to self-organise in ways that solve business challenges in more dynamic ways. By doing so, employees gain autonomy without losing the sense of shared purpose.<\/p>\n