In our latest blog series, we’ll be sharing the keys to a successful elastic digital workplace. Today, I’m kicking things off with our first hybrid workplace must-have: empowering employee engagement.
Since the pandemic outbreak, companies implemented temporary tools to enable teams to work remotely. With that hurdled cleared, you’re ready to transform those quick fixes into sustainable solutions.
The goal? Support your teams now and ensure you’ll be ready for what’s next. That could be a change in business goals or the next global shift.
Employee engagement in the hybrid workplace
Connecting distributed teams via cloud-based collaboration technology isn’t new, especially for large or global companies. Since COVID-19, however, almost everyone, at every size organization, suddenly had to work from home.
- Team members who sat next to each other had to connect in the virtual world.
Over the last few months, we got used to online meetings. We enjoyed the occasional dog barking or children entertaining us in the background. You may have found that some people liked skipping the commute, others wanted to return to the office, and another group of employees wanted the option to either, whenever they pleased.
It looks like the hybrid workplace is here to stay. A recent Gartner survey indicated that 82% of company leaders plan to allow employees to work remotely some of the time.
And now your next challenge: how do you keep them all engaged and productive?
- Build a sustainable elastic digital workplace.
Delivering a Positive Video Meeting Experience
Employees may have tolerated video meeting glitches during the pandemic. However, it’s time for a more stable unified communications solution. A positive video meeting user experience is essential to continued employee engagement.
Collaboration platforms must work seamlessly for those in the office and team members working remotely. Everyone should have the same experience and access to the same software and tools.
So how do you accomplish that?
- Applications like AVI-SPL Symphony can help you keep your meeting rooms and devices up and running. The Symphony application also provides remote management of your global technology estate.
- Deploying Symphony via the cloud or as part of AVI-SPL’s managed services program helps ensure a positive user experience.
- Also, don’t forget to set up remote workers for successful collaboration with the tools they need to stay connected. Look for work-from-home bundles designed for each of your team members.
Delivering collaborative, productive virtual meetings is what we do. That’s been an essential part of AVI-SPL’s mission for decades. Check out this video flashback from our 2013 archives. Is this your teams’ online meeting experience?
If so, don’t worry. Our unified collaboration experts are here to help.
How to know if employees are truly engaged
Individual goals met and business outcomes achieved are sure signs that your employees are engaged, no matter where they are working.
Also, keep in mind that company leadership and business line leaders may need to update their management style and tactics to accommodate remote workers.
Encouraging virtual social interactions
Social interactions boost employee engagement too. Right now, there’s no chatting in the kitchen about what we’re binging on Netflix. We can’t give each other high-fives for a job well done. Instead, try scheduling 15-min coffee meetings where you chat about everything but work.
My team holds these sessions on Fridays and has an activity for us every week, such as trivia or a single-item scavenger hunt. One day, we had to unearth the oldest thing we found lurking in our fridges. Mine was an old bottle of tobacco sauce. It may sound silly at first, but these coffee times are engaging and keep us connected on a human level.
Feel Connected With Microsoft Teams Together Mode
For more lighthearted fun, Microsoft Teams users can try Together Mode. Together Mode uses AI technology to put all meeting attendees in the same background. Team members can “feel together even when they are apart.”
Boosting engagement with social meetings is the ideal introduction to the second installment of our elastic digital workplace series. Read the second and third installments below.
