What does your ‘new’ employee experience look like?
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Our day to day working lives have changed. Remote working might have been (to an extent) the norm for some already, but it required much more of a shift for others.
Companies are now having to make the decision on what their “new” way of working looks like. Twitter have taken the step of allowing employees to work at home “forever” after determining that their work from home measures have been successful. Google have also announced that employees will work from home until at least summer 2021. Change makers are driving bold new ways of working to help employees evolve and adapt, and there have been, and will continue to be, many lessons learned along the way.
At System Concepts, our teams have been working closely with companies to help them in different ways.
Health and safety
Our Health and Safety Team have been providing a range of COVID-19 services. They’ve been carrying out specific risk assessments and reviews of safe operating policies and procedures against the current government and sector guidelines, to allow employees who need to return to the office to do so, safely.
Our Managing Director (Health & Safety) Darren Smith highlights some of the challenges faced by our clients, as well as here at System Concepts.
“On the 23rd March businesses went into a period of lockdown shock, and there was uncertainty around rapidly changing official guidance. System Concepts has a history of helping clients build resilience through pandemic planning. We were quickly able to mobilise our expertise to enable clients to continue operating as COVID-19 forced health and safety to the top of businesses’ agenda. Businesses have had to adapt and develop new ways of working in a short space of time. The same is true for our own business. Internally, lockdown forced us to consider how we continued deliver some of our services, moving from face-to-face to remotely delivered training. The challenge for us now, and the wider health and safety industry, is to maintain the agility and momentum that we have developed during the pandemic. We must keep health and safety at the forefront of business planning if industry is to bounce back, and overcome subsequent waves of the pandemic.”
Ergonomics
Our Ergonomics Team have been providing a full range of services remotely, including our home worker ergonomic assessments to help employees adopt good ergonomic practices while working from home.
Laura Milnes, our Head of Ergonomics, tells us more about how the team have been supporting businesses.
“We have been helping clients proactively support their staff to work comfortably at home on a computer. This has included developing a home workstation set-up guide, containing practical steps to optimise posture and improve comfort, as well as a series of desk-based stretches and gentle exercises to help increase movement and ease postural strain. We have also been providing ergonomics support remotely to provide immediate, tailored advice to employees, with an emphasis on making the best of use of the equipment and furniture they have available. Clients have commented that, with the practicality and flexibility of our approach, and our tailored support, they are confident that the homeworking risks to their staff are well-managed.”
User experience
Our UX Team have come up with new and creative ways to conduct user research to help our clients continue to develop user-focused products and understand what their “new” employee experience looks like.
Our Managing Director (UX) Katherine Lee highlights the importance of understanding the employee experience.
“Running a company myself means I am acutely aware of the impact employee experience has on our end customer experience. The happier, more supported and better equipped our team are, the better they can provide high quality enjoyable experiences for our clients. Clients who are part of truly human centred organisations are always looking inwardly as well as outwardly. Supporting their efforts to improve the efficiency and wellbeing of their employees is always rewarding. This could be by developing a better picture of who their employees are, what their day-to-day jobs look like and what they need from the company to be able to do their jobs well. Or perhaps it’s ensuring that all that complicated AV equipment in a meeting room can be set up quickly and effectively to allow people to just do their job without IT frustrations. And as things change in the era of COVID-19, it’s even more important to ensure your employees are happy, supported and equipped to do their job in the new version of their working life.”
We’re all adapting to continue these relationships remotely, ensuring that clients and their employees feel supported, despite the physical distance. Things have been shaken up and that can only be a good thing, can’t it?
Get in touch to discuss how we can support you in defining your “new” employee experience.