Blog Post

What is Workplace Experience?

  • By Leni Rivera
  • 22 Jul, 2019

Have you ever given an important presentation to key decision makers, which ended in successfully, and triumphantly, achieving your goals? Months of preparation, and extraordinary team work among a group of hardworking professionals; brainstorming sessions in enclosed rooms, and early-morning data crunching over coffee; all the many pieces of an immense puzzle finally coming together in one short hour in a boardroom. And in the end, you all nailed it!

An exhilarating experience such as this is achieved by many important pieces coming together to form something that is ultimately greater than the sum of its parts.

Such is a Workplace Experience. It is a group of many different areas in a workplace that come together to provide an experience for employees that enables them to successfully, and happily, achieve their goals. It is the parking spot that was easy to find, the workstation by the light of a window, the much-needed coffee to get everyone through all the data crunching, the option to brainstorm with the team in an enclosed room or work privately on an outdoor porch, and the ability to rejuvenate with a run on a treadmill. It is all the hardworking elements that go unseen behind the scenes, such as facility maintenance, lighting and room temperature, and safety and security, as well as all the visible elements that teams interact with every day – food and beverage services, meeting room set up, gym and fitness programs, and facility events. Workplace Experience is a group of many important pieces of a workplace that come together to form something that is ultimately so much greater than the sum of its parts.

The entire spectrum of Workplace Experience is as varied as it is large, and as such, the only way for all its moving parts to cohesively provide a unified experience, is if it is anchored in a company’s corporate culture. Just like the only way an entire team of professionals can collate a vast quantity of data and successfully funnel it into a meaningful and concise presentation, is if they are all focused on a unified vision for the presentation goal.  

At its very starting point, Workplace Experience normally begins with Corporate Real Estate, incorporating decisions that surround not only location and price negotiations, but also whether the property upholds the corporate image and is safe and accessible for employees. Architecture and Interior Design then follows to ensure that the spaces reflect the company’s culture in all its physical attributes. The entire spectrum of Facility Management ensures these spaces are then well maintained and upgraded over the years, and Workplace Technologies from Internet of Things systems to wayfinding apps are integrated to ensure the culture is alive in every physical touchpoint. Finally, specially designed services are incorporated into the overall experience, completing a distinct look and feel that is as unique to the company as the culture itself, such as themed dining spaces, break rooms with specific kinds of snacks and drinks, sleep pods, a fully equipped gym or campus fitness programs, and facility events such as Bring-your-pet-to-work Day.

Ultimately, the purpose of a Workplace Experience is to ensure that all employees are enabled, inspired, and empowered to experience the exhilaration of successfully achieving their goals.

 

Watch out for my first book on Workplace Experience, to be released this year in August!


By Leni Rivera 29 Sep, 2021
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As the pandemic starts to loosen its grip on work-from-home restrictions, companies are grappling with how to structure their workplace re-entry plans, while employees are starting to build a whole new level of anxiety about returning to work.
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As the coronavirus case numbers improve and vaccination efforts accelerate in the US in general, we are beginning to get a glimpse of how companies are envisioning the future of their workplace post pandemic. In the last two weeks alone, a few of Silicon Valley’s tech giants released announcements on the re-opening of their offices and the expected return of employees to the workplace. It is apparent that the initial phases of reentering the workplace will call for a hybrid approach, with majority of employees continuing to work remotely. As local government and CDC restrictions ease, there may be an expectation for employees to return to the office fully. And while this may be the case for the second phase of reentry, it may not be the case long term. That’s because it’s simply too early to tell.
By Leni Rivera 18 Mar, 2021

 This time last year, virtually every company around the world shut the doors of their offices, and those that could, asked their employees to work from home. The definition of a workplace began its unforeseeable transformation from a physical office space to a virtual room from anywhere… or did it?

 The reality is that this transformation had already started occurring over a decade ago. The pandemic that struck the world simply caused our perception of the workplace to finally catch up with this reality.

 In 2019 (12 months before the pandemic struck), The International Workplace Group (IWG) released their annual Global Workplace Survey report, in which they examined responses from over 15,000 professionals from 80 countries. This report revealed that 70% of professionals globally work remotely at least one day a week, and more than half work remotely at least half of the week.

 Working remotely is not a new concept, it was just perceived differently. Companies considered those who worked from home and those who worked in the office, as separate entities. They invested their resources on the workplace experience of the physical workplace, while disregarding the home workplace environment. But the pandemic has altered that perception. Everyone from the top executives down were forced to work from home, and thus experienced together the importance of a consistent conveyance of the company’s culture for all employees, regardless of where they work.

 Taking this new perception into consideration, the corporate world is now facing an evolution in how they will redefine their “workplace” moving forward, post-pandemic. Some companies have evolved to a fully remote workforce, shifting the workplace to the home environment. Some have a hybrid approach. And others are adhering to a fully office-based work environment. Regardless of how this is defined, what is undoubtedly clear is that resources need to be invested in both environments in order to ensure that the corporate culture is consistently felt by all employees, anywhere.

 To demonstrate how this is possible, here is a model of a potential hybrid scenario with employees working in both locations.

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By Leni Rivera 28 May, 2019

I have been a Workplace Experience specialist for 8 years now, and moved to the Bay Area because this is where the industry is prevalent. When I began developing and running a workplace experience for a company all those years ago, I didn’t even realize it had a name, much less understood the impact it would have on the productivity and happiness of people at work.

What most people seem to get wrong is that Workplace Experience is not – should not be – a mere collection of facility perks and benefits. I learned from that mistake early on, and still witness that mistake being made frequently, even here in the Bay Area. Just because you have a corporate gym on premises, or offer food in a company cafeteria, or designate a space in the office for a pool table, doesn’t mean that (1) your employees will even use it, (2) it will be appreciated, or (3) it will have any significant impact on employee engagement. I have seen free shuttle services for employees being underutilized, food in corporate cafes wasted, free gym classes underpopulated, and facility events fall flat. This is because the biggest misconception about a Workplace Experience is that it will generate a fun, unique, engaging environment all on its own. The mistake is a dependence on a Workplace Experience to create a corporate culture, and not the other way around.

The establishment of a corporate culture that is true to its values, principles and overall mission, is where it all begins, always. This forms the foundation of the relationship between the company and its employees. A solid corporate culture attracts the right employees because people want to invest in relationships that are based on mutual respect, trust, personal growth and a shared vision. But people are also wise to recognize when the company is sincere about its culture, or whether it’s just lip service.

Workplace Experience is the measure by which employees are able to quickly and easily gauge the culture’s authenticity. This is because it is the only element of a culture that can be experienced physically through all the human senses – touch, taste, sound, smell and sight, and so it bears witness to the sincerity of its purpose. That’s why placing a pool table in the office or sleep pods in the corner without having a reason behind their existence will cause more doubt than anything else.

Only if a company’s culture anchors itself on being truly invested in its employees’ health and wellbeing, for example, will facility features such as fitness classes, various healthy food offerings, placement of living plants in offices, allocating special parking spaces designed to optimize step counts, and facility programs aimed at helping people achieve their health goals, succeed. In the same respect, if the office areas of the company executives have vastly higher-end finishes, lighting, comfort and appearance than the work areas of the rest of the company, do you think that employees will believe the company culture supports equality and inclusivity?

And let’s not forget, the purpose of a Workplace Experience is far more than just offering attractive features in a workplace. Its primary function as a tool of the corporate culture is to enable and empower employees to be fully engaged and happy with their work. The scope of Workplace Experience includes the entire journey of an employee throughout their workday – from their transportation to work, their entrance into the facility, the ease with which they are able to access their needs (a meeting room, an appropriate work space, work tools and equipment, locating people and departments, etc.) and collaborate with each other (in engaging spaces, over coffee, with meals, through facility events and programs, etc.), and even providing relief by accomplishing chores before ending the day such as dry cleaning, car wash, or bringing home ready-cooked meals. That’s why Workplace Experience is such a powerful tool. It has within its very purpose, the capacity to directly impact employees’ productivity as well as directly influence their happiness at work.

If a company just throws in facility “perks and benefits” without anchoring them in their corporate culture, this investment will not only be a waste of money, it will be the large elephant in the room that constantly reminds employees of how inauthentic the company is. And conversely, as the only physical manifestation of a corporate culture, Workplace Experience can be the company’s most important tool in expressing to employees their sincerity.

 

 

Watch out for my first book on Workplace Experience, coming out this year!
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