Enhance your Workplace Experience
- By Leni Rivera
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- 28 Jul, 2019
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For many of us, our home reflects our daily lives, and in its natural state on any given day, it may contain child or pet toys littered on the living room floor, random socks that didn’t quite make it to the laundry hamper, a thin line of dust on the shelves, and clean dishes still in the dishwasher. But the moment we know we’re having guests over, a somewhat frantic overhaul begins – toys are picked up and put away, carpets are vacuumed, shelves are dusted, laundry and dishes are cleaned and put out of sight. Our home still reflects who we are and our unique personalities, we just transformed it into an enhanced version.
Such is the case with any company’s existing Workplace Experience.
Just like our homes which physically represent our distinct personalities, a Workplace Experience physically represents a company’s corporate culture. That’s because Workplace Experience is made up of all the different physical features in a workplace, (the kind of desk you have, what your conference rooms look like, and the quality of your overhead lighting), and the employee-centered services in the work environment (where and how you get your coffee, lunch and snacks, how your mail finds its way to your desk, and whether you get to take a kickboxing class on site). The tricky part, is that unless the Workplace Experience is aligned with the Corporate Culture, it will not have the impact on employees that it’s designed to do. It would be like living in a house with huge paintings on the walls which you don’t even like, exercise equipment in the living room you never asked for nor use, and an overhead light fixture with red light bulbs. Can you imagine the kind of frantic overall you’d need if an important guest was expected to come over to your home tomorrow night? Forget the sloppiness of their location in your house, the fact that these things don’t even represent who you are is what will drive you to a frantic panic!
That’s why the only place to start, when revamping a Workplace Experience, is to know your company’s corporate culture. Remember that Workplace Experience is the expression and physical manifestation of a corporate culture, and therefore it can only serve this purpose if the culture is properly defined.
Enhancing an existing Workplace Experience therefore, is similar to “overhauling” your home because it isn’t about making any changes to your (and whomever shares your home’s) personality, it’s about using what you already have in your home that expresses that, and simply enhancing it to make the best of your personalities shine in that environment.
The good news is that as long as you have within your workplace a desk, a conference room, a reception area and a pantry, you already have an existing Workplace Experience. This is true for an office of 1 or 1,000 employees. So, let’s give an example of a Workplace Experience enhancement for a moderate-sized company. Let’s say for example that this company’s culture is anchored on, above all else, the value of inclusivity. How could we enhance the workplace to express this in a way that employees would not only believe the culture, but imbibe it as well?
In a culture of inclusivity, all employees should feel unquestionably like they are a part of something greater than themselves, and that they are each invaluable pieces of the company as a whole. To support this in a physical space, consider eliminating as many walls within the workplace as possible. Walls serve as barriers, and while they may be important in some areas where privacy is necessary, be cognizant of the fact barriers also support divisiveness. Another suggestion to consider is re-configuring workstations so that they form groups that are accessible to each other and perhaps surround a common water cooler or snack table, encouraging a sense of camaraderie. One of the most important considerations to bear in mind is that in order to physically express a culture of inclusivity – where everyone feels like they equally form an important part of the company, regardless of who they are or what they do – is to make sure that no one feels left out. In a physical workplace, this means that every work area must have the exact same look and feel – from the mailroom to the executive offices. Wall finishes, flooring material, overhead lighting, and even coffee services and snack food variety should be consistent in every area. Otherwise, having stark differences in a Workplace Experience causes an instant an undeniable divide among employees. Encourage employee participation for the creation of facility events and programs, so they feel very much included in the creation of their overall Workplace Experience. It’s through employee-driven ideas that unique programs can be developed, such as Beer Festival Fridays, Team Show-and-Tell events, or an annual Thank You Lunch for all employees from their leaders. All of these gestures, regardless of how small or large they may seem, will have a significant impact on how employees feel, believe, and imbibe a culture of inclusivity.
In the same way that simply picking up toys and cleaning the house can enhance the existing personality of your home, re-designing a Workplace Experience to enhance a Corporate Culture can also be achieved with just a little effort. And for both examples, the effort is always worth it in the end.
For more on Workplace Experience, its relationship with Corporate Culture and Employee Experience, and a guide on how to build a Workplace Experience in your office today, watch out for my first book! Coming out very soon!
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.
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!
