Many companies are mandating their workers return to the office but recent workplace data shows that backtracking on hybrid work is “a big mistake.” While ushering employees back into traditional office settings five days a week may be an earnest attempt to curb financial fallout and increase profitability amid an economic downturn, ongoing research indicates hybrid work environments are still trending upward — and human-centric, flexible work designs will reap the highest returns for businesses in a post-pandemic world.
Ahead of Kyndry’s Workplace Experience Summit, held virtually March 1-2, 2023, Ivan Dopplé, SVP and Global Practice Leader of Kyndryl Digital Workplace Services, talks about five important IT strategies that will help business leaders drive higher employee satisfaction and retention in the workplace, and pave the way toward economic recovery and growth.
1. Sharpen digital workplace strategies
“While the majority of top executives understand the benefits of a hybrid work setup, one reason more business leaders are forging on with rigid return-to-office mandates, despite resistance from workers, is because the collaboration tools and digital technology investments they made in 2020 have yielded disappointing or disparate outcomes with diminishing returns in regard to employee productivity and engagement,” said Dopplé. “Most CIOs and transformation leaders can’t and won’t see improvements in workforce collaboration and innovation in a hybrid work setting if they’re still struggling to understand what types of data, insights and technology will effectively produce transformative benefits in 2023.”
2. Create more personalized employee experiences
“For businesses to succeed today, meaningful employee engagement requires a differentiated, personalized approach to how they measure and track employee-centric data in remote and hybrid workplace environments,” noted Dopplé. “Before the pandemic, measuring worker engagement and experiences were primarily centered upon productivity indices, with typical benchmarks measured against device data, such as the total amount of time spent on a specific task. But new research shows that today’s employees increasingly feel that this approach has made their jobs become more transactional and operational in a hybrid environment.”
