02nd May 2018
How to make sure your organisation thrives in the modern workplace
In an ever changing world it can be hard to keep up with the pace and face evolving challenges. Our first Manchester event at Old Trafford Stadium with Engage solutions Group looked at how to thrive in the modern world of work.
What’s changed?
Technology is unavoidable
It has become an integral part of daily life both in and out of the workplace. As Rod Bulmer put it, ‘The world isn’t going digital, it already is. The narrative has already been set, we can’t change it, but we can choose how we react.’
The pace
Your people want immediate results. You have to be thinking about reaching your colleagues with immediate impact. This means that in many cases 100 small interventions with proven impact is better than one huge push.
Internal communications can no longer cover for poor management
Your people can find out almost anything they want about your organisation by a simple search on the internet. An engaged workforce, driven by good communications and good management is the simplest way to ensure protection from any potential crisis.
How do you thrive?
Adapt to the way your people work and play and embrace it!
Your people are constantly connected to technology, in fact the average person checks their phone 28 times a day. That’s at least once every hour and 10,000 times a year, so why not connect with your people where they already are. Using an online platform that’s easily accessible can be the easiest way to promote honest conversation between colleagues and collate real-time feedback. But you have to be careful about the platforms you choose to drive technology adoption.
Many companies are introducing multiple new systems to try and cater for changes in working style, but are confusing employees in the process. Modern life is fast paced and busy so engagement programs that require time and effort are destined to fail.
The key is finding easy to use integrated platforms that hold all information in one place.
Make sure you’re reaching your people often and giving real time feedback.
Collating masses of data and doing nothing with it is pointless. You need to give your people easy ways to tell you what they’re thinking. Tech can be used in this instance to give a pulse always on view of feedback and engagement levels.
Whether you choose to do this through an online platform, regular meetings, or simply by frequent honest conversations, you need to give evidence that you’ve acted or explain why you aren’t to prove that you are listening. For more on this subject read my previous blog post.
Ensure your communication framework reflects the modern world.
Evoking a bottom up peer to peer view is essential; everyone has to be connected. You have to be transparent, honest and give employees autonomy to disassemble traditional top down hierarchy. You can no longer rely on top down communications get access to everyone in your organisation.
So in one sentence…
React quickly, have multiple touchpoints, utilise technology and communicate well.
A huge thanks to Engage Solutions and our speakers: Rod Bulmer, Nick Thompson, Phil Wedgwood and Amrit Sandhar for making the event such a success.
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