The employee experience is now king. Everything that an employee feels, sees, learns and encounters on a daily basis will dictate how motivated they are at work, their sense of belonging and whether they choose to stay with the organisation or leave. This entire experience must be understood, and figuring out how a hybrid workforce can receive a similar experience throughout the employee lifecycle is vital. Here’s how the intranet can help to deliver replicable employee experiences regardless of whether workers are in the office or remote.

Employee experience is key
The employee experience is everything a worker encounters in their job every single day, from how engaged they feel in their role and how their manager and team interact with them through to how easy or frustrating they find organisational processes. It’s closely related to employee engagement and when the employee experience is positive, this is more likely to drive productivity, innovation, retention, and create a great employer brand to attract new talent.

It’s up to the employer to create a great employee experience from the recruitment stage right through to when an employee leaves, looking at all areas of the experience. This must include how clear and understood the organisation’s values and purpose are; how leaders manage and motivate their teams; learning and development opportunities; ensuring the right processes and infrastructure are in place; and how health, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion are supported.

Creating a replicable employee experience whether people are in the office or remote, needn’t be a huge undertaking with the right technology in place.

The intranet – the glue holding together the employee experience
Technology, and in particular the intranet, can be overlooked when it comes to supporting a positive employee experience. In fact, when used to its full potential, the intranet can underpin the whole employee experience, supporting everything – from people’s sense of belonging and how valued they feel through to career development. Here’s how.

Affirming organisational purpose and values – Connecting employees to organisational purpose is crucial, after all, workers want to feel that their work is making a difference rather than simply lining the pockets of shareholders. Working for a company with purpose has grown in popularity since the outbreak of COVID and four in five UK professionals now say that working at an organisation that has a strong and positive purpose aligned to their motivations is important when considering a new role. The intranet is a key tool for communicating organisational purpose and values, so that every employee understands what the company stands for and which values it holds dear, whether this is innovation, customer service excellence and/or an environment-first approach, for example. From the news items and blogs, through to the staff who are called-out for great work, purpose and values can be reaffirmed in everything.

Transparency breeds trust and equality – The intranet lays everything bare, allowing the company to communicate directly with their people, signpost their employees towards important documents, firm-up processes and procedures, advertise jobs and training opportunities, and recognise great work. By showing transparency across the board, employees are more trusting of leaders and know where they stand. The opportunities open to them are also made clear, helping to avoid discrimination and favouritism.

Keeping employees socially connected – It’s always going to be easier to form and strengthen relationships when working face-to-face, and so finding ways to connect people on an emotional level when they’re working remotely, must become a priority. The intranet can bring people together when they’re working at a distance, facilitating collaboration and relationship building through social posts, tweets, blogs, vlogs and more. With the pandemic exacerbating feelings of loneliness among U.K. workers resulting in 44 per cent admitting to often feeling lonely, it’s important to find ways for people to feel connected regardless of location.

Consistent onboarding and milestone experiences – Having clear processes in place for onboarding new recruits and celebrating career milestones is important. Whether a new recruit is being onboarded remotely, in the office or through a mixture of the two, everyone needs to have a similar experience which must be supported by technology. Every new employee needs to be given access to their ‘digital workplace’ and all key documents, as well as provided with a sense of belonging. The latter might involve arranging social meet-ups with new team members, whether face-to-face or virtually. And when it comes to career milestones, it needs to be clear when and how these are celebrated while ensuring they are memorable and personalised. A combination of in-person and remote celebrations to ensure inclusivity might work best.

Wellbeing – Checking-in on people to see how they are doing is even more important when colleagues are working remotely. The intranet can support this with simple tools such as a ‘happiness indicator’, which allows colleagues to quickly and easily make line managers aware of how they are feeling so that any wellbeing issues can be addressed. Employees can also be signposted to documents and services that may help, from financial support services through to mental health first aiders.

Learning and development – By making job adverts, training programmes, courses, mentorship opportunities and secondments available for all staff on the intranet, this ensures everyone has access to the same opportunities at the same time. Course materials and can also be made available online to allow for distance learning.

Inclusivity – To ensure everyone has the same experience, all workers whether office-based, remote or field/frontline workers, must be able to access the same information, resources and communications. A mobile-friendly intranet platform is therefore key otherwise workers with no computer access will always feel excluded.

Recognition – Regular and sincere staff recognition is vital for creating a positive employee experience, as people who feel appreciated and valued will always be more motivated and engaged. Giving and receiving recognition doesn’t have to happen face-to-face. In fact, by making it simple to recognise a colleague online, recognition can quickly become an integrated part of corporate culture. There are intranet tools that can make it easy to appreciate a colleague, and this can always be followed-up by an in-person/virtual celebration and reward.

Invest in the hybrid experience
The employee experience must be consistent for all employees. And this can only take place with the right supportive technology, in particular an intranet with all the integrated tools and features necessary to ensure an equitable experience for all. Failing to invest in the right tech will lead to a two-tier employee experience – one for office workers and another for those who work remotely.