Hybrid working. A great idea, right? Employees get to travel less and focus more. Employers get to save money on physical office space. It’s a symbiotic evolution in the way we work where everybody wins. Or do they?
We’ve been working on a number of EVPs over the past few months, and we’ve noticed an emerging theme in our internal research. “Fun” & “enjoyment” in people’s employee experience has been on the one hand rising in importance, but at the same time declining in people’s lived experience and reality.
In each case it felt as if employees were trying to tell us something, but we weren’t quite sure what.
So, we used our focus groups to explore the theme more deeply. And in each case, we heard very similar comments.
“It’s not as fun as it used to be”
“Things feel different. It’s not as connected as it was”
“Something’s changed. It all feels a bit removed. A bit ‘virtual’ “
We explored more deeply and established that employees were using the word “fun” as this was the closest word they could find to express their feelings. But they weren’t really talking about “fun” at all.
They were talking about real, physical human connections. The invisible energy force that holds our workforces together.
It became clear that although on paper, Teams could replace the need for all face-to-face conversation, there was something missing.
Many talked about missing the buzz and energy of having a really busy office, compared to the eery ghost-towns that many head offices seem to have become.
Many pointed to the fact that Team-based calls tend to be far more task-focused and that they missed the physical “water cooler” and casual corridor chats that made them feel part of a community.
It’s not easy to articulate, but we believe that whilst the early days of hybrid working seemed to be “all benefit and no problem”, we are now starting to see the longer term consequences of hybrid working.
That consequence is a drop in energy and connectedness that used to exist in our busy office spaces. It seems this can’t be fully replicated in a “virtual world” where we work from our kitchens and bedrooms.
Something is different and it’s causing employees to reflect on their employment experience. Eventually, loneliness and a lack of sense of connection could lead them to seek out different opportunities.
We may be at the beginning of a realisation that although hybrid working has many undoubted advantages, it is not consequence free. We may well see employees looking elsewhere because, for want of a better word, it’s just “not as fun as it used to be”.
But there’s a paradox here. Our research also shows us that the majority of employees greatly value working from home. In fact, they wouldn’t be without it. Many of them have now built their lives around flexible working practices and couldn’t go back to full-time office work, even if they wanted to.
Damned if we do, damned if we don’t!
So, if we can’t put the genie back in the bottle, how can we mitigate against this erosion of the “fun factor”?
How can we create greater emotional connection with remote employees?
We believe that one of the most important steps is to tell more employee stories.
Organisations should be focusing more of their energy into creating and sharing the “campfire stories” that help to solidify the bonds in any tribe.
“Day in the life” and “My story” blogs and videos have previously been used to enhance recruitment communications, but increasingly, this kind of content is becoming an important strand of any good internal communications strategy.
If you need help telling your employee stories, we can help. We’re experts at developing consistent storytelling frameworks and bringing them to life in authentic and dynamic ways. Get in touch to discover more.
