In today鈥檚 pandemic-led work environment, the onus is on employers to create a psychologically and physically safe environment where employee well-being is a top priority. Organisations navigating this 鈥榥ew normal鈥� are at the same time grappling with an evolved set of expectations from their workforce. Across many industries the readiness or need to return to an office is varied.

Data consistently shows more than 33% of employees don鈥檛 want to return to the office, another third do want to return, and the remaining third want a hybrid mix where they spend some time in the office and some at home.

The pandemic has made many workers rethink their careers and examine a different approach to work/life integration. Behind the mask of productivity is an exhausted, burnt out workforce still dealing with the social and emotional upheaval of the last 18 months. This environment is driving a wave of resignations in the US, and it鈥檚 likely the 鈥楪reat Resignation鈥� trend will impact Australia and the Pacific region too.

To retain and attract talent, organisations must change the way they approach mental health 鈥� looking beyond ad-hoc wellbeing initiatives to provide real practical tools and support. Adding another level of complexity for HR is implementing the many legal and compliance processes to protect employees鈥� health and wellbeing.

This can range from communicating a vaccine strategy to the implementation of updated safe workplace policies. For large organisations, establishing a system to manage vaccination status is crucial for employees to feel safe returning to the physical workplace. Prior to implementing any kind of management solution, it鈥檚 important to establish the right approaches and build around them.

Ensuring employees are informed about new vaccination verification policies and potential solutions will help to establish buy-in and reduce friction. Employees will feel more empowered to be involved and provide feedback if they feel like they have agency over the process.

Research by shows that organisations with clearer communication (including post COVID-19 working arrangements) are seeing increases in employee well-being and productivity. Workers who feel included in more detailed, relevant communication are nearly five times more likely to report increased productivity. While today鈥檚 complex HR and health hurdles are incredibly difficult to navigate, they can be successfully managed with technology.

enables organisations to remain compliant with mandates while supporting employee wellbeing and empowering them to be a part of the conversation. Designed to support a fast and safe return to the office, the Qualtrics Vaccination & Testing Manager automates confirmation of employees鈥� vaccination status, ongoing test results, and even screening for COVID-19 symptoms 鈥� all in one single platform.

Employers can access real-time dashboards that provide a confidential employee vaccination status, negative tests, exemptions, and more鈥攅nabling leaders to make informed decisions on how to return to work and what guidelines to implement.

Whatever your vaccine management solution, what COVID-19 has taught us is that changes happen fast and unexpectedly. Over the next few years, it鈥檚 highly likely that vaccination requirements, mandates, and even certifications will change 鈥� especially as the virus evolves.

A flexible solution with plug-and-play capability can help organisations and governments to respond at the speed required to keep pace with these changes. This moment is both a challenge and an opportunity for businesses to shift their organisational cultures towards greater empathy and mutual understanding.

Human experience management is truly at the forefront of where we are today in the workplace because employees expect more, and we need to deliver an incredible experience.

A culture of psychological safety is no longer a 鈥榥ice to have鈥�, it鈥檚 crucial in the post-pandemic workplace.

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The company鈥檚 COVID-19 crisis response team in Australia and New Zealand began using Qualtrics pulse surveys this past year to stay connected with workers and address their challenges.

鈥淚t鈥檚 critical that we constantly communicate with employees to understand their challenges, and act quickly to address their needs,鈥� said Alexandre Moreau, chief people and safety officer at Veolia ANZ. 鈥淲e needed a quick and easy solution to keep people connected, whether it was managers and their teams, or customers. Qualtrics helped us make sure that our people were okay, and receiving the support they needed.鈥�

Sustainability is in Veolia鈥檚 DNA. The company鈥檚 business portfolio includes providing environmental solutions across water, waste management and energy. With operations and treatment facilities nationwide, they serve customers of all sizes 鈥� from local cafes and food chains to industrial facilities. One of their business units helps municipal water customers provide safe drinking water for their communities and industrial clients to more sustainably manage water in their operations, while their energy division helps companies build energy resilience and become carbon neutral.

Listening translates employee feedback into engagement

As a designated essential service during the pandemic, Veolia ANZ provided the same level of support for customers despite significant challenges, including social distancing, schedule disruptions, and lockdowns. During the height of the crisis, they needed even more flexibility to respond to highly changeable situations. For example, workloads increased in the health sector because of pandemic-related activities. Meantime, some employees were working remotely, while others had to be in the field. The company used Qualtrics to stay in touch with employees.

Kate Moonen, head of marketing and digital experience at Veolia ANZ, was part of the company鈥檚 pandemic response team. Speaking during a recent , she discussed how short, but targeted surveys helped the company stay in touch with its diverse workforce that includes truck drivers, machine operators, engineers, lawyers, and sustainability experts in urban and remote locations.

鈥淲e really wanted to understand that our people, particularly essential workers, were feeling supported,鈥� she said. 鈥淒id they have enough PPE equipment to do their jobs safely? What were their concerns about their mental health and well-being鈥ased on that feedback, it helped our team formulate鈥hat we were going to communicate鈥nd what actions we needed to take to continue to support our people.鈥�

Initially, the team was surprised at the high employee engagement levels with the surveys. Over time, the company rolled out new activities based on the feedback. These included regularly scheduled anywhere, any device communications with senior leadership through live webinars and question and answer sessions. In response to employee requests, executives also sent short video messages that employees could watch on their mobile phones, with personalized stories from company leaders about their lives outside of work, and how they adapted to the changed working environment.

鈥淧eople felt they wanted to take the opportunity to be heard,鈥� said Moonen. 鈥淲e would often share regular communications with them about what came out of the latest pulse, and what we were going to do about it. If you鈥檙e asking people for their time, it鈥檚 critical to demonstrate what you鈥檙e doing with that feedback to meet their needs.鈥�

Continuous dialogue through employee surveys

Just like any aspect of sustainable business, employee engagement is not a one and done effort.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing strong employee engagement every time we roll out a new survey,鈥� said Moreau. 鈥淚nstead of waiting a year to connect with employees, Qualtrics has given us a more agile response tool with a quick pulse check that our people appreciate, and we can rely on for updated feedback to make better decisions. We want to know how people are feeling in a fast-changing business environment.鈥�

Go digital for fast action

Moreau said companies should be explicit about what employees have shared and how it鈥檚 taking action. Even if there isn鈥檛 an immediate answer, people appreciate the transparency.

Moonen also advised employers not to overthink the survey process.

鈥淪ustainable business is all about agility,鈥� she said. 鈥淐ollecting the feedback and acting quickly is far more valuable than spending months iterating questions. Digital technology gives us the ability to constantly evolve and adapt as customer expectations, market conditions, and employee experiences shift.鈥�

Future of work is in employee experience

In the wake of the pandemic, many employees yearn for a greater sense of belonging. They want more help with their individual career goals, and to have pride in their workplace. Getting the employee experience right is part of every organization鈥檚 transformational journey to sustainable business.

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Kate鈥檚 career has been focused on customer marketing and personalised experiences for driving sales and customer loyalty. Whilst working for Veolia, she was asked to be part of COVID response team 鈥� to ensure people receive timely and consistent information during the pandemic while keeping tabs on staff during this challenging period.

鈥淥ne of our biggest challenges, particularly during the pandemic, came from having a such a diverse workforce that is literally all over the country,鈥� Kate explained. 鈥淚鈥檝e had the lucky pleasure of traveling all the way to Newman in Western Australia, which is a very remote depot where we operate. We have employees working there, others that are based in major cities or metro areas, with anyone from truck drivers to machine operators, to engineers, to lawyers, to sustainability experts.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very diverse workspace, so technology has been really important in helping us reach and meet all of those different employee types since they all have different work schedules and different ways of operating.鈥�

Steve noted that many organisations with diverse and widely dispersed workforces faced similar challenges during the pandemic outbreak. 鈥淭ypically, we would have seen organisations dealing with the remoteness of their locations, but during the pandemic, we saw a lot of originations having to move their workforce into their own homes.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=814005

鈥淭echnology has been critical for a lot of organisations to reach out and have conversations with employees. Getting that feedback is absolutely critical, especially in those fast-moving days during the early part of the pandemic 鈥� to understand people鈥檚 needs and what was happening at the time.鈥�

Kate said Veolia had previously measured employee sentiment annually or bi-annually through engagement surveys. 鈥淭hese were typically at the same time each year, but it was a little bit challenging getting engagement from some of the operational areas since a lot of them didn鈥檛 have computers or were working off a laptop, so they weren鈥檛 always able to sit down and fill in that engagement survey, which was reasonably lengthy and quite a big ask.

鈥淭hrough the pandemic we had to adapt because we had to reach those employees faster, we had to take quicker pulse checks to reach them individually. We did a big process around collecting mobile phone information from employees so we could start to communicate via SMS and that has flowed through to our day-to-day operations.

鈥淲e鈥檙e now able to, in a more agile way, take the pulse of our employees and send content to them, such as video messages from the CEO or from their leaders, which they can quickly access from their phone rather than wait until they get back to the depot or home computer.鈥�

鈥淭he feedback has been really positive; I think people are feeling pleased and much more in the loop because of that personalised experience we鈥檙e now offering.鈥�

Kate was surprised by the level of engagement from the surveys Veolia received from staff. 鈥淵ou do wonder about the uptake or engagement with people who are perhaps out in the field, or operational areas, or even working at home 鈥� but we consistently had really excellent response rates to our range of pulse surveys that we issued.

鈥淚 think people felt that they wanted to take the opportunity to be heard, and the important thing for us as a team was to show that we鈥檙e receiving and acting on that feedback, communicating that feedback to the broader business. We would regularly share communications, showing what came out of the latest pulse and what we鈥檙e going to do about that, which was critical in maintaining that level of engagement. If you鈥檙e asking people for their time, I think it鈥檚 critical that you鈥檙e demonstrating that you鈥檙e going to do something with the feedback they provide.鈥�

Steve agreed with Kate, highlighting how organisations should collect data to inform future decisions and implement change. 鈥淭his is one of those critical learnings as we look forward into the future of work. driving the next stages going out into the post-pandemic stage. We still want to be able to collect that feedback and act on that feedback with the same velocity and speed and the only way that we can really do that is through a digital listening platform that allows you to scale those listening programs, the feedback, and then the actions on top of that.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we鈥檙e seeing, encouragingly, the that companies are using, like Veolia using us, to rollout and really capture information and drive the success of people returning back to work or back to whatever this new world of work looks like.鈥�

Steve explained how Qualtrics release a that helped organisations quickly gauge employee sentiment during the early stages of COVID. 鈥淚 think Veolia took about 30 minutes to take that, transform it, and get at least the first cut out to their people so they could start collecting data. It was critical to have that speed and ability to be rapid around that. With the Qualtrics solution, we were able to provide that ability to capture and rapidly collect that information in real time and get those insights driving through it.

鈥淰eolia used our listening platform and the dashboards to get this information out to the managers as well, and this was something critical we saw across a number of organisations that faced the same problem of listening to their people at scale and getting that information rapidly back to them. Veolia really captured it through SMS technology and using that also as a communication 鈥� using it to send out information; not just collect it.鈥�

To hear more from our discussion about employee sentiment, adaptation, and the future of work, listen to the

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In normal times, innovation is about doing things differently to achieve a better outcome but in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, innovation has more often been about survival. 鈥淢ost businesses 鈥� including ours 鈥� had to innovate just to carry on,鈥� says Des Fisher, innovation principal at 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand.

The most profound change for the enterprise software company was an immediate pivot to all-digital communications with its clients. Ideation is the bedrock of innovation and most of its key tools, such as sticky notes, whiteboards, meetings and workshops, vanished overnight. 鈥淣o face-to-face 鈥� that struck fear into my heart,鈥� says Fisher.

鈥淐hemistry is so useful when you鈥檙e innovating; if you鈥檙e not engaging properly with people it鈥檚 unlikely to amount to much.鈥�

Fisher says that some 麻豆原创 clients were initially slower to embrace ideation with digital tools because they were in pure survival mode. 鈥淲e had to rescue the concept of digital ideation and apply humanity to the technology,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ngagement is still vital, we just deliver it in a different way.鈥�

Companies also needed to find ways to support their staff who were working from home. In a worldwide COVID-19 initiative, 麻豆原创 made its freely available, allowing businesses to do fast and frequent 鈥減ulse鈥� surveys of their employees and customers. Australia Post, for example, coping with weeks of Christmas Eve-level parcel volumes, did regular employee pulse surveys to gauge morale and fatigue.

on how its workforce was feeling and how the management team could help. 鈥淥rganisations are communicating a lot more frequently with their staff and customers, which improves engagement and trust,鈥� says Fisher.

鈥淎 data-driven means of understanding how people feel is crucial.鈥� A third major innovation has been using data and digital capabilities to monitor critical infrastructure in hospitals, such as air-conditioner operating pressures and filtration units that keep staff and patients safe. 鈥淢ost organisations collect a vast variety and volume of data.

Listening to what that data has to tell us can help to improve safety and operate assets more reliably and sustainably,鈥� says Fisher. 鈥淭his is the next wave 鈥� to make better decisions using the wealth of data available to us and reinvent the way that businesses run.鈥�

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When a keen Chobani superfan emailed the company last year asking if the yoghurt brand could be involved in her wedding, Chobani’s customer loyalty team went into overdrive. Cue flowers in yoghurt tubs, tiny pots of Chobani and branded balloons – all with just five days notice.

“In an era when everything is digital and automated, the human connection is very important,” says Maria Voronina, Chobani Australia’s Marketing Manager – Innovation and New Platforms.

Consumers who contact Chobani receive a handwritten note and perhaps a small gift or advance notice that a discounted flavour is returning. This personal touch is one reason why Chobani became Australia’s fastest-growing yoghurt brand, notching up double-digit annual sales increases for eight consecutive years after launching in Australia in 2011.

By 2017, Chobani had the largest share of the Australian yoghurt market. Eager to build on this success, the business signed up to 麻豆原创’s Qualtrics Experience Management Platform the same year.

With Qualtrics XM, Chobani is able to launch user feedback surveys in seconds and capture responses at every stage of the product lifecycle optimise offerings and services, while segmentation helps Chobani meet the unique and diverse needs of Australian consumers.

“We’d grown rapidly, we were continuously innovating but a lot of our data was outsourced, it took forever and it was expensive,” say Voronina. “We were the new kid on the block. We wanted to stay number one.”

Chobani was already a trailblazer in launching limited-edition yoghurts, such as ghost-shaped packaging for Halloween, and Chobani Flip, with a separate mix such as chocolate or nuts. But it needed a faster way to keep innovating.

“We may design a new product with 20 flavour options; we need to narrow down what is most appealing. Setting up a survey with Qualtrics takes about 30 seconds,” explains Voronina.

Rapid feedback also helps with marketing. When Chobani launched FiTX – a high-protein, no-added-sugar product – in 2019, the company knew the high-protein factor would appeal to a different market segment than its no-added-sugar offering. Chobani adjusted its launch communication strategy accordingly.

“We’re now equipped with tools that help out innovation and out brand tacking,” says Voronina. “It’s like a health check – we constantly monitor the live data.”

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that supply chains are broken, exemplified through a lack of visibility, lack of collaboration, and lack of coordination.

Since most supply chains are based on transaction and reactive models, multi-faceted supply networks cannot adapt quickly enough to spikes or drops in demand. COVID-19 has inadvertently demonstrated the weaknesses of this system and highlighted the need for change.

Digital technology platforms can create the transparency and connectivity necessary to mitigate risks and navigate through crises. Visibility across supply networks is vital in response to emergencies. 鈥� ensuring that they were able to quickly develop a temporary hospital and use those beds to treat patients with COVID-19.

This is a time to unite, to focus on everyone鈥檚 safety and assist those we can. In response to the huge shifts we are seeing globally across industries, 麻豆原创 recently hosted a series of virtual forums called . There were seven industry-specific episodes focused on key challenges, solutions, and learnings from this current crisis.

Also, to help guide businesses through this challenging period, through the crisis period, to support an enhanced supply chain and improved experience management. These two critical branches of business dictate an organisation鈥檚 success 鈥� because a company鈥檚 ability to provide the right product and service to customers and staff is paramount.

Supply Chain Management and Disruption
麻豆原创鈥檚 primary focus has always been helping businesses anticipate and adapt to change through technology. Looking at supply chains, we鈥檝e already seen the importance of interconnectivity, the ability to create transparency across supply networks that is embedded across different organisations, departments, and borders. The more connected we can make disparate systems and processes, the greater visibility we can create across supply chains to better manage sudden spikes in demand.

The ability to intelligently manage supply chains with data driven insights helps business plan, adapt, and grow. It鈥檚 about understanding planning as a service, which is possible through , which is freely available for business looking to scenario planning and evaluation of supply chain impacts, options, and financial implications.

The also broadens the visibility of organisational supply chains to gain an understanding of suppliers鈥� situations, analyse risks, and better manage the experiences of staff and suppliers throughout the business ecosystem.

Using this solution, businesses can gather feedback suppliers to understand potential supplier restraints and delivery timelines risks, areas for optimisation, and ways to better collaborate with suppliers to ensure business continuity even during crises. This is critical as suppliers, staff, and customers all face extraordinary challenges and organisations must be seen as responsive and communicative.

Communication and Support for People
Building team cohesion during crises, or reskilling them for organisational changes, is vital. Employees need to feel heard and supported, which is why their engagement can be better managed and understood through platforms like Qualtrics.

using Qualtrics to understand how staff are feeling, the associated root causes, and what they can do to help. With the ability to provide this quick and convenient service across any device helps keep volunteers engaged and provides significant insights for improvement.

St John Ambulance also noted that the speed and ease at which Qualtrics was able to go live, the in-built reporting tools, and automatic alerts, have all made the volunteer experience easier to manage and understand.

The data insights produced during this time of crisis will help business safeguard themselves from future impacts, building resilience and discovering best practice. It is a challenging time, but it also presents an opportunity to refine practices and ensure that everyone is kept informed and safe.

麻豆原创 is here to help and provide assistance for any business struggling to digitally transform and adapt to these rapid changing circumstances.聽 to the second edition of the 鈥� going live on August 6^th 2020.

This article originally published on .

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In Australia, our healthcare has been reasonably prepared for COVID-19. Compared to other nations, we have significant coverage of ICU infrastructure and specialists, and we have a wealth of great hospital leadership supported by strong talent pools. This has been complemented by the Australia public showing diligence in terms of limiting exposure and acting intelligently, rather than going outside to protest isolation.

Healthcare has been very responsive 鈥� gearing up with thousands of nurses to assist with potential spikes in infection and resource shortages. Healthcare providers have upskilled staff across their organisations in terms of COVID-19 response, have created pathways to onboard thousands of workers into new roles, and provided telehealth options wherever possible to limit risks and ensure people remain safe.

Intelligently Adapting To New Models of Healthcare
In early April, I spoke with chief evangelist for 麻豆原创 Analytics and 麻豆原创 Leonardo, Shailendra Kumar. and digital aged care in this time of isolation. Digital aged care combines data for smart devices and applies machine learning to help care providers and family members by mitigating risks and ensuring the right care for users 鈥� such as enabling remote wound care.

Looking further out in the industry, telehealth is important for people needing to access healthcare remotely. However, the speed and severity of COVID-19 demonstrated how underprepared some healthcare providers are in terms of capacity and training in terms of providing digital healthcare.

Now is the time to explore possibilities in terms of new models of care, including telehealth 鈥� particularly its limitations and an understanding of current online services. There is a wealth of tools, resources, and processes for online care available. It is important healthcare providers offer staff the right technology and support to keep them safe and productive during this crisis. Adopting all tools is as dangerous for business continuity and patient outcomes, as adopting nothing at all.

Staff talent is vital right now as people are the key to enabling more digital transformation across the healthcare sector. The technology can only support and streamline the capabilities of employees, so education is paramount. Healthcare workers need to feel supported at this time, particularly as they鈥檙e at the frontline managing patients and adjusting to their needs.

Patient engagement can be challenging, especially when healthcare is being administered digitally. 麻豆原创 is currently offering free patient experience management though . This allows healthcare providers to automate emails and surveys to gauge patients鈥� sentiment, requirements and preferences. And, with Qualtrics鈥� Text IQ capability, providers don鈥檛 need to sift through 1000 essays from patients, but rather see the overall sentiment and drill into critical responses.

Transparency and Agility in Supply Chain & Workforce
Communication is vital right now 鈥� both internally with staff and externally with patients. With intelligent communication and analytics tools, healthcare providers can better understand the environment in which they鈥檙e operating and better plan in terms of workforce and supply allocation. This allows our industry to move with greater agility and be more resilient during challenging circumstances.

. By using the construction company was able to quickly develop of a temporary hospital outside New York City and source much-needed beds for treating those with COVID-19. Considering how in-demand hospital beds are during this pandemic, this was an incredible feat only made possible cloud-based platforms that offer such extensive visibility across supply networks.

Transparency has always been an important business benefit of ERP and Workforce Management platforms. However, being able to communicate and co-ordinate in real-time is vital when news is developing quickly and responses must be timely.

In response to the huge shifts we are seeing globally across industries, 麻豆原创 are hosting a series of virtual forums called聽 for the second edition in this series, going live on August 6^th 2020.

麻豆原创 is here to help and provide assistance for any business struggling to digitally transform and adapt to the rapidly changing circumstances.

Our episode further explored the ideas I addressed here, looking at the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers, supply chains, and patient engagement. We also looked at the intelligent technology solutions that can help mitigate risks across these key industry stakeholders. from the healthcare session of 2020 Adaptive Strategies in a Changed World.

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Created to support employees and combat fake news, the app will collate information from trustworthy sources including , and combine it with specific country data, local government guidance, travel information and relevant company policies, to provide localised information for users. It will be available free of charge to all 麻豆原创 employees and any customers globally who have an 麻豆原创 Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement.

The app, which is accessible as a webpage or as an Apple iOS application, was launched by the 麻豆原创 APJ Innovation Office. It was developed in association with 麻豆原创 Global Conversational , Digital Labs, Global Health Management, HR and Qualtrics teams.

The Bridge-IT app will offer the following features:

• Data Platform 鈥損owered by 麻豆原创 Cloud Platform, the data platform bridges information from trustworthy global and local sources, as well as specific country, government and company data to provide as accurate information as possible, in real time
• Chatbot 鈥� powered by 麻豆原创 Conversational AI technology, the chatbot provides a user-friendly tool for questions and access to company specific FAQs or healthcare guidance
• Automated Guidance Tools 鈥� powered by Qualtrics, these personalised surveys span a range of topics for respondents to input their situation and be routed to appropriate resources based on their needs. This includes a COVID-19 symptoms survey, which provides tailored healthcare guidance and resources based on users answers about symptoms displayed
• Dashboard 鈥� provides visualisations of real time data, such as impacts of COVID-19 on supply and customer-based data, including public sentiment on 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud.

The app incorporates a standard set of data, including company policies, travel information, COVID-19 case numbers, health resources, and legislative updates, but can be adapted to include specific data or information as required. Additional functionality, including a 鈥楧igital Boardroom鈥� feature, is set to be rolled out in coming weeks.

One of the first 麻豆原创 customers using the app, a global pharmaceuticals firm, has already rolled out the app for staff, including bespoke data on the number of COVID-19 cases searchable by hospital location. This helps employees at the firm to predict likely demand for medical supplies and respond accordingly.

鈥淭his app is one of several ways 麻豆原创 is helping to fight COVID-19 across Asia,鈥� said Scott Russell, President, 麻豆原创 APJ. 鈥淭he volume of important information on the pandemic from a huge variety of sources 鈥� including employers, the government and health authorities 鈥� can make it hard to keep up. Bridge-IT is designed to help guard against COVID-19 misinformation and help people stay on top of important updates in the simplest way possible, so they can focus on their health, happiness, and wellbeing.鈥�

Damien Bueno, President and Managing Director, 麻豆原创 ANZ, said: 鈥淚鈥檓 very proud of our regional Innovation Office 鈥� led by a team in Melbourne 鈥� for harnessing the power of data and developing a one-stop tool to provide accurate, corroborated, and trustworthy information,鈥� said Mr Bueno.

鈥淎t this time of heightened uncertainty 鈥� and the anxiety and stress that it leads to 鈥� we hope the app will give our employees and customers some peace of mind, by delivering the information they need to know, when they need to know it.鈥�

All data in the Bridge-IT app will be open and accessible so third parties can develop additional solutions.

To access the app, 麻豆原创 employees can . A publicly accessible version of the app .

For 麻豆原创 customers, please speak to your 麻豆原创 account team to arrange access.

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In our , I spoke with Steve Bennetts, Head of Growth and Strategy 鈥� Employee Experience APJ at Qualtrics, to discuss how COVID-19 is changing the ways we work and communicate with one another.

Steve has 20 years鈥� experience in organisational psychology, working with organisations across the region to help plan out their employee strategies, build their listening programs, and offer strategic support to help business leaders understand their employees鈥� experience.

鈥淓mployee experience is helping organisations understand that the experiences that their employees are having day to day can impact positively or negatively on the way the employee thinks,鈥� Steve explained. 鈥淎s a result of that, those behaviour and attitudes of the employee can then impact on productivity. We look at those experiences and experience data that are impacting on people鈥檚 lives.鈥�

According to Steve, other critical elements of employee experience include understanding employee engagement or the potential variances between job descriptions and actual experience of those in the role, which is vital for creating seamless hiring and onboarding processes for new employees.

Steve noted that organisations have been digitalising their listening programs, creating a regular cadence for surveying employees and understanding experience gaps 鈥� today, it鈥檚 about understanding that experience from home.

鈥淲e need to talk to our employees and find out some fundamental things that we can help with them,鈥� Steve said. 鈥淎sk is your communication strategy suitable; are you communicating with them enough; do employees need you to communicate more or less; what鈥檚 the leadership like, are they interacting with employees enough; have employees got the right equipment at home to enable them to do their jobs; what鈥檚 happening with the team dynamics and are you ensuring it鈥檚 working?

鈥淎nd what鈥檚 happening with your end customers,鈥� Steve continued. 鈥淗ow are you feeding this information back to your customers? All of this is critical now, so you should be gathering that data and pivot your listening program towards those data points.鈥�

Steve says businesses should be collecting any data that can help improve employee experience. 鈥淭here may be some really great experiences and we want to capture that data and then let other people know how to replicate that,鈥� he expressed. 鈥淲e also want to intervene quickly in those experiences that are impacting on people鈥檚 health, wellbeing, and overall productivity.鈥�

According to Steve, during crises employees want to see their company is looking after and caring for them, which is why asking about employee engagement now would seem tone deaf. 鈥淵ou should not be running your engagement survey right now; you should be pivoting your tool, you should be listening, and collecting data around the cons, around leadership, around people鈥檚 health and safety, around team dynamics, and around the customer. We should 100-percent be listening, surveying our people, but we can鈥檛 be using the same methodology.鈥�

Steve noted the importance of being able to move and adapt quickly, as he saw within his own organisation. 鈥淨ualtrics moved about three weeks ago to working remotely, but like most other organisations we also didn鈥檛 think about what it means for our workforce and what some of those gaps would be.鈥�

is a working-remote solution free and readily available for businesses that need assistance in understanding employee experience during this global pandemic. 鈥淩emote Work Pulse allows us to go out on scale and listen across our organisation,鈥� Steve explained, 鈥済ather some data about how employees feel about the organisation, and how confident they feel about the organisation looking after their health and wellbeing.鈥�

Steve suggested employees and leaders should regularly communicate, run online sessions through digital resources like Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. 鈥淔or leaders, it used to be really easy to go up to the desk of your team member check what鈥檚 going on in a very quick and informal discussion, he added.

鈥淣ow, the informal discussions are now formal, and you have to find time in someone鈥檚 calendar to have a five-minute chat or briefly ask about something. There is a bit of dynamic shift and change to be conscious of, so it helps to be vocal about it within the team.

鈥淔or those in leadership, this is your time to show employees how much you care, how much you want to help enable them, how much you want to focus on what you can do to get through this patch with clear communication.鈥�

From an employee perspective, Steve highlighted the importance of taking regular breaks and maintaining communication. 鈥淔or us, as employees, be kind to yourself, look after your team members, reach out, say hello, and interact with others,鈥� he suggested.

鈥淚n relation to your health, you can鈥檛 sit in one spot for eight or nine hours all day long like I鈥檝e caught myself doing; go for a walk, if you can, around the block or around your house if you need to. Remember, this is a short-term problem that we鈥檙e all working through 鈥� it鈥檚 not going to go on for the rest of our lives; there will be an endpoint, so keep that in mind.鈥�

Check out and listen to the for more information on how to stay safe, engaged, and flexible during this time of uncertainty.

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