Category: Employee Experience

For organizations looking to elevate their employee experience in 2024, incorporating more offboarding best practices can be a game-changer.

More than 2/3 of businesses have a formal onboarding process.

But only 29% have a formal offboarding process.

That’s despite the potential risk of security breaches, loss of knowledge, and damage to employer brand that not having a formal process can lead to.

76% of IT leaders strongly agree that not utilizing offboarding best practices presents a significant security threat.

And when you consider how hyper-connected we are at work, and how many of us now take work devices home with us or use work logins on personal devices, it makes you wonder how much of a security threat not having an offboarding process could really be.

So how can you mitigate that security threat? And ensure the offboarding process is as seamless as possible for employees, managers, and HR?

Take a look at these offboarding best practices to set you up for success.

Transfer knowledge

When an employee leaves, you risk their years of experience working in the industry, and getting to know the business, leaving with them. Especially if they work in a small department. 

Some of the information that can leave with them includes:

• How to use a particular software
• Important contacts
• Industry knowledge
• Company knowledge (for instance, how to maintain legacy products or other company history)

It’s important that when an employee leaves—for any reason—you have a way for them to transfer their knowledge to their replacement or other people within the team. This is where offboarding best practices come into play. You don’t want to end up losing knowledge that could benefit you in the future.

Some of the ways you can transfer knowledge, and protect it going forward, include:

• Writing guides
• Delivering (and recording) workshops or webinars
• Handover calls
• Video tutorials
• Checklists

If any of the information is likely to change, be sure to schedule in review dates so it’s always kept up to date, and no one person is responsible for it in the future.

Revoke access to accounts

Failing to revoke employees’ access to software and hardware creates a huge security risk and puts you in danger of future leaks or hacks. It’s any company’s worst nightmare.

So, make a list of every tool the departing employee has access to (or better yet, maintain a list so that you don’t have to create one when they leave) and notify your IT department so that their access is revoked.

Reclaim or wipe equipment

If you’ve given employees a laptop, tablet, phone, or other device, make sure they send it back or wipe it remotely.

Wiping devices remotely ensures that if you don’t want it back—for instance, if it’s old—no confidential documents are kept on a device that doesn’t belong to an employee. 

That way, they can keep the device for personal use without the risk of anyone finding confidential data or files.

Make sure any useful information is backed up elsewhere before you wipe it, though. Otherwise, this is one of the offboarding best practices that could come back to bite you.

Stop automatic paychecks

Let your finance department know the employee’s last working day. They can then work out if the employee gets any extra money from PTO they didn’t take, bonuses, etc. And, of course, organize their final paycheck.

Contact—and reassure—clients

Make sure any clients who work with the departing employee directly know that that person is leaving and who their new point of contact will be. 

This will help ensure a smooth transition and reduce the anxiety clients may feel about the upcoming changes. 

Reassure them that the new person can still cater to their needs, particularly as they may not have the same level of knowledge about the client as their departing contact.

If they don’t feel reassured or supported, they may take their business elsewhere at the end of the contract. Certainly, this is one of the offboarding best practices you can’t afford to skip.

Conduct an exit survey

Exit surveys can give you crucial insights into why an employee left and how you can improve. 

Whether you send an automated survey, have employees chat to their manager, or get them to sit down with HR, it’s important that they share their experiences.

This helps them feel listened to and can improve your employer brand, as they’ll feel more positively about the organization. As a result, they’ll also be more likely to praise you to their networks.

If they left for negative reasons, you can put steps in place to fix things. That way, future employees in that role don’t leave due to the same issue.

Preventing avoidable turnover can be a key benefit of implementing offboarding best practices.

Let the team know

When you need to tell employees depends on how closely they work with the person who’s leaving.

Immediate team members should know once the person has handed in their notice to help ease the transition period and facilitate knowledge-sharing.

The rest of the company can be told via an email on one of the employee’s final days.

Hire their replacement

Take the learnings from the exit interview, update the job description, and start hiring their replacement.

If you have enough notice, you could even start hiring before they leave, using the exiting employee’s knowledge to help with the hiring process. 

After all, they’ve been successful in the role. They know what the right candidate needs to succeed. If anyone can identify it in a potential new hire, it’s them.

Keep in touch

Do you plan to stay in contact with your departing employee?

How can you do so in a way that improves your employer brand and leaves them feeling positively about their time at your company?

For larger businesses, an alumni network can be a huge benefit.

Yet only 15% of companies have a formal alumni network. Compare that with the 67% where employees organized their own, informal alumni group instead. That’s a huge missed opportunity.

Could you set up an alumni network as part of your effort to incorporate more offboarding best practices?

It’s always worth staying in touch with former employees. They may be able to recommend someone to work for your business who’d be a great fit.

They may even return themselves, with more knowledge and experience, later in their career.

Conclusion

Offboarding is a crucial, if often neglected, part of the employee journey. Handle it right and it can boost your employer brand and improve internal security measures.

Staying in touch with former employees could even help you find your next great hire. The only question is: which of these offboarding best practices will you start with?

If you want an easy way to keep current employees engaged, manage alumni, and more all in one place, Workrowd has what you’re looking for. Our suite of tools offers a user-friendly way to keep everyone connected, while giving you real-time analytics to ensure you always know what’s working.

Ready to learn more? Visit us online or send us an email at hello@workrowd.com.

If you think all the hype around AI is overblown, you might want to think again; AI for HR can be a game-changer.

When used correctly, AI can automate tedious tasks. It can give hiring managers more time to focus on building relationships and providing a better candidate experience.

In fact, 85% of employers using automations or AI say it saves time or improves efficiency. Unsurprisingly, 82% of HR teams want to incorporate more AI tools into their talent management processes between now and 2025.

So anyone who isn’t using AI for HR risks being left behind.

But when AI for HR is used incorrectly, or without human support, candidates and employees can both end up feeling let down. And it can negatively impact your employer brand and employee productivity.

Read on to find out about 7 great ways to use AI for HR. Plus, 4 cases where you should never use AI for HR.

Ways you should use AI for HR

Let’s start with the positives. How should (or could) you use AI for HR?

Checking job descriptions for biases

If you already have a job description, AI can scan it for ways to make the language more inclusive.

If you don’t have a job description yet, it can write one for you based on the criteria you provide.

Make sure to pass it through a human editor before publication, though. (For reasons we’ll discuss below in the don’t section.)

Sourcing candidates

It’s not always easy to attract the right candidates. One way to leverage AI for HR is to search the internet far faster than any human, and ensure your job gets in front of the right people.

Using AI for HR can enable you to scrape job boards for candidates and their resumes. It can also submit job descriptions to more sites in a shorter span of time, potentially helping you find the right person for the job much faster.

Filtering resumes

Filtering resumes is one of the most time-consuming parts of the hiring process. 

AI can search resumes for keywords that suggest someone would be a good fit for a role. It can then submit the results to a human recruiter for review or automatically invite that candidate to interview.

Making video calls more accessible

While video calls are a ubiquitous part of modern life, they’re not great for everyone.

They often obscure social cues and introduce far too many distractions, particularly for neurodivergent employees or candidates. 

The evolution of AI for HR means more and more innovations are available to improve accessibility.

For example, auto-captions can now appear in real time on apps like Zoom. These captions aren’t perfect, but they enable attendees who are hard of hearing to participate without having to wait for the minutes to be published.

Some tools now also allow attendees who arrive late to get an AI-generated summary of what they missed. AI can even assemble and deliver an overview of the key points discussed at the end of a meeting.

And software can remove distracting background noises such as someone munching on their lunch or a dog barking. These tools are getting more and more effective, improving the quality of audio for calls and recordings.

Managing employee records

Maintaining records can be tedious. It’s easy to forget to do something. This is where AI for HR can come in handy.

AI can update information in multiple places without the need for manual input. This not only eliminates the risk of manual errors, but saves huge amounts of time.

AI can also notify you if information needs updating or double-checking, and it can delete information when someone leaves.

And it can help you keep things like training manuals and contracts up to date with regular notifications or document scanning.

Organizing payroll and benefits

No one wants to get paid late. And, with a cost-of-living crisis affecting many people, some employees genuinely can’t afford for their paycheck to be even a couple of hours late. It could mean they get hit with late fees that further impact their finances.

Using AI for HR can solve this, paying employees and contractors automatically at the end of each period. 

If a contractor bills for different amounts each month, AI can scan the invoices to work out how much to pay them and process that payment without a human needing to touch it.

Generating ideas

Think of AI for HR as your handy assistant to help you with idea generation.

What it comes out with won’t be perfect, but you can use it as a jumping-off point. It can even help you think up new ways to do something, like an off-site for the sales team to try. 

Plus, it can be useful for repetitive tasks like drafting or editing candidate emails.

Ways you shouldn’t use AI for HR

So, what about the times when you shouldn’t use AI for HR?

Firing employees

Letting an employee go isn’t fun, but firing them without the human touch? It’s cold and will leave the former employee with a bad taste in their mouth. This might then lead them to publish a negative review about you online.

Building relationships

One of the potential benefits of AI is that it can give you back time to focus on the more human elements of your job, like relationship building. 

Stronger relationships build brand loyalty and more engaged employees.

But this isn’t something you can give to ChatGPT to do for you. It comes from genuinely listening to what other people have to say and responding accordingly.

Editing for individuality

With training, AI can emulate your voice. Ultimately though, it will never be able to fully recreate something that sounds like you.

So be sure to edit anything it writes to make it sound original and not something written in Generic Internet Voice.

Checking facts

AI is prone to fabrications, meaning it likes to make things up.

And not in a fun, creative, storytelling way. (It’s kind of bad at that.)

When AI gives you any stats or studies, probe it until it gives you the original source. Or see what you can find when you do some (non-AI) digging yourself.

This ensures any information you share with employees or the outside world links to the original source. It will improve how trustworthy people feel your company brand is.

Conclusion

Regardless of how we feel about AI, it isn’t going anywhere. It can’t replace the nuance that comes from the human experience, but that’s where HR teams can shine. 

Showing empathy and humanity will improve the candidate experience, and thereby your employer brand. 

It’ll also improve the employee experience, making your people feel listened to and appreciated, rather than like just another cog in the machine.

If you’re ready to make the most of both AI for HR and the human side of things, the right tools can help. Workrowd automates tedious aspects of employee experience management, to ensure you and your team can drive greater impact in less time.

Want to see how it works? Visit us online to learn more, or email us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

I was scrolling through TikTok the other day when I found a video. It was highlighting pet-friendly workplaces. There were dogs everywhere. It looked like my idea of heaven.

When we first got our dog in 2019, we were always anxious about leaving her home alone. We had relatives or a dog walker visit her, but it wasn’t the same as us being there. 

Three-quarters of pet owners also feel anxious going to work without their pets, so we’re far from alone there.

Now that we both work from home, it allows us to sit with her when she’s sick, we can monitor her health issues better, and we can take her for a walk if we’re feeling stressed and need a break to disconnect.

(She’s actually sitting beside me while I write this, happily watching the TV—one of her favorite hobbies.)

Two-thirds of US households now own a pet. And a third of millennials own at least one. So by joining the ranks of pet-friendly workplaces, you can increase your talent pool. 

There are plenty of other pros and cons that come with pet-friendly workplaces. Let’s take a look at what they are:

Pros

So, what are the benefits of pet-friendly workplaces?

Happier employees

There’s no denying it—animals put smiles on faces. Especially during a long or stressful day. 

58% of pet parents find having a dog at work boosts happiness and 57% find it relieves anxiety or stress.

Which makes sense, because studies have shown that hugging a pet can significantly reduce our stress levels.

Plus, if there are dogs around, those dogs will need to go out. This means employees can’t be glued to their desks for hours on end. Instead, they get some fresh air and movement in, both of which are great for productivity and stress relief.

Greater employee retention

Almost half of dog owners would find it harder to leave their job if the company allowed them to bring their dog to work. Which makes sense when you consider how hard it is to find pet-friendly workplaces.

Improved networking

Pets are great conversation starters between people who wouldn’t normally talk. 51% of people find that pets increase socialization in the workplace.

And getting colleagues talking can lead to increased networking opportunities and even improved confidence.

Save on costs

Pet-friendly workplaces add a huge amount of value for any business looking to attract new employees. With it being so rare to find pet-friendly workplaces, it may streamline your hiring process, and therefore cut down on costs. 

And, since you’ll experience greater retention, it can save you money that way, too.

And 37% of Gen Z dog owners would consider taking a pay cut to work somewhere that’s more pet-friendly. 64% would change jobs, or even reduce their hours, to spend more time with their pets.

When pet parents can take their pets to work, it also works out cheaper for them because they don’t have to pay for a dog walker or daycare, which can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars per month—or even per week.

So, pet-friendly workplaces save on costs for everyone.

Cons

While pet-friendly workplaces come with huge benefits, like everything, there are downsides to having pets in the workplace, too:

Not every pet behaves well

Some pets push boundaries. Some might beg for food, or trawl the carpet for crumbs, while others may be more disruptive by going to the bathroom in the office or making noise during meetings.

One solution to this is to bring in a trainer to work with pets and their owners. It’s a great bonding opportunity for pet and owner, as well as between employees who may work in different departments but have the common ground of being pet parents.

Allergies

Some employees may be allergic to pets, which can make having them in the workplace a pretty serious issue.

Allergies can range from mild irritation to people not being able to breathe, so you have to be sure to make accommodations.

It may distract employees

Having animals everywhere can be distracting, particularly if they’re poorly behaved or just want a piece of someone’s lunch. 

But, at the end of the day, employees know they’re there to work. 

And with the right training, exercise, and nutrition, animals will understand that it’s work time. They’ll learn to sit quietly with their owner while they get some work done.

Some animals won’t get along

If you have a workplace that’s welcoming to dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, ferrets, or any other type of animal, you risk conflicts. 

As well as the obvious, such as dogs chasing cats, you can have issues with cats or terriers following their instincts and trying to catch smaller animals, which can cause issues between not just the animals, but colleagues, too.

The best solution to this is to ask employees which animals they have, and if they’d like to bring them to work. That way, you get a clear idea of who’s interested and can look for solutions. 

For example, if you have an even split between dog and cat owners, could they bring dogs in on some days and cats on others, or dogs for one week and cats another? Or have one section of the office for dogs, and another for cats?

Don’t underestimate the power of asking employees for their thoughts and solutions, either. They may come up with something you hadn’t considered.

Conclusion

Pet-friendly workplaces aren’t for every business, but they can come with huge benefits for talent attraction and retention. And maybe even your workplace productivity, thanks to the boost it provides to employee wellbeing. You never know—joining other pet-friendly workplaces could be exactly what your employer brand needs.

Want to ensure pet parents know what options are available to them and get quickly connected to fellow animal lovers? Workrowd has the tools you need.

Our one-stop shop enables you to share employee information, groups, programs, and events through one central hub. Team members can quickly personalize their experience, and provide ongoing feedback so you always know what’s getting results.

Does it sound like this could be useful in your workplace? If so, visit us online to learn more, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to get started.

Workers are five times more engaged when their employer offers an employee volunteering program. And 88% of consumers prefer brands that are socially and environmentally conscious.

Yet only 60% of companies offer employees paid time off to take part in volunteering programs. 

A further 21% of companies want to implement an employee volunteering program by 2024, but planning to do something, and actually doing it, are very different things. 

Even if all those companies did implement an employee volunteering program, that leaves a gap of almost one fifth.

So, if you’re planning to build a world-class employee volunteering program, what steps should you take?

Pick your purpose

It’s impossible to do everything we want to do or help every cause in the world. Which is why focusing on one or two initiatives will get you the most success.

Consider what ties into your greater business purpose or mission.

For example, if you run an animal-related business, could your employees volunteer at their local shelter? Or could you start an initiative with a chain of shelters to help them, perhaps offering dog-walking services?

If your focus is on sustainability, what volunteering opportunities could you provide your employees which relate to that?

Jot down a bunch of ideas, or better yet, ask your employees for some! This way, they’ll feel invested in the program from the start, which means they’re more likely to participate and help you reach your goals.

Get leadership buy-in

It’s a lot easier to engage employees in something if their managers are on board, too. 

Managers have to be comfortable with their employees taking time from their day jobs to help other people. If they’re not happy about it, employees won’t feel comfortable volunteering.

If managers do want their employees to join in, employees will feel supported doing so and be more likely to volunteer their time.

Partner with relevant organizations

If there’s a particular organization that’s relevant to your cause, why not partner with them? This creates a mutually beneficial relationship, helping you both further your goals.

You could also use this as a PR opportunity for both businesses, increasing your reach into new areas through joint social media content or press releases.

Consider cultural differences

Different cultures have different priorities and pursue them in different ways. So, if you have a global workforce, consider this before starting your employee volunteering program.

You could create different initiatives for each territory you operate in, with each area managed by a different person. That way, they’re aware of the cultural nuances in a way that someone located elsewhere may not be.

You could also collect team members’ opinions before you start an employee volunteering program to find out what matters to them and where they’d like to spend their volunteering time. If it’s a cause that resonates with them, people are far more likely to participate.

Decide on your KPIs

What do you hope to achieve through your employee volunteering program? How will you know if your scheme is successful?

Like any business initiative, you need to have goals or KPIs to help you monitor your program’s performance.

Some things you could track include:

• How many employees take part
• How much time they donate
• How many organizations they serve
• How much money they raise
• The total value of volunteering time

You could also track bigger-picture things like:

• Impact on employer brand
• Employee retention rates
• Employee engagement rates
• Connections with other businesses/organizations/causes
• Employee morale
• Employee mental health

Choose a volunteer coordinator

Someone needs to oversee putting all this together, whether that’s in a part-time or full-time role.

If you’re a small organization or starting with a small scheme, having this as an additional part of someone’s job, much like organizing an ERG, may keep them engaged and invested in your business.

It doesn’t have to be someone from HR or marketing. What matters is that they’re invested in the cause and can pass their enthusiasm on to other people. Skills can be taught, enthusiasm can’t.

Collect feedback

It’s important to check in with your people periodically to find out what they do—or don’t—like about your employee volunteering program. 

Things change quickly. What worked a year ago may not work now. You won’t know unless you ask.

Market your efforts

If employees don’t know your scheme exists, nobody will sign up for it!

Some ways you could market your employee volunteering program:

• Write about it in your employee newsletter
• Include it in the onboarding sequence
• Reach out to individuals who’ve been involved in similar initiatives before
• Share the results of activities on internal and external social media
• Give it a memorable name
• Write a press release about its successes—this will build your employer brand for candidates and get employees to see the difference it makes
• Follow up with employees who show interest in taking part but don’t

Recognize participants

How can you recognize or reward employees who take part? 

Could you offer them a gift card? 

Or post about the difference they’re making on social media? 

It doesn’t have to be anything big, just something to show that you appreciate the difference they’re making to their community.

Conclusion

An effective employee volunteering program shows the world you’re invested in doing good as well as making money. Demonstrating this can improve your employer brand, helping you attract more candidates with similar values.

And offering employees the chance to make a difference through volunteering will help with engagement and retention.

If you’re ready to drive real impact with an employee volunteering program, you need the right tools. Workrowd enables you to organize all your employee volunteering efforts in one place, and makes it easy to track results. Want to learn more? Visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

Flexible work schedules have been a key topic of discussion in recent years. While the idea may seem simple on its face, there’s a lot to consider. So you may be wondering: what are some of the flexible work schedule pros and cons?

While some business owners (and politicians) are still against the concept of flexible or remote working, there’s now plenty of evidence to prove that employees can be just as productive—if not more so—when businesses embrace flexible work schedules.

Not only that, but it comes with increased benefits for employee wellbeing. For 73% of employees, flexible work schedules increase job satisfaction, and 78% feel it makes them more productive. 

Unsurprisingly then, when employees have the opportunity to work flexibly, 87% take it.

Offering flexible working hours is important for talent attraction, too. 77% of job hunters now say it’s a major consideration when they’re looking at potential opportunities. So, if you’re not already offering it, you could be unintentionally shrinking your talent pool.

That being said, and like anything else, there are still flexible work schedule pros and cons. Let’s explore what they are:

Pros

You can create a truly diverse, inclusive workplace

Some people are great at what they do, but just not suited to working 9-5. This could be because of family commitments, health issues, or personal preferences.

Offering flexible work arrangements makes you a more attractive employer to this often-neglected group of candidates.

As a result, your workplace can become more diverse and inclusive for everyone.

Because people feel included, your employee retention and productivity are likely to increase. In turn, this will also boost your bottom line and grow your employer brand.

Employees feel valued

When you cater work hours to employees’ needs, they feel respected and appreciated. It also increases their sense of inclusion and belonging.

As a result, they’re happier and more likely to stay long term. Because of all of this, they’ll be more productive and help create a positive company culture.

Employees (and their families) are happier

A flexible work model allows employees with families to adapt their workweek to fit their family’s needs.

This extra time with loved ones provides them with a better work/life balance. Which in turn improves their overall wellness and your retention rates.

Employees take fewer sick days

When my chronic pain is bad, I’m sometimes unable to work in the morning because moving is too painful. By the afternoon, I’m well enough to tackle some content writing. 

If I worked 9-5, I wouldn’t be able to pick up work later. I’d be out for the whole day. Flexible work schedules accommodate chronic pain flare-ups and the nuances that come with them.

Mornings are often worse for any illness, whether that’s a cold, allergy, or pain flare up. If an employee can spend the morning resting, they may be able to do some tasks later depending on how they feel.

Flexible work schedules are also beneficial for employees recovering from, or managing, long-term or chronic health conditions. They can ease themselves back in without being tied to one way of working.

As a result, you lose less money and work hours to employees taking time off sick.

Employees work for longer

Flexible work schedule pros and cons can also include aspects of remote work. In situations where employees aren’t losing two hours each day to their daily commutes, they’ll work for longer. As a result, they’ll finish projects faster.

They may also have more energy because they don’t have to get up so early to arrive at the office on time.

Employees can work when they’re most productive

Some people just aren’t morning people, and they shouldn’t be obligated to work 9-5 just because. Likewise, some people are far more productive as the sun rises than when it’s setting.

If you’re not getting the best out of someone, but they’re great at the role, doesn’t it make more sense for them to work the hours when they’re the most productive?

Cons

Flexible working can be difficult to manage

Flexible schedules can be more challenging to manage than when every employee works the same hours.

The right tools can go a long way towards mitigating this impact.

For example, you could send out employee surveys to see how people feel about their ability to collaborate. Or get their suggestions for improving internal communications.

It’s harder for employees to build connections

Different work schedules can mean employees miss out on opportunities to chat in the kitchen or socialize with colleagues after work.

ERGs are a fantastic way for them to still connect, even if they work different hours or they’re not in an office.

You can also create groups for a variety of shared interests, or for different locations. That way, employees can bond with colleagues nearby and maybe even meet up in person.

There’s a lack of structure

A flexible work schedule can mean there’s less structure in employees’ days, and when it comes to how their team operates.

If you don’t come up with workarounds for this, such as having a set time for regular catch-up meetings, it can lead to communication issues and stressed-out employees who don’t feel supported.

One solution for this could be to have core hours. That’s where employees have set hours when they need to be online or in the office. That way there’s always time when they can talk to their colleagues without disturbing them outside of work hours.

Arranging meetings is more challenging

When employees are in the office during different hours, or working in different time zones, getting everyone together for a meeting can be a nightmare. The more people who need to be there, the worse it gets.

However, there are now several programs you can use that do the heavy lifting for you. These apps sync with employees’ calendars, then suggest times when everyone is available to meet up. No more headaches necessary.

Conclusion 

Employees want flexibility, but it’s important to consider all the flexible work schedule pros and cons before designing your approach.

Some people will appreciate the structure of working 9 to 5, and nothing outside of those hours. At the same time, others need more flexibility and will appreciate you accommodating that.

A more flexible work schedule can help you attract more diverse candidates when you hire. So if that’s one of your business goals, creating or updating your flexible working policy is well worth considering.

If you want some help balancing flexible work schedule pros and cons, Workrowd has your back. By keeping your employees connected and in the loop with our all-in-one tool suite, it’s easier to reduce negative impacts, and amplify the benefits.

Check out our user-friendly platform to manage and measure ERGs and interest groups, streamline employee communications, and more. When you’re ready to chat, just visit us online and click the ‘Request a Demo’ button, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

When you mention ‘flexible work’, different workplace flexibility ideas come to mind for different people. One thing is clear, though; no matter how it looks, it’s growing more and more important to today’s talent.

Almost 40% of candidates rank workplace flexibility as one of the top three factors they consider when job hunting.

96% of employees, meanwhile, feel that they need flexibility at work. But only 47% believe they have access to the sort of work flexibility that they need. That’s a massive 49% gap!

This gap is even more pronounced for women—only 34% have the type of flexible working arrangement they want.

Of the employees who did report having some flexibility at work, only 19% said they had access to structured workplace flexibility programs.

If diversity and inclusion can make such a huge difference to a business’s bottom line, how is there such a big gap between the percentage of employees who want to make use of workplace flexibility ideas, and the percentage who actually get to?

Why does workplace flexibility matter?

Implementing workplace flexibility ideas ensures you can attract—and retain—a wider range of employees. Every employee and candidate has a different set of needs. The more you can cater to, the more you’ll benefit from a happier, more diverse, and more productive workforce.

Creating a flexible workplace means embracing changes that make employees’ work schedules work for them.

Over time, these changes compound to improve your employee satisfaction and employer brand. And make you more money.

Offering the option of a flexible work schedule is a low-cost way to add to your compensation package. Plus, it reduces your employee turnover and helps you tap into a wider talent pool.

It also shows employees that you value work/life balance—something that’s grown increasingly important since the pandemic.

And it’s something that can easily be adapted for remote work, hybrid work, or office-based work.

So, let’s take a look at some workplace flexibility ideas that serve both people and profit:

Flexible working hours

The most obvious group of people who can benefit from flexible hours are parents. When they don’t have to be superglued to their desks from 9am every day, they get to drop off, and pick up, their children from school. This saves them money on childcare and gives them more time with their children.

A flexible schedule doesn’t just benefit working parents, though. Some people just don’t fit with the traditional 9-5 model.

Leaning into employees’ natural working patterns helps them excel in their roles. It also embraces neurodiversity and creative thinking, and benefits your business as a result.

Compressed workweek

A recent UK study found that a four-day work week—without pay cut—resulted in no reduction in employee productivity. In fact, in some instances, it made employees more productive.

I’ve spoken to a couple of friends who work full time recently, and they’ve both told me that they feel they could do just as good of a job if they worked one day fewer per week.

Having to work five days means they’re often finding ways to fill the time or pretending to be busy.

This isn’t how a healthy company culture should operate. What should matter is the quality of work someone produces, not how many hours they spend sitting at a desk.

Reduced hours or part-time work

If you’ve got a fantastic employee whose situation has changed—for instance, they’ve just become a parent or been diagnosed with a chronic health condition—rather than lose them, why not reduce their hours instead?

This is a great way to retain their company knowledge. And, as we’ve seen above, it doesn’t always mean a reduction in productivity. Offering some workplace flexibility ideas when an employee is struggling is a great way to show you value them.

Annualized hours

Rather than have someone work a set number of hours per week, annualized hours average out over time.

This flexible work arrangement ensures that tasks get done, but nobody’s sitting at a desk twiddling their thumbs when they’ve completed all their tasks for the day/week.

This improves employee wellbeing and means they have more time to spend during launches or other busy periods without wasting time when things are quieter.

Job sharing

Job sharing is when two or more employees split the equivalent of a full-time role between them.

This flexible working arrangement helps you attract working parents. Or just people who want to work but can’t or don’t want to work full-time.

As a result, you get to benefit from the alternative perspectives that come with increased workplace diversity. In today’s tight hiring market, incorporating some of these workplace flexibility ideas can help you tap into new talent pools.

Flexible paid time off

The average US worker takes just 20.3 days off per year. In the UK, employees get at least 28 days including bank holidays. Any less than this would put most Brits off applying for a role. Extra PTO makes the job more attractive and says a lot about the workplace culture.

Flexible PTO allows employees to take as much vacation time as they like without it impacting their role or the attitudes of their colleagues toward them.

To introduce this, you could set an example by taking time off yourself. This shows employees you really do value breaks from the desk and workplace wellbeing.

Sabbaticals

Sabbaticals are a great way for employees to explore the world, learn about themselves, and recover from mental/physical health issues.

Knowing that there’s a job at the end to return to reduces some of the stress of their time away. This can further help them to relax and recover.

Phased retirement

Going from full-time work to full-time retirement can be a huge shock to someone’s mind and body. If they don’t have hobbies it can lead to boredom, loneliness, and unhealthy habits. 

Phased retirement allows them to adjust to retired life while still connecting with others and getting some mental stimulation.

They could use this time to train someone to replace them, meaning that you don’t miss out on talented employees’ industry or company knowledge—they can pass it on to the next person before they leave.

Conclusion 

Workplace flexibility is a cornerstone of a diverse and inclusive workplace. It starts with a flexible mindset that values work/life balance.

It embraces everyone’s working patterns and ways of life, helping them perform at their best. And means you get the most out of every employee.

When the work environment is adapted to suit employees’ needs, instead of them needing to adapt themselves to suit their workplace’s needs, they’re more engaged and more productive. 

Implementing workplace flexibility ideas improves your company culture, employee retention, and job satisfaction. It also makes you a more attractive employer to prospective candidates.

If you’d like to get more rapid feedback on your existing workplace flexibility ideas, or simply ensure employees are aware of everything they can tap into, Workrowd can help.

Our all-in-one platform automates surveys and engagement analytics to give you more insight into what’s making a difference for employees. Plus, by bringing everything employees need under one roof, there’s no question about where to find important info.

Sound useful? It is! Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more, or drop by our site to schedule a time to chat.

There are currently two job openings for every unemployed person in the US. With so much competition in the labor market, businesses need to do more than ever to stand out. This includes delivering a top-notch candidate experience.

Providing the best possible candidate experience makes it not only more likely that you’ll attract the best talent, but that your chosen candidate will accept the role at the end of the hiring process.

Any unsuccessful candidates will also be more likely to come away with a good feeling about your business. This could lead to them leaving a positive review about the process online. They may even reapply in the future when they could be a better fit for your organization.

So, how do you deliver the best possible candidate experience? Here are four tips:

Be open about your company culture

Your company culture can be one of your biggest selling points. But it can also put people off. In fact, 75% of people wouldn’t take a job with a company that has a bad reputation. This is true even if they’re unemployed.

How your company comes across influences the types of people who apply for roles. You therefore want to make sure that what they see is accurate. The way the rest of the world sees your company should be what it’s actually like to work there.

While we don’t like to believe that people will judge a book by its cover, they definitely do.

As the author of 20 books, and an active member of the publishing community, I should know. It’s hard to overstate the difference a book cover can make to sales.

I’ve seen so many authors experience an increase in sales just because they redesigned their covers. Branding is just as important for businesses as it is for authors.

So, the question is: does your business culture need a cover redesign?

Or does it need a complete rework internally, too?

This is obviously a much more challenging process, but it can pay dividends. Particularly if you improve it for the better, prioritizing employee mental health and wellbeing over a high-stress, high-pressure environment.

Reflect your culture on social media

Social media is one of the best ways to show exactly what your company is like to work for.

The majority of candidates research companies online before applying for a role. So if your content is a ghost town, or your reviews are negative, it’s likely to deter them.

Only 30% of people are actively job-seeking at any one time. This means if you’re not creating content to show off your company culture, passive job seekers are less likely to discover how great working for you could be. That’s a lot of people you risk missing out on.

Some of the things you can share to reflect your culture include:

• Videos where employees talk about your culture
• Posts sharing employee knowledge or skills
• Photos of events employees have attended or organized
• Employee testimonials

If employees leave testimonials or LinkedIn recommendations for CEOs and HR managers, it says a lot about the type of culture your business has. Assuming they’re positive, this further helps your ability to attract the right types of people.

Ensuring easy access to resources like these can do wonders for your candidate experience.

Communicate clearly and often

It can’t just be me who’s experienced this: you apply for a role, then don’t get an email confirming that the company received your application.

As a result, you forget that you’ve applied. Then, three weeks later, you’re surprised when they invite you to the next stage of the process.

Sure, I should’ve written something down to say what I applied for and when, but it certainly doesn’t hurt your candidate experience to send an automated email confirming you’ve received their application.

Sending email updates to confirm receipt, with details of an upcoming interview, or telling candidates when they’re likely to hear back from you, makes a massive difference to your candidate experience. And it’s one of the simplest things you can do.

It demonstrates that you value communication, which, for some candidates, can be a make-or-break trait.

It’s also a positive reflection of your company culture. It shows that you really do value the candidate experience, and more importantly, them as an applicant.

Train your interviewers

Some interviewers may not be all that comfortable interviewing other people. For them, it may be akin to public speaking, which an estimated 75% are afraid of.

Training them in interview techniques ensures they feel confident and comfortable. It helps you provide the best possible interviews as part of your candidate experience.

A positive interview experience should put candidates at ease, make them feel welcome, and take into account that traditional formats aren’t for everyone.

I’ve definitely seen more of the latter lately. More companies are sending questions in advance and giving candidates a choice between video or phone interviews for remote roles.

Simple things like arriving on time, and leaving time at the end of the interview for candidates to ask their own questions, further improves the candidate experience and helps with your employer brand.

Conclusion 

A great candidate experience is a positive reflection of your business.

The more you develop your candidate experience, the more positive reviews you’ll get across the internet. That way, the greater the impact it will have on your employer brand.

Over time, this will help you attract higher quality candidates, have happier employees who want to stay longer, and therefore make more money.

If you’d like to ensure a great onboarding process, give your interviewers a place to share resources that can improve their interview skills, and even develop a talent pool and/or alumni network, check out Workrowd.

Our all-in-one platform makes it easy to ensure everyone has both the information and the connections they need to thrive. Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

The average worker spends 51% of every workday on low to no-value tasks. If this isn’t a strong case for better time management at work, I don’t know what is.

It’s really no surprise based on this that 39% of employee stress comes from their workloads. Or, that only 20% of employees feel their work is under control every day.

But spending just 10-12 minutes planning their day could save them up to two hours of their time.

So, what can HR teams do to support better time management at work and improve employees’ stress levels as a result?

Create a system

I’ve recently been reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. In it, he talks at length about systems. Goals are great, but you need to break down how to achieve them—and when you’re going to do them.

He explains that an effective habit has four elements: cue, craving, response, and reward.

For example, say an employee wanted to check their emails less so that it didn’t disrupt their work as much. They could pick a specific time of day to open their inbox and reply to people. 

The cue would be the time of day, the craving is to answer emails (like many of us have), the response is replying to them, and the reward can be whatever they like. Maybe it’s just the satisfaction of having written everyone who needs a response, inbox zero, or making a coffee.

This set time when someone checks their emails then means they have more mental energy for other tasks. They’re not constantly being interrupted by emails they don’t need to immediately reply to or that otherwise interrupt their concentration.

Implement the right tools

The right—or wrong—tool for time management at work can make or break our productivity. 

If someone doesn’t understand how to use a tool, they’re never going to make the most of it. Plus, they’re going to lose a lot of time just trying to figure out how it works. 

Offering training, or at least pointing employees in the direction of where to find the help they need, decreases their mental load and helps them understand it quicker.

Seemingly unrelated tools like applicant tracking software or employee engagement platforms can also create efficiencies. These tools give you more opportunities to create a great candidate experience and employee experience.

Streamline processes/minimize steps

So many businesses have old or clunky processes that don’t need to take as long as they do. 

It’s therefore worth periodically reflecting to see if there’s a new software you could benefit from, if you’re better off outsourcing tasks to a freelancer, or if there’s just another way of doing something that would lead to better time management at work.

Make important information easily accessible

Sometimes documentation, advice, or guides, can be hard to find. Especially if they’re old or taken for granted. 

You want to make everything an employee needs to know easy to find and easy to understand.

The more mental load someone has to exert to find and understand something, the more energy it takes up. This then increases their stress levels and makes them more likely to lose time in their day just finding what they need.

When it comes to sharing key information with employees, it can also help to provide it in multiple formats.

This ensures that regardless of how someone learns or best retains information, they can get the answers they need.

One way you can make this easier for yourself is to record a video demoing how to use a software. Then, extract that audio to turn it into a clip, and use a dictation software (or even just Microsoft Word’s dictation feature) to turn it into a written guide.

Catering to different learning styles is a frequently overlooked way to improve time management at work.

Minimize distractions

When we’re interrupted in the middle of a task it can take up to 20 minutes to get focused again. That’s a whole lot of time wasted and a whole lot of work that gets delayed.

It’s surprising how tiny things can add up to disrupt us and distract from what we’re trying to do. 

Sometimes it’s nice to take a moment to stare out of the window or play with a pet, but unexpected disruptions can and do make a difference to someone’s concentration and mental health.

Consider ways you can minimize the distractions employees experience to improve time management at work.

If they’re in an office, could you put up barriers to separate people’s desks? That way, they can’t see their colleagues and get distracted by what they’re doing.

Or, if your office has particularly bright lights and you know that you have neurodivergent employees, is there a way that you can reduce the harsh lights so that it doesn’t impact their sensory issues?

For employees who work from home, could you get them noise-cancelling headphones? How about a new desk setup? 

If their home environment is particularly distracting, what about a budget to work in a coffee shop or coworking space?

Give them somewhere to share ideas

Some people absolutely love exploring productivity, mindset, and time management at work.

Creating somewhere they can share things they’ve learned, or ask for advice from other people, is a really great way to show your employees that you do care and you want them to perform at their best. 

One of the ways you can do this is through employee groups, programs, and events.

Employees can learn new things through these initiatives, then share them with their other colleagues. This means more people can benefit from the time management at work tips even if they’re not actively participating themselves.

Conclusion 

These are just some of the ways that HR teams can support better time management at work. 

The more effectively you can help employees perform their jobs, the more productive and happier they’ll be in their roles. 

This means they’re more likely to feel valued and stick around for longer. 

All this reduces your hiring costs, and how long you spend training new employees. Perhaps more importantly, it also creates a happier working environment for every team member.

If you’re looking for tools to support your efforts to improve time management at work, you’ve come to the right place. Workrowd makes it easy for everyone to quickly find what they’re looking for, saving them time and energy.

Our user-friendly tools reduce admin work by automating tedious processes, and real-time analytics ensure you always know what’s driving results. Want to learn more and optimize your employee experience? Visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

Your digital candidate experience is a window into what it’s like to work at your company. It plays a huge role in the type of person who finishes the application process. Obviously, this then determines which individuals you get the opportunity to interview. 

Old-fashioned technology, a clunky user experience, or complicated application forms can be really off-putting when someone applies for a role.

If you provide a poor digital candidate experience, the highest quality job seekers will take their time and skills elsewhere. 

The best candidates are off the market within 10 days. The better your digital candidate experience is, the more likely your business is to be the one that hires them.

Despite this, the hiring process takes an average of 36 days. The longer your hiring process is, the lower your chances are of getting those top-quality candidates that bring you greater ROI. 

It’s not just that, though. Bad hires can cost you up to $15,000!

The best way to mitigate that? Invest in your candidate experience—it improves the quality of your new hires by as much as 70%!

So where should you start? What should you consider when evaluating your digital candidate experience?

Start with your website

If your website is ugly or hard to navigate, it will make your business look old-fashioned, too. It’ll put off younger or more technologically savvy candidates because user experience matters to them. They’ll probably switch off before they’ve even started the application process. This shrinks your candidate pool and loses you those great-quality hires you need.

Your website should be easy to navigate. You should also make sure it’s easy for anyone interested in working with you to find the careers section. 

If they can’t find that, unless they really want to work with you, they’re not going to dig for it. 

Instead, they’ll take their skills and perspectives that you could have benefited from to one of your competitors.

Shorten your application process

68% of recruiters believe investing in new technology is the best way to improve hiring performance. Which backs up the statistic we saw at the start, about how investing in your candidate experience improves the quality of your hires by up to 70%.

It starts with simple things. For instance, if you’re asking someone to upload a resume and a cover letter, you don’t need to ask them to manually fill in their job history in an application form too. 

Yet there are still some businesses that do this. It’s repetitive, annoying, and pointless.

If your job application process is overcomplicated, applicants will wonder what other systems you have that are pointless or repetitive.

If you want to ask questions during the initial application process, focus on things that won’t be on their resume or cover letter. For instance, why they want to work for your business, examples of their work, or when they used a skill that’s key to success in the role.

Be accessible

What can you use to make your digital candidate experience more accessible? 

Maybe you can make sure that any step in your application process is optimized for screen readers. 

If applicants need to read something, is it easy for them to adjust the font size of your website? How does this impact the design?

If they need to complete tasks as part of the application process, do you offer both written and spoken instructions? This ensures it’s easy to understand no matter how someone learns.

These may seem like minor things, but they add up. They’ll improve your digital candidate experience and make your business more inclusive from the very start.

Keep applicants in the loop

There’s nothing worse than applying for a role, then not knowing if anyone has even received your application. Or never hearing back from them. 

Most systems now allow you to send a confirmation email, so that candidates know you’ve received their application. This is a common courtesy that helps reduce some of the anxiety that comes from the job application process.

81% of job seekers feel that employers who send status updates improve the candidate experience.

You could even allow candidates to track what stage in the application process they’re at through your applicant tracking software. Having a progress bar on the candidate side means they can visualize how far into the process they are. 

You could also show them what’s coming next. For instance, if they’re shortlisted, they’ll have a phone interview, then an in-person interview or a task, etc. The more transparent you make things, the less stressful it is for candidates and the better they can prepare.

If a candidate hasn’t heard from you, but they can see in the portal you haven’t reviewed their application yet (for example, because the deadline hasn’t passed), this further reduces some of the nerves they may feel about applying for the role. It also saves you time because anyone who wants to chase you won’t have to.

Conclusion 

Your digital candidate experience is a reflection of your business. Having an amazing website but a poor candidate experience makes it look like your business focuses solely on appearances.

If you truly care about the people who make your business the best it can be day in, and day out, the digital candidate experience has to reflect that. It’ll bring in more awesome people who can help you get the sales your brand deserves.

One way to ensure you have an amazing culture to showcase as part of your candidate experience is to rally everyone around a central hub. With one place for all your employee groups, programs, and events, it’s easy to highlight what makes working for your organization so great.

If you’re ready to elevate your employee experience and streamline the transition from candidate experience to team member, see if Workrowd could be a fit. Drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

Digital employee experience management is key to helping your employees work effectively, connect with colleagues, and enjoy their jobs. 

Poor digital employee experience management leads to frustration, slow processes, and increased churn rate.

Despite this, only 13% of employees are fully satisfied with their employer’s digital employee experience. This shows a huge disconnect between what employees need and what their employers are providing.

Here are some best practices to help you level up your digital employee experience management efforts.

Establish a baseline

What’s the minimum your employees need to succeed? Is it a laptop? Home office equipment? Tools like a CRM for salespeople or accounting software for finance?

Providing these must-haves as soon as your new employees start streamlines employee onboarding and offers a better experience to your new hires.

Many businesses give employees an office budget, allowing them to customize their setup to suit their needs. This helps them feel more comfortable in their surroundings and more able to do their jobs.

Designing a form where employees can request new equipment means they can easily choose what they want based on their individual needs. 

Pay attention to employee feedback

That really great tool you think will change everything? Your employees might hate it.

What you want to provide, and what they need, aren’t always the same thing. 

Paying attention through employee surveys or regular chats helps you look for patterns. It means you can spot the challenges people are facing and then find software they might even enjoy using. This is much better than purchasing something you think will work, but that you can’t guarantee will succeed.

Review your policies

If your business didn’t start out as a remote or hybrid employer, you’ll need to review and update your policies as part of your digital employee experience management process. 

The rules for remote and hybrid workers are different from those who are office-based. You want to make sure they’re clearly communicated in any employee guides or handbooks and that you aren’t still sharing information from 2005.

Do you still expect employees to work 9-5? What time zone? How will these rules be enforced? What are the consequences of breaking them?

The more clearly you explain things, the better it will be for you and your employees. Clarity is one of the cornerstones of effective digital employee experience management

Prioritize employee experience alongside customer experience

Focusing on providing a great customer experience is a given in any business. But how many value their employee experience just as much?

You want your customers to say great things about you and have a seamless experience. Why should it be any different for your employees?

After all, they’re the ones in your business day in, and day out. They’re the ones keeping things running smoothly for your customers. 

If things are difficult for them because they have the wrong setup, they’ll feel more stressed. That will impact their productivity, their quality of work, and how they deal with your customers.

On the flip side, if the tools they use enable them to do their job better, and they’re happy in their roles, they’re going to provide a better customer experience. This will then bring in more return customers and spread more positive word of mouth.

Document processes

Organizing a process starts by writing down as much as possible. 

While this can sound like a chore at first, the more you document processes—how to do things, what’s expected of people, where things are—the easier your employees’ jobs will be. Which also makes them more efficient in the short- and long-term.

Thinking strategically is key to other areas of your business, like marketing and sales. Why should digital employee experience management be any different?

Start by making a list of things you might need to document. Ask your employees what they’d like to know, too. 

Then, you can assign the guide-writing to the employees best suited to each topic. Make sure they’re reviewed by someone else before publication to ensure they’re clear and easy to understand.

Offer training for new and old tools

Providing training on tools—whether they’re new or old—is key to getting employees to use them. Otherwise, they’ll only use them when they really have to, if at all.

Learning portals where employees can study at their own pace, and refer to information when they need it, is one way to do this.

Training days, particularly on a more complicated tool, can be useful to provide time for focusing on the benefits of the new tool and how to use it. 

For some employees, this may be too much time to concentrate on one thing or impact their ability to do their job. 

That’s why offering different learning methods is an important part of digital employee experience management (and your new tool’s adoption rate).

Start with your candidate experience

Digital employee experience management doesn’t start once someone joins your organization. It starts when they’re considering applying. 

How easy is it for someone to navigate your website? How easy is it for them to understand what you expect of your employees? What about the application process?

The more laborious this is, the more likely you are to lose great candidates. It’s not just the bad candidates who get put off by this clunky process—the great ones do, too. They know their time is precious, so they’d rather spend it applying for roles at businesses that make a better first impression.

Make collaboration easy

Successful collaboration helps businesses be more creative, solve problems faster, and achieve their goals. 

When teams work remotely or hybrid you need to find ways to make collaboration as easy as possible. 

This includes choosing communication apps that are efficient and user-friendly, conferencing tools that enable effective meetings, and creative tools like whiteboards and mind maps. 

These tools allow your employees to visualize what’s happening, provide feedback, and work together on projects.

Conclusion 

Digital employee experience management affects how people see your organization. It has a dramatic impact on your employees’ abilities to do their jobs. The wrong equipment can lead to miscommunication, stress, and tasks taking longer than they should.

Providing employees with the right equipment makes them happier and better at their roles.

If you’re looking for ways to make digital employee experience management easier, consolidating tools can make a big difference. Giving employees a one-stop shop for important information, programs, events, and more, means they always know where to find what they need.

Workrowd’s platform reduces admin time and gets everyone on the same page from day one. If you’d like to learn more, drop by our site, or send a note to hello@workrowd.com.