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4 ways to improve the employee experience for your hybrid workforce

We now live in a world of hybrid work, and organizations are still grappling with how to best support this approach. Here are four areas to consider as you work to build a hybrid-positive corporate culture.

Dennis Villahermosa

July 28, 2022

We now live in a world of hybrid work, and organizations are still grappling with how to best support this approach. Leaders have long led a work culture that has historically built its policies, resources, and technology around in-person experiences. With workforces now spanning multiple locations—and workers preferring the flexibility of their new arrangements—HR must think of new ways to create positive employee experiences that make sense.

Here are four areas to consider as you work to build a hybrid-positive corporate culture.

1. Adopt policies that promote equality

Hybrid work can lead to inequalities and clear policies can go a long way to ensure an equitable environment for everyone. As you consider your policies, ask the hard questions and look for solutions that support the diverse needs of your workforce. How often will you require people to be in the office, and who might be disproportionately affected? How will you make sure meetings are inclusive? How will you give managers flexibility while keeping policies equitable across teams? How will you ensure growth opportunities are available to all, regardless of their in-person status?

It will take time to strike the right balance between organizational policy and individual accommodation to answer these questions. Oracle Touchpoints, part of the Oracle ME employee experience platform, helps managers listen to ongoing employee sentiment through pulse surveys and take action on feedback in their daily work. Your workers can access the Oracle HR Help Desk knowledgebase to resolve workforce questions, answer policy inquiries, and activate service requests.

2. Personalize experiences to the individual

Oracle’s 2021 AI@Work study found that people aren’t satisfied with their employers’ support of their careers. When employees lack a clear path to growth or the right tools to be effective at their jobs, they may feel unappreciated and undervalued, resulting in attrition.

Growth opportunities and guidance are especially hard to come by for remote workers who face the “out of sight, out of mind” challenge.

By providing personalized experiences and guidance relevant to the individual, you show employees you value them and respect their needs. It’s a philosophy that HR analyst Jason Averbook calls “empathy-driven experience design,” which he believes can be implemented and scaled through digitization.

Oracle Journeys, part of the Oracle ME employee experience platform, personalizes employee workflows by drawing knowledge from your complete workforce data. It tailors the steps, tasks, and content that individuals receive based on a detailed understanding of the individual’s role, location, goals, activities, and interests. When integrated with a daily workflow, engagement and productivity can improve across the company.

3. Foster connection and belonging

Employees want to feel like they belong, and they need a strong relationship with their manager, peers, and the company.

When we designed Oracle ME, we were intentional about supporting all three of these critical relationships. Oracle Touchpoints provides a continuous listening and action channel between employees and managers, creating meaningful interactions that build trust. Oracle Connections also helps workers build professional networks, encourages cross-functional collaboration, and opens opportunities for internal mobility. Finally, Oracle HCM Communicate connects people to company culture by allowing HR to design and distribute personalized communications.

4. Show more appreciation

How can you show your hybrid workforce they’re valued when you can’t physically give them a pat on the back? In the early days of the pandemic, Jason Richmond, Chief Culture Officer at Ideal Outcomes, gave examples of appreciation that managers can use. They include:

Highlighting everyone’s achievements on a weekly conference call or email.
Making a social call to check in on your employees’ health, family, and personal life.
Leading celebrations, including announcing anniversaries and hosting online events for birthdays, promotions, and work anniversaries.
Bragging online, including using LinkedIn or Slack to announce and celebrate individual successes.

Getting the experience right for hybrid workers will take some experimentation. However, a focus on equitable policies, personalization, personal connection, and appreciation—along with continuous feedback to gauge for unintended consequences—can help you build an organization where every worker is seen, valued, and supported.

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