Collaborating remotely
Working remotely is here to stay. More and more employers have no choice but to offer their employees flexible work options. Although working remotely brings benefits both at an individual level and at an organizational level, it remains important to connect the ties between the different islands within the organization. How can employees best collaborate remotely now? And what is an Employee Experience Platform (EXP)? You can read that in this blog.
From flexible working hours and meeting-free days to a four-day hybrid workweek. Our thinking about working remotely has changed since the coronavirus pandemic. Since 2020, more and more companies have been working partly or even entirely remotely. From research According to GitLab, a central application platform for software development, working remotely leads to higher productivity, but also less bureaucracy and office politics.
The advantages of working remotely
The benefits of working remotely are visible at the individual and organizational level. The main benefits for employees are obvious: flexibility and freedom in how they can arrange their time. Working remotely provides more working time, because many employees no longer have to spend time and energy traveling back and forth between home and the workplace. Many employees are also flexible about where they work, which leads to more job satisfaction. For employers, working remotely often leads to cost savings. Costs for, for example, commuting and office lunches disappear. And working remotely contributes to employer branding : it is attractive for potential employees to work for an organization that offers autonomy and freedom.
The disadvantages of working remotely
Although working remotely brings many benefits for both employer and employee, there are also drawbacks. From research from Buffer it appears that loneliness comes up more often. After all: in the office it is easier to make contact, develop friendships and collaborate. If you work remotely, this becomes somewhat more difficult. To counter loneliness, employees can, for example, choose to work from coworking spaces or cafés.
Collaborating via Employee Experience Platforms
It is important that employees adopt a proactive attitude when they work remotely. Tools such as Teams, Google Meet, Slack, Microsoft 365 or Zoom already make it easier for many to collaborate remotely and to stay informed about what is happening elsewhere in the organization. In addition, there are various Employee Experience Platforms (EXP’s) that help employees and teams when they work remotely.
An EXP improves the interaction between employees and the various digital applications used internally for communication. At its core it is a personalized digital workplace where every employee has all the tools at hand to do their work from a single place. An EXP closes the gap between those working from home and those who work in the office. EXPs, such as Microsoft Viva, are easily integrable with other tools, like Microsoft Teams. In addition, the most important elements of an EXP are the learning opportunities for employees, as well as the quick and easy sharing of knowledge and internal communication.
What are the benefits of an Employee Experience Platform (EXP)?
An EXP offers the following benefits for your organization:
Central communication
It is important to inform employees and involved to keep them, so that they feel connected to their work and the organization. Without one central source, important company news and other updates get buried under a mountain of information.
Connectedness
Research van Microsoft indicates that more than 60 percent of employees feel less connected to their team when they work remotely. With an EXP it is easier for people to get in touch with each other. There are also, for example, extensive employee profiles available to get to know each other better.
Quick access to the right information
Most EXP’s have a powerful search function, allowing employees to look up and find documents or other valuable information within the platform fairly quickly.
