The COVID-19 pandemic had multiple ramifications, not just on people in their personal lives but also their relationships with their jobs.
Company culture matters
Previously, many people stayed at a job just for the sake of staying. However, the pandemic brought about a special kind of uncertainty that led many to question the way they live and the way they work. More employees are looking for jobs that offer better pay, work-life balance, or just flexibility in which they can have the autonomy to choose where to work out from.
Indeed, co-working spaces grew in popularity across Southeast Asia during the pandemic. But they were driven by movement restrictions, which forced traditional companies to follow tech startups’ lead, and offer hybrid work arrangements (if not outright work-from-home ones).
Now that restrictions have been lifted, however, the flexibility factor seems to be sticking. A questionnaire conducted by US nonprofit Center for Creative Leadership in late 2022 found that just 13 per cent of over 2,000 Asian companies surveyed expected their staff to work full-time in an office.
In short, this means that if companies from any industry across regions want to retain their talent, they would need to adapt. Of course, there are “hard” factors like compensation, which reliably move the needle when convincing an employee to stay. However, they’re not always the best long-term strategy.
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The more abstract concept of corporate culture comes into play. Flexibility plays a big role here, and it’s more than just about where the work is conducted. As a McKinsey and Company study found, when and how an employee’s work can be done is also part of the package.
Establishing a new culture for a hybrid workplace
Building corporate culture has never been easy, and establishing a new workplace culture considering the current extenuating factors, has its own challenges. Many are gaining a new sense of self-awareness and worth, and they will not easily forget if they have felt undervalued, especially in an environment with less physical visibility, as occurs with more remote work, and where it can feel much more difficult to be seen.
People are motivated when they believe they are valued and have an impact (and commensurate pay is part of that equation). People, it turns out, want recognition, growth opportunities, and to feel valued, trusted, and empowered.
The epoch of the employment contract, in which a worker provided services solely for monetary compensation, has passed. While monetary compensation is necessary for survival, deeper relationships, a strong sense of community, and purpose-driven work are required for thriving. This is the value that employees expect from their employers.
Research already proves that recognition is fundamental to engaging and retaining top talent (and, ultimately, making profits). Recognising their efforts and thus rewarding them accordingly is also a relatively seamless and frictionless way to keep employees feeling validated amid times of macroeconomic troubles, where organisations from any industry are resorting to cost-cutting.
But much like how apps like Zoom and Slack became commonplace as everyone started working out of different places. However, the way companies give out rewards and recognition also has to evolve digitally.
For instance, in a Singapore-headquartered company with over 2,000 employees across the Asia Pacific, its Chief People Officer, who sits at the HQ, wants to ensure that every single employee gets rewarded with US$50 on their birthday, complete with a personalised message from the CEO.
How should you go about this? Do you send physical gifts to everyone, which is costly and impractical? Do you do a soulless, impersonal bank transfer?
Going digital
The above were some of the issues that encapsulated the thinking of digital platforms for employee rewards and recognition.
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A digital platform can help build team bonding and camaraderie for a hybrid workforce. Employees can receive instant recognition and appreciation on the app from their colleagues, which everyone else in the organisation can see.
Using a recognition platform powered by the latest AI technology, such as GPT-3, companies can eliminate the friction involved in appreciating colleagues. Expressing gratitude can be challenging, especially when finding the right words. However, GPT-3 can help resolve this issue effortlessly by generating beautifully written messages of appreciation.
Having a digital platform could also allow employees to choose their own benefits. It’s simply impractical for a company to cater to employees’ varying preferences, that would mean piling up thousands of different vouchers or products.
Usually, companies give out money or buy one product in bulk, say a gold coin or a pen for a long service award, and give it out annually. While employees won’t necessarily decline these gifts, details matter if you want your employees to feel genuine appreciation.
For example, instead of a free lunch for a job well done, an employee can choose a daily transport voucher instead. It’s a win-win: the company still spends the same amount it would have previously, while it leaves an impression on the employee, as they get what they actually want or need.
To sum up, what’s clear is that a balanced hard-soft approach matters when it comes to employee rewards and recognition, which facilitates the creation of everyday moments of joy, a very easy and simple thing that a company can do, but enough to make a difference. Making an employee feel seen, and that their effort matters.
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