Considering the momentous and tumultuous changes the world has faced in the last 18 months, will the workplace as we knew it ever return to what it was? Most likely, not.
How you adapt to your employee’s new workplace demands can very well determine whether your company will thrive for years to come. That’s the theme of WorkplaceEX: a 2, half-day virtual summit hosted by Korbyt. This insightful, interactive event took place today, April 27th and continues tomorrow, April 28th.
Here’s a recap of all that happened on Day 1.
Unleashing the Anywhere Workforce: Keynote presentation by Scott Klososky, Founding Partner Future Point of View
Recognized globally for his unique ability to accurately predict future digital trends and provide the logic behind why they will alter the status quo, Scott Klososky presented the case for the great reset.
While 2020-21 will be remembered for the great pandemic, Scott believes it will also be remembered for the great reset, which anticipates that 80% of organizations will not return to old ways of working. Instead, there will be various workplace solutions that include:
- Complete work from home
- Optional work from home
- Partial work from based on practicality
- Split-week work from home
- HR-provided work-from-home per year
While the world was moving towards more flexible workspaces, the pandemic turbo-charged the acceleration towards them. The Anywhere Workplace offers such positive attributes as:
- Less commuting
- Less pollution
- Better quality of life
- Larger talent pool not limited by geography
- Better work/life balance
- More family time
Among the challenges that need to be addressed are:
- Building an engaging and enduring corporate culture
- Building trust
- Establishing teams
- Building personal bonds
“The anywhere workforce demands organizations are able to communicate and collaborate in an effective manner”Scott Klososky
Welcome to the New and Improved Korbyt Anywhere Platform
Korbyt’s Chief Technology Officer, George Clopp, and Senior Director of Product Management, Philip Gerstenfeld, introduced the newly updated Korbyt Anywhere platform. This best-of-breed technology addresses the big challenges of making workers feel connected, engaged and valued, no matter where they’re located.
George and Philip addressed the issue of most internal communication being one way, from company to employee. The Korbyt Anywhere platform has been augmented to facilitate two-way communication between employees and the company. It also enables communications to be segmented and targeted to specific groups, and capitalizes on new channels, including and updated mobile app and new web browser (or Intranet) solution, to reach and engage employees on their desktops or wherever they are.
Just as important, the platform has new analytics and reporting features that enable measurement of employee reach, engagement, and retention so companies can gauge the effectiveness of each communication.
To bring Korbyt Anywhere to life, George and Phillip used personas within a fictional company to follow the trail of internal communications, conversations and responses throughout that company and the different types of employees using the platform.
From Online to Frontline: Reaching Your Employees Where They Work
Korbyt’s VP of Customer Experience, Gregg Apirian moderated an engaging discussion with panelist Krista Gendron from Pitney Bowes, Aubrey Ford from Kaiser Permanente, Julie Gonzalez from Cerence, and Barbara Sutherland Chovanec from Delta Dental.
In this spirited discussion, the panel explored the different ways they are reaching employees and learning from their experiments on the best way to not just reach them but help them be more productive too. The group explained how they are expanding their communication channels to go beyond traditional emails and intranet. Now being included are mobile apps, social platforms, video content and more.
Also being explored is the concept of decentralized content creation and publishing, as brand champions are trained to moderate local conversations and interactions.
“Reaching our workforce is “Front and Center” of what we do each day, giving life to our organization.”Julie Gonzalez- Head of Internal Communications & Employee Engagement, Cerence
Breakout Ideation Sessions
Attendees were divided into 4 different breakout sessions, each facilitated by Korbyt employees to discuss the following topics:
- Shaping the Modern Contact Center Workplace
- Maximizing Value from Signage Screens
- Act like a Marketer to Drive Platform Adoption
- Enabling Anywhere Operations: Best Practices to Decentralize Communications
Driving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Communicators as Catalysts for Change
The panel, moderated by Ann Melinger, CEO of Employee Experience agency Brilliant Ink, provided key insights on holding organizations and leaders accountable for real change in diversity, equity and inclusion. A corporate stance is not action. Companies must go beyond platitudes to research various viewpoints, develop concrete plans, implement those plans, measure results, and be open to accepting and addressing feedback — even if that means bringing in outside experts to improve results.
“Create a brave workspace where you can voice what you think and create a vibrant dialog.”Edward Ford, Senior Director, Client Engagement at Metadata Solutions
If the future of work is hybrid … so what?
Julian Phillips, SVP Global Workplace Solutions at AVI SPL explained that traditional workspaces and environments are most likely gone, and we are entering the hybrid era. While only 23% of workers prefer full-time office space, only 5% want to work from home exclusively.
Julian explained that before COVID, 70% of office space used to be dedicated to specific employees. Post-vaccine, 50 to 70% of workspace will now be shared space dedicated to collaboration.
He introduced the concept of Integrated Design and Deployment (IDD), where offices will be designed with technology at the forefront of the workplace. Integral to future workspaces will be video everywhere, high-quality audio, video everywhere and enterprise broadcasts.
How to Build a Business Case for Workplace Technology
In this lively, interactive ThinkSprint session, participants joined different breakout groups to delve into key components for building a successful business case for new workplace technology. The components were:
Stage One – Requirements Gathering
Stage Two – Identifying and Aligning with Stakeholders
Stage Three – Determining ROI
Stage Four – Defining the Right Metrics and KPIs
Stage Five – Resolving Objections
The breakout groups then all came back together to share the findings and brainstorm a complete plan. The collective notes from each group will be coalesced and delivered back to all attendees in the form of a single playbook that can be used to build a solid business case for new workplace technology.
More Insightful, Inspirational and Practical Content to Come on Day 2 of WorkplaceEX
Tomorrow promises to be just as informative and engaging. It starts with a fireside chat with Korbyt CEO, Ankur Ahlowalia, along with Scott Klososky, who discuss technology’s role in defining the future of work.
Also included are such topics as leveraging the cloud to power the hybrid workspace, architecting a safe return to the office, using data and segmentation to connect with employees, exploring how experiences influence culture, and aligning post-pandemic business issues with technology.
If you would like to review any or all of this inspiring and actionable information from this year’s WorkplaceEX to drive a workplace transformation creating experiences everyone loves, click here.