3. Engaged, Empowered or Enabled
4. Pre-Experiential Organization
5. Experiential Organization
The individual areas scored as follows:
Clearly as this is a self-assessment and as such is your perception of your workplace.
There could be any number of reasons why you have marked a particular element in the way that you have and so this is not meant as a definitive guide, but it is a good start. There are there are other elements vying for inclusion, and these need to be taken into consideration in a deep dive review along with how the workplace supports individual work activities and demography’s. It would be critical to include these in any business case for a change.
Where you have marked your workplace down we would encourage you to ask questions based on the building blocks for that particular element.
In today's tech heavy world, the physical workspace is merging with the digital and this has implications for our thinking about physical space and change. We need to review a simple mindset of design principles around a practical outlook that makes up an excellent workspace.
Whilst each element is included as a standalone and is transferable and there are relationships between them. Mostly these relationships are positive and self-reinforcing but occasionally these may need caution.
The 3 elements are treated as a holistic construct, and it is recommended that none of the elements be cherry picked or treated in isolation.
That said we have included individual scores to highlight focus areas for action.
So, what does an Engaged Workplace mean?
Congratulations you are on level three of the path to an Experiential Workplace. At Level 3 your workplace is focused on two out of the three environments, which, depending on those combinations, are classified as Engaged, Empowered, or Enabled workplaces.
This should be seen as an accomplishment and a long way away from being either In-Experienced or Emerging. You may notice that the words used to describe these workplaces are all positive because even though many workplaces aren't perfect and are indeed lacking in various areas, they are striving and moving in the right direction.
Let's look at what it means to be in an Engaged workplace in more detail.
Engaged (Highest Score in Cultural + Environmental)
An Engaged workplace means you have scored above average in the Cultural and Environmental sectors but not so well in the Functional area. Accordingly, these workplaces tend to have a great vibe and are comfortable to work in but are not necessarily fit for purpose or equipped when it comes to working productively. Employees really like the people they work with and the policies, procedures, and practices in how the workplace can be used and, they feel supported, they have a sense of purpose, and managers are genuinely interested in helping them succeed. This is all tough stuff to accomplish.
In Engaged workplaces you will find employees who have a sense of purpose, managers who act as coaches and mentors, a flatter organizational structure. The big challenge for engaged workplaces is providing employees access to the right tools to do their jobs effectively. A good environment and culture but poor functionality leaves employees uninspired, unengaged and unmotivated.
Although engaged workplaces have gone quite far with how well they are able to execute on the cultural and the environment, not having a great technological environment holds both of these other two environments back. If you look at the physical environment, you can't enable flexible work, Activity Based Working, or any type of effective employee mobility without having the right technologies in place.
Treating the organisation like a giant piece of engineering that only needs its bolts tightening with a productivity push no longer works. Any recent knowledge of the workplace tells us that culture, and wellbeing that the indoor environment supports must come before any efficiency drive. The workplace lacks the physical infrastructure and does not gel with the values and vibe of the organisation. For example, organizations that try to abolish annual reviews, offer amazing management training solutions, or enable real‐time communication and collaboration will find that these are not possible and are not as effective without being supported by great technologies.
Based on this it's not hard to see how poor technology and functionality can negatively affect both the cultural and the physical environments. Remember, technology is the glue that holds the organization together, and it's what allows many of the themes to actually manifest. Engaged workplaces struggle with trying to execute on employee experience simply because they don't have all the tools to do so.
When we refer to environment here we are referring to the need for an environment that is healthy for humans to work and thrive in, rather than being environmentally friendly, although these often go hand in hand. Sustainability issues are taken into consideration in our deep dive assessments.In the assessment we asked you questions on elements such as lighting, air quality, temperature, and noise and whilst you work in a place that’s scored better in this areas there is a way to go yet. If Covid has taught us one thing it is that indoor environments can be incredibly unhealthy. Having a healthy environment to work in is essential. We spend a great deal of our time worrying about outdoor pollution, yet it’s the indoor environment that has the greatest impact on our health.
We have good news to share, there are easy ways to make a building healthier and healthy building strategies are good business strategies. Because it turns out that the true cost of operating our buildings is not energy, waste, and water (the drivers of the “green” building movement); it’s the people inside. So when we make our buildings healthy, we make the people in those buildings healthier and more productive, and that translates into a healthier bottom line.
Culturally workplaces are the equivalent of being in a relationship with someone whom you really like and perhaps even love but are not willing to marry. Employees at culturally emerging organisations tend to stay longer than employees at technologically or physically emerging organisations. But still, eventually employees become quite frustrated with actually doing their jobs, and the physical space makes them feel uninspired. The great news for culturally emerging organisations is that if they have indeed figured out the most difficult piece of the puzzle, investing in the physical and the technological environments will seem like a cakewalk in comparison!
Recommended Action:
The WorkplaceFundi Experiential Workplace Management 360 (EWM-360) is the complete holistic solution to creating and managing the desired Workplace Experience.EWM-360 is an all-encompassing eco system that targets and integrates the right strategies, stakeholders, and resources. EWM-360 includes for the first time a return-on-investment tool for your workplace that will ensure that you spend money in the right areas and reap the rewards in workplace performance:
Saving on real-estate costs
Greater productivity
More engagement
Increased connection to company’s culture
Less absenteeism
Greater talent attraction and retention
That will all lead to increased competitive advantage
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