With essential employees currently working across corporate campuses and real estate leaders around the world actively planning for what a “return-to-workplace” program will look like, the challenge of keeping employees informed, productive, and safe is top-of-mind.
But with so much of the workforce in flux, how can real estate leaders close the information gap for employees?
Read on for our recommendations on how to keep employees informed in a post-COVID-19 world.
Meet employees where they are
Before determining the right communication strategy and tool, consider employees’ workplace situations and needs, today and down the road.
Today at the majority of our enterprise client campuses, anywhere from 1-5% of employees are considered “essential” and are still currently working from the office. These employees need real-time information on the availability of resources and amenities on campus to do their jobs, just as the remaining majority of employees need access to the latest corporate policies and work-from-home resources.
Over the coming months as we return to the workplace, there will be new workplace protocols and health and safety programs for employees to follow, including sanitization best practices and staggered work schedules for different “co-horts” to ensure appropriate office occupancy levels. These dramatic shifts within the workplace will require new information and resources—on everything from air filtration protocols to feedback on new programming—that need to be easily communicated out to employees in real-time as situations evolve.
Centralize critical information
Given the state of the world, employees are already suffering from information overload trying to keep up with the rapidly changing situation at hand. With so much disparate information hidden in emails, wikis, landing pages, and chat applications, enterprise businesses are shifting to populating one, streamlined place to share the critical information employees need to return to the workplace, no matter where they are around the world.
Configurable mobile-first applications are perfectly suited to support corporate health and safety programs by educating employees, centralizing info, and providing access to information and resources from a single, scrollable interface.
Keep it relevant
Comfy, one of the pioneers of employee-first technology in the industry, has been partnering with enterprise clients around the world to leverage its workplace platform to keep employees informed, safe, and productive during this uncertain time. Through Comfy’s modular cards system, real estate leaders have the ability to configure, centralize, and localize content to promote a wide range of real-time information and resources to employees.
Here are some examples of cards we’ve built out for our clients to help them keep employees informed, safe, and productive during a time of workplace change:
- Critical news & information
- Company news and announcements
- Education on new workplace health and safety programs
- Employee surveys
- Resources & tools
- IT services & support
- Work-from-home best practices & resources
- Quick links to company-sanctioned video-conferencing apps
- Corporate donation matching to support local communities
- Health & safety programming
- Latest local health safety guidelines
- New office protocols (i.e., on-site schedules for Team A, B, C etc)
- Location of onsite health equipment (sanitizer, masks, etc)
- Workspace availability
- Notifications about which floors, spaces, and amenities are closed
- Real-time status of workspaces (available, occupied, cleaning in progress)
- Employee well-being
- Wellness benefits (online fitness discounts, virtual yoga classes, etc)
- Healthcare benefits and resources
- Virtual programming/events
As workplaces return to a new normal, real estate leaders will continue to leverage Comfy’s configurable platform to communicate the ever-changing information that employees need and want during this time of uncertainty and change.
For more COVID-19 workplace resources, view Comfy’s Return to Workplace Playbook.
