As a consulting business we’ve always had the challenge to create a common company culture while a large part of the workforce is based with our clients, some work from our offices in the UK, and others from offices around the world. Ensuring that all employees, no matter their location, have the same employee experience is vital to giving each and every one of them a sense of belonging and job satisfaction.
COVID-19 has exacerbated the dispersion of employees for everyone, as it has for us – we now have 30% of our UK team working from abroad. While social-distancing remains in place a hybrid virtual model – as this article by McKinsey: Reimagining the post-pandemic workforce calls it – will be a reality for most organisation – including for our clients and for us too. It is vital that we carefully consider what our company will look like post this pandemic.
At NTT DATA we have always had a keen focus on our employee experience to give our teams a sense of ‘togetherness’, a shared identity. During the pandemic we have increased our focus on employee experience initiatives and ensured onboarding for new employees is a close virtual copy of the normal f2f version. I am pleased to say that the feedback has been very positive – we’ve managed to keep our teams engaged and mentally healthy.
It is a careful balancing act and also requires consideration of the more practical – e.g. do you set salaries according to skill and job title or based on location? Shaping your post-pandemic organisation will require even more careful thought and, most likely, some level of experimentation.
It is a new situation for us too, but we are fortunate to have the experience of managing a dispersed workforce in our ‘normal’ state - we will be drawing on that when shaping our clients’ and our own next normal hybrid virtual model. The article by McKinsey is well worth a read on what you should consider.