By CEO: Ludmila Baklanova
It’s no news to anyone that the abrupt shift to remote work when the Covid-19 pandemic began spreading across America in early 2020 was unexpectedly painful for most US businesses, leading to higher levels of employee burnout and job dissatisfaction as well as less personal engagement and productivity overall. Some companies fared better than others, largely due to strong practices already in place that fostered regular communication across all levels of staff and commitments to employee satisfaction. Those that tried to play catch-up once staff was working from home found it difficult to design and implement strategies on the fly that could help workers not only maintain pre-remote levels of productivity and engagement but also take into account the unique challenges of trying to make a business run when no one is sitting together in the same room.
The lesson is clear. Business is Darwinian at its core, and the ones least prepared to adapt will suffer and perish. Businesses that proactively seek ways to augment engagement and productivity, making them important and regular features of their management strategy will thrive and survive.
But don’t all companies value employee engagement and productivity? It runs counter to the ethos of any business to ignore these two key drivers of success, and so it is naive to think that some companies just don’t care about such things. They do. Very often, though, the trouble is that they simply don’t know how to create an office culture where employees want every day to give their best and could not imagine doing it for anyone else. Every company is unique in terms of its geographic location, local culture and economy, employee and customer demographics, financial resources, competitive disadvantages, and talent pool. This is why one company may find itself struggling when remote workers suddenly seem unenthusiastic about their job and another company discovers its employees are reaching even higher levels of productivity.
Successful businesses were already well-positioned to adapt and respond to their workers’ new needs and were willing to support them in ways that proved their commitment to a caring, thoughtful, inclusive team-spirited environment, whether in the office or from home.
If your company is ready to learn how to strengthen its employee relationships, giving every one of them a sense of belonging, voice, and value in both the day-to-day and long-term strategies driving your business forward, Optimize Tech Consulting can get you there. Let us assess and diagnose your company’s needs and work closely with you to find solutions tailored specifically to you.