Can you see me? Employee visibility in a hybrid world

I’ve worked fully remote for three years. I loved the solitude of working from home, heads down without distraction (aside from my dog occasionally asking to go outside), especially when I needed to focus on writing projects. 

And at home, I was blissfully unaware of the “water cooler” conversations of who stopped who in the hallway…why are those two people going to lunch together…will I ever get invited to join them?...am I missing out on something?

But last week I started a hybrid job. 

There’s no “requirement” of how often I must go into the office. But, I’m a rule follower by nature, and I immediately started feeling the internal, self-inflicted pressure of being seen on time, in the office. Forget the fact that my boss sits seven hours away on another continent.  So, why do I put this pressure on myself? 

But I’m not the only one. According to a survey conducted by Owl Labs in 2020, 79% of remote workers expressed concern about career growth opportunities due to their remote status. 

And, a survey conducted by Buffer in 2021 found that 23% of remote workers said that their biggest struggle is loneliness and collaboration, which could also indicate a lack of visibility and connection to their team.

In my years of working remote, I worked for some companies that were great at digital connectedness and virtual collaboration, and others that were definitely not good at it. While searching for my next job, the employee experience became more and more important to me. 
 

The challenge: the visibility risk for hybrid workers and deskless employees 

In a hybrid work model, where some employees work remotely and others work in the office, it can be challenging for remote workers to build relationships and establish their presence within the company. 

And what about deskless employees, outside sales teams, or frontline workers who have no office to visit?  Does this limit their visibility and opportunities for career advancement?

There’s an increasing concern from junior employees that they could be passed up for a promotion or even left out of interesting projects if they aren’t seen in an office.

It is important for employers to address these concerns and ensure that hybrid workers have equal access to career growth opportunities, regardless of their work location. 

This can be achieved by providing regular communication and feedback, setting clear performance expectations, and offering opportunities for skill development and advancement to all employees, regardless of their work location.

And regarding that stat from Buffer that 23% of remote workers experience loneliness and struggle with collaboration, managers need to make a conscious effort to regularly communicate and provide spontaneous collaboration opportunities. 

But, with the proliferation of apps that are supposed to help with communication, like email, video conferencing, chat, instant messaging, text - the list goes on…how do you keep up? The world of work is a lot more complicated than it used to be.

That’s why I’m proud to work for LumApps, which is an employee experience platform designed to help companies create community and visibility no matter where teams or employees are distributed. We are working hard to equip teams with the tools they need to address these virtual and hybrid workforce challenges head on. 

How to keep employees connected, no matter where they work

You can use LumApps to create digital connectedness and collaboration across teams via the ‘Community Spaces’ feature. Community spaces help employees who would probably never meet in real life collaborate and work together on projects and share what they know. The platform can also recommend communities to employees based on similar employee profiles or past actions (“people like you often join this group”).

Using LumApps, you can streamline internal communications so employees don’t feel left out on major company announcements that could impact how they need to perform their daily work. The platform also has the ability to send a company-wide announcement that goes beyond the limitations of email. 

Deskless employees can get updates via push to text, a downloadable app, or even via optimized mobile browser experience. You can also personalize the content to the individual employee, so employees in Austin won’t be cluttered with news and announcements from the London offices. 

How to create a culture of recognition

While these capabilities are fantastic, how does LumApps help address employee recognition and the fact that hybrid workers often feel left out of these endeavors? You can use LumApps to build your own employee recognition hub, like we did. 

Some companies have used third-party employee recognition apps, but when the app is disconnected from the digital workplace platform, it will certainly impact adoption. You’re telling me to collaborate and connect with my coworkers in my employee experience platform, but to leave shout outs and recognition I have to jump into another, disconnected platform? What kind of employee experience is that!

With LumApps, your employee recognition program can be built-in to the digital workplace, right where your social connections are already happening. No need to switch to another app to send an award, which will increase adoption of the practice of sending employee recognitions. 

Employees can send awards to coworkers and leave a little comment of thanks or job well done. You can see these awards in the feed or you can search and sort by person’s name, award type, or team. These “badges” are permanently saved on an employee profile and can be referenced by managers during performance reviews to see how the individual has been recognized by peers.

What a cool way to see how employees are working together across teams! 

A platform that helps employees create their own visibility 

Employees can also use the platform to create visibility for their projects. For example, our customer marketing team created this post, and tagged it on the homepage, to highlight a major campaign roadshow they are organizing. The post was a great way to inform people across the company, create buy-in from cross-functional teams that might want to participate in the roadshow, and finally, the post highlights employees who are working hard on this initiative. 

This is an excellent way for employees to take the initiative on creating their own visibility. In turn, managers can see their contributions and executives can identify high performers and employees with potential to contribute in big ways.  

The world of work probably isn’t going back. Hybrid, in some form, is here to stay. Make sure your hybrid workforce has the opportunity to be involved, be seen, be recognized, and ultimately stay engaged at your company! 

Ready to make an impact on engagement with employee recognitions? Book a demo today.

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