Managing Employee Engagement and Well-being in Today’s Virtual Workplace

We recently hosted an HR Leaders Exchange with our network across Japan. It was a lively and interactive discussion that was made stronger with the open discussion by all those who participated.

At ChapmanCG, we feel strongly about our HR Leaders network and this was a great opportunity to share and create best practices on Managing Employee Engagement and Well-being in Today’s Virtual Workplace. As working populations continue to work from home it was interesting to hear some inventive ideas to keep the social needs and connectivity of people front of mind. The theme was not wholly focused on work and productivity, but it was about inclusiveness and culture which was very refreshing to hear. The statistics from articles shared highlighted that there are real personal stresses being elevated for people having to shift how they live, work, and manage their lives over the last year.

It wasn't surprising to hear most leaders felt, pandemic aside, that the future of work in Japan will be a balance of home and office in a creative 50/50 hybrid working model. Acceptance and realisation of this, regardless of the industry, shows that there are many benefits to companies offering an optional working style as the new normal evolves. Retention and engagement will be elevated in companies that make efforts to offer real beneficial solutions to working styles and accommodate the employee first in this approach.

That is not to say it doesn't come with challenges. Technology and productivity measures have yet to be fully agreed and developed to enable business leaders to operate with full transparency and compliance. Our discussion did not solve all these key points, but it did highlight a real need to keep us thinking about the ‘how’ and enforced the need that businesses be and remain more ‘agile’ when applying real solutions that improve the lives of their employees.

Social engaging events on-line, self-improvement support programs, inter-company learning, and fun competitive group forums were supported by most companies to ease the stresses of work and to help focus some company resources to non-work-related activities. These all achieve a culture that is people-first which will resonate well with employees and can be executed in a way to achieve connectivity while we are remote!

Thanks again to everyone who participated, if you would like to discuss what you are doing in your companies or have ideas on topics to engage larger or smaller peer groups, then please do get in touch.

Have a great year of success and safety for you and your employees!!