Quality of life affects the quality of work
Human-centric workplace design can drive employee wellbeing and performance
People take their work into their personal lives — not just successes and positive vibes, but also the worries and stress they experience. The reverse is just as true. The way we live affects the way we work and has a measurable impact on both our employee experience and on our performance.
In a negative scenario, it will cost money. However, there are ways to enable employers and managers to mitigate the risk of low performance or even create a situation where performance will increase. The key is to manage employee wellbeing and performance by applying human-centric design to the digital workplace.
The relationship between employee and employer has changed. Progressive organizations are shifting from an employee-centered value proposition to a human-centered value proposition that treats employees as people, not workers.
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Quality of life: A holistic view
Quality of life is a subjective assessment of life situations. It is not only about the standard of living, but also about an individual’s wellbeing in areas such as feelings, environment, culture, and even public services. According to the World Health Organization's Measuring Quality of Life assessment, there are six main categories to consider:
Physical capacity like health, rest, and sleep
Psychological aspects like feelings and self-esteem
Level of independence like work capacity and mobility
Relationships like social support and sexual activity
Environment like safety, health care, leisure activities, home environment, climate and financial resources
Personal beliefs like spirituality and religion
Quality of work: Changing expectations
We believe that proper working conditions bring value to every part of human life – including physical and mental health conditions, relationships, sense of independence and security, morality, purpose of life and social value.
In the past, salaries and other rewards were the primary drivers for employees to value their work. Personal recognition also made a significant contribution to our satisfaction and overall employee experience. Work and private life were kept separate, and any negative impact that a job caused on private life was not discussed or even ignored.
Over time, people started to realize the kind of negative impact that work can have on health, relations, and overall wellbeing. Now, employee expectations have radically changed. People not only want jobs that don't negatively impact their private life, but they also want jobs that have a positive contribution to the things in life they value the most.
This is reminiscent of the Japanese concept of Ikigai, which answers the question of how to find your calling and the path to fulfilment. It should be something you love doing, something the world needs, that you are paid well for, and you are good at. If even one of these factors is missing, the result will be a lack of full satisfaction.
Numerous studies have shown that employees desire a sense of belonging, to do something meaningful, to change someone's life for the better, and personal development and growth.
Employees need autonomy but also stability, trust, and recognition. It seems like life and work are no longer two separate worlds.
Flipping the script on employee experience
As we mentioned earlier, the quality of our personal life also affects the quality of our work. We not only bring our knowledge and expertise to the workplace, but our emotions, fears, triumphs, tragedies, physical and mental health. I'm sure every one of us can recall a moment when a good or bad experience from our personal life translated into a fulfilling or challenging work experience.
Financial stress, sleep disturbance, social isolation, loneliness, having a newborn child, getting married, health concerns — all these affect our concentration, decision making, creativity, productivity and engagement.
There are many opportunities to create a win-win for both employees and employers. Imagine if you, as an employer, could help your employees overcome issues and challenges in their personal lives — so they experience less negative impact on their mood and performance at work.
Even better, imagine if you could help them feel happier and perform more effectively in both aspects of their life. An employer or manager can provide training, consultations, coaching and other support — but paying attention and showing empathy should come first.
Liberating people potential in the digital workplace
To embark on this type of transformational journey and unlock the value of your employees, there are several key activities to perform:
- Strategic hackathon and objective setting
- Design thinking, prototyping, value demonstration and user validation
- Integration with existing programs, systems and initiatives
- Implementing digital solutions to support the employee journey
- Organizational change management
Creating empathy begins in the design phase of any employee digital workplace initiative. Modeling employee journeys from a human perspective requires not considering them simply as technical IT solutions or HR workflows.
When designing a digital workplace, it is important to focus on the employee experience. Choosing the right solutions starts with defining the emotional and functional needs of employees at various stages of their journey. You need to define the “moments that matter” in employees’ work lives, and to select the right services to support them.
It is important to orchestrate the full journey, including the right supporting solutions — like sentiment capturing and analytics, digital adoption, and employee wellbeing services. It is important to structure solutions and services so they will appear at the right time, to the right people, and in the right way.
Think about the moments that matter at work, like onboarding, promotion and offboarding. But also consider those moments in private life, like getting married or having a newborn child. They all have a major impact on employee experience, performance, and overall wellbeing.
Creating an engaged employee experience
At Atos, we help clients design and create truly human-centric workplaces. We look at your employees as humans, not just workers. Our solutions encompass all the elements discussed above, and we work with our partners to create customized digital workplace solutions that deliver an engaged employee experience.
If you’re interested to learn more about how we help clients deliver better overall employee wellbeing and performance, visit us online.
Posted on: August 27, 2024
