- Who is your target customer?
What do they want?
Where do you find them?
How do you fulfill their needs?
We think about customers in great detail.
We could even recognize them on the street.
We focus on customer experiences
all along the customer journey.
Now, you also need to have
the same personalized appreciation
of each of your employees' experiences,
because they are crucial to the operational success
of your digitally enhanced business.
To respond quickly to customers' changing needs,
deal with complex issues,
and adapt to unexpected developments.
So consider every step of the employee journey
for each person.
From the first time they become aware of your organization,
to their onboarding,
absorbing the culture and becoming part of the community,
through promotion milestones,
and even beyond the moment they leave,
becoming an ambassador for your company elsewhere.
To maximize their every step along the way,
helping them perform at their best,
discover each employee's working preferences,
as each individual has different needs
and favors different times, environments,
and settings for their work.
Consider having the Monday morning team meeting at 10:00 am,
when Cara's brain has had time to wake up
and she can contribute properly.
Think about moving the key sales update call
earlier in the afternoon
so Sam doesn't have to leave halfway through
to pick up the kids.
The more you can adapt for team members' specific needs
and optimal conditions,
as well as compromising among your team
to suit everyone as best possible,
the more they contribute.
Gathering this information involves discussion,
observation and reflection,
and services how to help each person maximize their flow.
And this dovetails with an important overall move
to design or refine a customized work model
for your organization,
or at least your unit,
that incorporates flexible hours, remote working,
and other tailored arrangements to support every worker.
If your company has already launched a new model,
keep honing and improving it.
Hybrid arrangements, especially,
take time to get right
to both address evolving business needs
and combine people's different schedules and locations.
Projects advance, tasks change,
and new teams are assembled.
Who you're working with,
how you coordinate and collaborate with them
and support their contributions and independent work
will be changing frequently.
This requires an adaptable approach
to your leadership and participation in any team
to recognize how to engage, motivate,
and manage each person.
Providing the right type of oversight.
Do they respond best when you check in often,
leave them to it,
or follow up at intervals with suggestions?
Knowing how to engage them,
such as helping them orient towards their skills
and strengths and task assignments.
Making yourself approachable.
Are you easily accessible outside of meetings,
when introverted people often prefer to connect?
These adjustments are relevant for non-employees, too,
the freelancers and consultants
also involved in producing your results.
Future of work conditions are challenging,
but taking time to acknowledge and adapt
for each person and team so they can perform at their best,
you will be set up for success.