“The world is going digital”. This is an oft-repeated statement that we hear every day, but it’s not entirely true; the world has already gone digital. COVID-19 has merely accelerated the pace of digital transformation and all aspects of everyday life and business need to be relooked and tweaked to ensure that we adapt to the new status quo. 

If any organization wants to thrive, they need to ensure that the most important aspect of the organization - the people, are thriving holistically i.e mentally, physically, personally & professionally. 

The HR department is the primary stakeholder inside the organization to ensure that the practices evolve with time and below are 6 interesting tips that can be implemented to acclimatize to the digital world.

Create a holistic induction program for new joinees that gives them a flavour of the organization & culture 

A new joinee is similar to a baby, they are extremely perceptive and will pick up the habits and traits of the people that they are working with. It is extremely critical that the induction program needs to be redefined in a way that it inculcates and promotes the following two things:

• Organization Culture
• Personal Rapport

Create a constant feedback loop for employees

Since face-to-face interactions have reduced significantly, our ability to pick up non-verbal cues has diminished significantly. It is imperative that we implement ways of providing structured feedback both upstream and downstream for managers and employees to share their thoughts and reviews freely.  

This helps the employees feel valued in the system and helps the leadership team understand the challenge and take course correction activities.

Boosting morale by empowering volunteering for a cause

The notion of giving back is extremely powerful. We should empower the employees to participate and volunteer with various NGOs and other organizations in which they can utilize their skills to help others around them. There are various websites that facilitate this and are a massive morale booster for the employees.

Celebrating personal & professional milestones 

All employees will be less likely to be engaged if they feel that their organization is without any soul or emotions. 

They all have their happy days, whether they are personal or professional, and that should be celebrated. It could be as simple as sending an org-wide message on their work anniversary or sending a hamper/voucher on their wedding anniversary.

This greatly improves the attachment and morale of the employees and is a high ROI activity.

High-quality learning & development programmes 

Focus on building & developing the capabilities and competencies of our employees is a key part of every organization's overall business strategy.

Apart from utilizing the available training platforms, organizations should ensure to keep employees engaged with knowledge sharing sessions within team and cross-functional teams as well. 

This enhances the interaction of employees cross functionally and is helpful in creating a cohesive and collaborative environment especially when face to face interactions is a rarity.

Employee self-service app 

Everything can be achieved via mobile apps these days. The use of apps has simplified processes for employees and changes how employees interact with the organization. Mobile apps help employees obtain information at their fingertips without going to HR for transactional information aka Employee Self Service.

This reduces the overall stress on the HR team who can focus on big initiatives. The analytics provided by such apps can also help diagnose the employee’s problems quickly and effectively helping the organization in its decision-making process.