We have come to understand that in order to attract and retain the best talent in the future of work, organizations must create a workplace where people want, not need, to show up to work. But in this effort to create great employee experience, we can sometimes get sidetracked with focusing solely on perks and benefits.
Imagine being part of an organization where you don’t feel valued. How would you feel when you show up to work, and more important, would you even want to show up for work? Spending time in these organizations can cause employees to hate their employers. Typically, feeling appreciated is more relevant to a specific project or tasks, and feeling valued is the overall and ongoing feeling that employees have. So, if you feel regularly appreciated, then you will in turn feel valued.
We have all heard of corporate culture and the many ways to describe it. Some say “it’s what happens when the manager leaves the room,” others say culture stems from the values, attitudes, practices, and the mission of the organization, and some say culture is controlled by the CEO and the executives. Regardless of what you believe culture is or where it comes from, the one thing that is common is that culture is about feeling. If the physical environment is about the one that you can see, touch, taste, and breathe, then the cultural environment is the one that you feel; it’s the “vibe” you get when you walk in the door and it’s the mood and the tone that the workplace sets.[…]
Many of the themes surrounding the Future of Work are enabled by technology. The big challenge for many organizations involves getting employees to use new technologies such as collaboration tools and internal social networks. If employees do not use them, it makes it difficult for the components and themes involving the future of work to actually become possible for example flexible work, real-time feedback, or abolishing annual employee reviews. Typically, when technology is deployed within an organization, the focus is on its benefits to the organization as a whole. Pushing forward the benefits such as cost cutting, productivity, and making money for the organization does not always appeal to the employee as an individual benefit.[…]