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We all would agree on the fact that the contemporary corporate world is undergoing some paradigm changes. The business world we see today is a lot different from how it seemed a few years back. What lies at the heart of the contemporary business world is an unimaginable saga of magnificent digitalization. Remote work cultures are swiftly replacing traditional office setups paving the way for a new normal. 

Today, organizations are either going completely remote or hiring additional human capital as per remote working arrangements. This explains why a lot of organizations today are interested in effective strategies for remote employee engagement and enhancing the experiences of virtual workforces. Needless to say, even if organizations are going increasingly remote, they still acknowledge the vitality of investing in employee experience in engagement.

However, the fact of the matter is that cultivating positive employee experiences in a virtual work environment is easier said than done. As an employer or HR manager, it will take a lot more from you to create a high-performing remote work culture by investing in employee experience. When it comes to your remote workers, you need some outside-the-box strategies to engage your remote workers through experiences they can cherish for a lifetime. 

In this blog, we look at some innovative ways in which you can enhance your remote workers’ experience in an incredible way. Even if your organization still operates in a traditional brick-and-mortar environment, in the future, you will surely need these tactics. How long do you think you can resist the need for having at least some sort of remote working arrangement? Sooner or later, your business too will feel the need to align with remote cultures. Having said that, in any case, this blog will add incredibly to the knowledge of employers and HR managers. 

Enhance Virtual Onboarding Experiences

Why not create amazing employee experiences from the word go? In fact, you may want to believe it or not but employees are most likely to remember their onboarding experiences for a lifetime. Having said that, it is a great idea to offer fascinating virtual onboarding experiences to your new recruits. 

The question is, what does it take to offer brilliant virtual onboarding experiences to your employees? Well, there are quite a few ways in which you can do that. To begin with, you can send a personalized welcome mail to the new remote employees with best wishes. Besides, if you want to go a step further, you can send a personalized welcome kit to your remote employees through courier services. 

Besides, another great way to create mesmerizing onboarding experiences is to give your remote employees a virtual tour of the office. Also, you can offer them an opportunity to virtually interact with their team members on the first day itself. In this way, you can foster a strong sense of belongingness among your new employees from the very beginning.

Did you know that as per TechJury, with impressive onboarding experiences, companies can retain up to 69 percent of their employees for 3 years? That is quite fascinating to know, isn’t it? Besides, as per Bamboo HR, great onboarding experiences can lead to 18 times higher commitment among employees. These insights clearly state that laying emphasis on great onboarding experiences is totally worth it.

Host Mental Health Webinars

In the modern corporate world, employee stress is for real irrespective of whether your employees are working on-site or remotely. As per a Deloitte Survey, 77 percent of employees in the modern workplace are experiencing burnout situations. Besides, if we talk about remote workers, in particular, as per Flexjobs, more than 75 percent of remote workers experience high stress and find themselves on the brink of burnout quite often. 

It is high time that leaders and organizations realize the simple fact that employee engagement and alarming rates of burnout cannot co-exist. Having said that, if we talk about the ways to enhance the experience of remote workers, there has to be a worthwhile discussion on mental wellness. 

Therefore, hosting virtual mental health webinars for your remote employees can be a great initiative for supporting their mental wellness. When you care for their wellness, they will feel valued and this will go down in their books as the highlight of their positive experience in the organization. Further, in lieu of such a positive experience, they will reciprocate greater allegiance and diligence to the organization.

All in all, you cannot get the best out of your employees unless they feel great physically or mentally. You always want them to have sharp cognitive skills and agile problem-solving skills, right? But do you think they can deliver on this expectation if they are always on the edge of burnout? Hence, the more you invest in their experience in terms of wellness the better will be the results.
 

Optimize Digital Learning Experiences

Workplace learning and development opportunities are silent to all employees irrespective of whether they are working on-site or in a virtual work environment. Speaking of millennials, as per Gallup, almost 90 percent of millennials assert that they look forward to effective learning opportunities in their jobs. Even if we put statistics aside for a while, everyone who has sincere career ambitions will hold learning and development in the highest regard, isn’t it?

Having said that, when employees talk about their experience in an organization, they will mostly view it in terms of their professional development. If you invest effectively in your employees’ learning and development, they will respond with greater engagement. Otherwise, you may soon have to face the peculiar problems of high employee attrition.

Therefore, you should look to add consistent value to your employees’ personal development by enriching their learning experiences. In the virtual work environment, learning technologies like LMS, gamified learning, professional learning apps, and so on will help you in achieving great results. 

If we look around, there is a stellar range of technology disrupting the conduct of learning in the workplace. You need to determine the best fit remote learning methodologies for your organization to deliver great experiences to your employees. The greater the value you offer in terms of learning the more cherishable the experiences.
 

Invest in the Right Technology

If you ask your employees, doing recurring and monotonous tasks each day does take a toll on their motivation. Besides, if they have to put in additional effort for tasks that can be completed conveniently via the right tools, they will feel discouraged at some point. Given that, you can always improve your employees’ experience by investing in the right workplace technologies.

In fact, the right choice of digital tools and technologies can make a significant difference in terms of internal communication, collaboration, and tracking of project progress. If you can simplify the lives of your employees with automation technologies and tools that can assist them effectively, they will surely be thankful. In this way, you can create a great virtual work environment and reap the benefits of positive company culture in a worthwhile way.

However, with such an extensive range of project management and other tools available, it will be prudent to carry out meticulous research before you make the investments. Make sure you invest your money in scalable technologies that can add to business success in an incremental way.
 

Offer Additional Time Off

Another great way in which you can optimize your employees’ experience is by offering additional time off to them. In fact, this could be a great non-monetary reward idea for your organization. As we discussed above, even remote workers are prone to high stress which can soon translate into burnout experiences.

So, to assist your employees in preventing burnout and adding to their optimism, you can offer additional paid leaves to your best performers as a token of appreciation. To explain, let’s say as of now you offer two paid leaves to your employees per month. You can introduce a reward scheme wherein your top performer of the month can avail two additional paid leaves in that month.

Besides adding to your employees’ experience, you can also promote greater allegiance among them by showing greater sensitivity towards their struggle with stress. Such an initiative as part of employee rewards will come across as an empathetic initiative by the organization hence, further adding to employees’ experience.

Speaking of the significance of empathy in the workplace, as per Businessolver, 76 percent of employees opine that workplace empathy adds to their motivation and job satisfaction. Hence, with the small initiative of offering additional paid time to your employees, you can win the hearts of your employees in an inexpensive way.

Introduce Virtual Coffee Breaks

What we need to acknowledge is that remote workers carry a constant feeling of social isolation. To explain, when employees work on-site, they can have some lighthearted conversations with their colleagues. Besides, they can also express their feelings in front of their co-workers and also seek emotional or social support from them.

However, when it comes to a virtual workplace, they do not have this privilege. Further, the feeling of social isolation among them can soon turn into disengagement or even compel them to quit. As a business leader, you surely do not want that to happen, right? So, is there anything you can do to help your employees overcome the feeling of social isolation?

Well, there are some interesting ways in which you can offer great experiences to your employees such that they don’t have to battle the feeling of social isolation. Introducing a culture of virtual coffee breaks can be an amazing way to take some pressure off your employees and let them have some candid conversions with their co-workers.  

To explain, employees can coordinate their coffee breaks and connect via a zoom call to have some heartwarming conversations outside of work. During these small breaks, your employees can share their emotions with each other and foster strong interpersonal connections in the virtual environment. Having said that, they will be able to overcome the feeling of isolation in a worthwhile way and enjoy themselves while working.

For all these great benefits, these virtual coffee breaks make great sense, isn’t it? In fact, you can also participate in these fun discussions to vent out your own stress. Needless to say, as a leader, even you are vulnerable to high stress or social isolation while working remotely. These coffee breaks can be a great opportunity for you as well to deal with all the negativity around you.

Appreciate in Creative Ways 

Who says remote workers do not care about appreciation and recognition. For all employees in the world, appreciation is a crucial determinant of their satisfaction and experience. It is interesting to note that as per HubSpot, 70 percent of employees are of the view that they will work with greater zeal and dedication when they receive due appreciation from leaders. 

Having said that, while enhancing the experience of your remote employees, it is imperative to find creative ways for extending recognition to them. The question is, how can recognition work in a virtual workplace environment? Well, listed below are some fabulous ideas for appreciating your remote employees. 

• Social media shoutouts to celebrate employee achievements
• Offering recognition to employees via internal newsletters 
• Ordering surprise meals for employees as a token of appreciation
• Offering personalized rewards like OTT subscriptions, gym memberships, etc 
• Offering additional time off to your best-performing employees 

Besides, in a digital work environment, you can also introduce a digital employee benefits program to continuously add to your remote employees’ experience. By offering due recognition and in exciting ways, you can keep the morale of your remote employees high at all times. Subsequently, they will keep winning new milestones for their organization. For high workplace motivation in a remote environment, you need to explore employee appreciation ideas with great zest. 

To encapsulate, organizations are going remote and virtual workplaces are in vogue. Sooner or later, your organization will have to embrace this transition as well if it has not so far. In the ultimate sense, organizations are only as competent as their employees and to keep getting the best out of them, you need to invest in their experiences on a consistent basis. Speaking of employee experience in a virtual workplace, the above strategies will surely give you a competitive edge.

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It is an undeniable fact that the global business environment is ever-evolving. In the bid to be more competitive, organizations are now giving up on conventional business approaches to make way for innovative advantages. Is your organization doing enough to keep pace with the paradigms emerging in the corporate world? Is your organization doing enough to embrace change through effective change management strategies?

Today, for your business to scale new heights, staying aware of the prerequisite changes and implementing them in time has become a necessity that you cannot overlook. As a business leader, you have to keep the momentum of transformations going and also facilitate their smooth incorporation into the organization. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that today, effective change management is synonymous with a sustainable competitive advantage. The better your organization embraces crucial transitions the greater will be the success. 

Defining change management 

Moving forward, to be on the same page, let us for once looking at a simple definition of change management. Change management is simply the spectrum of methods and procedures that an organization applies to define and implement transformation in either internal or external processes. Besides, transformations can also arise in the core values, organizational structure, or strategic goals of an organization and they need to be facilitated effectively for the desired success. 

Since transformation is the way ahead for businesses to excel, your organization needs to embark on the journey of change management more frequently than ever before. However, relying on the right approach to change implementation is as crucial as the very notion of change management. As a business leader, you need to ensure that positive changes are implemented and managed with positive outcomes. 

The success rate of organizational change management 

Do you think all organizations undertake change management objectives? Of course, from a small business to a big shot multinational enterprise, every organization is pursuing change management to thrive in a changing environment. But the real question is, are all of them doing well at bringing and managing change? As per Gartner, the success rate in organizational change management is a mere 34 percent. Now, this clearly hints at the fact that for most businesses, effective change management still remains a hard nut to crack. 

So clearly, it is crucial for businesses to identify the right approach to successful change management and stick to it. Having said that, this blog delineates a stepwise approach to worthwhile change management for organizations to stay ahead of their contemporaries. So, let  us change gears and get started without further ado. 

A delineated approach to successful change management

1. Conducting effective strategic analysis to recognize change

What do you think is the most basic aspect of effective organizational change management? What is the first step on the ladder of steering your organization toward positive transitions? The answer lies in the effective identification of prerequisite changes at regular intervals. 

Organizations need to know which changes are crucial for them to cultivate great momentum for greater future success and they need to know this in a timely manner. Your success prospects linked to a change will by default be on the lower side if your competitors have already deployed them. Having said that, you need to act smart and more importantly act fast. 

The significant question here is, how can organizations recognize the prerequisite changes in real-time? For that, you need to effectively apply strategic analysis methodologies to identify the opportunities and threats in the external business environment. ‘’

You need changed strategies for exploiting opportunities as well as mitigating threats before they translate into hazards. Moreover, the need for change may also arise from the internal analysis of the company’s strengths and weaknesses. 

The bottom line is that organizations need to conduct frequent strategic analyses both externally and internally to identify changes in real-time.  As long as you succeed in doing so for your organization, you will always stay one step ahead of your competitors. Needless to say, you should only allocate time and resources to changes that are actually necessary or offer sustainable competitive advantages.

2. Defining change parameters 

When you have recognized the change that your organization needs to incorporate immediately, the next step is to define the crucial change parameters. The following are the relevant and vital change parameters that you need to be looking at.

• The need for the transformation 
• The vision and values behind the change 
• The impact of the change 
• The success metrics of the change 
• The scope of the change 
• Accountability for implementing the change 
• Composition of change management teams 
• Contingencies in change 
• Strategic communication strategies 

Defining the above parameters is salient to the further steps in the change management process. These parameters define the change in terms of its impact and success. Further, they enable the identification of the key players in change implementation and how communication strategies will work. This is essential for you to set SMART objectives for successful change implementation. 

In fact, collectively, clearly defining these elements of the change management process gives a perfect head start to the ambition of successful change management. You have to make it a point that these aspects are defined well before you proceed further in the pursuit of cultivating positive transformations in the organization. Your vision and values coherent to change should be absolutely clear so that you can persuade others to be on board. Fair enough, isn’t it?

3. Building consensus among stakeholders 

Stakeholders have a great influence to assert in the course of business decisions. As a change leader when you propose a change, it is essential to winning the confidence of the investors, top executives, and the customers. Having said that, you first need to carry out a stakeholders’ analysis to identify the key people who have a significant role to play in supporting the change initiative. 

Subject to how you have defined the need for the transformation and its expected impact, you need to communicate the same to the stakeholders. This is where strategic communication and transparency will play a salient role. You cannot drive massive organizational changes until your investors are not on board, right? Driving organizational changes can be an exorbitant affair after all and the entire bandwagon of investors and C-suite executives needs to be involved. 

So, to foster that consensus, your effectiveness as a communicator and your persuasive skills have to be at their best. The greater the cohesion you are able to create between the idea of change and the stakeholders the smoother will be the implementation. Makes complete sense, right?

4. Initiating the planning phase

When you reach this stage in the change management process, you would have defined all parameters of the change. Moreover, you would have also built consensus among stakeholders on the need for transitions within the organization. 

From hereon, you need to plan comprehensive measures for incorporating the change into the organization. From the introduction of the change to its institutionalization organization, you need a clear roadmap based on meticulous planning. Besides, everyone who is a part of the change management team should be clear with their roles and responsibilities. As a leader, you should also plan for ways in which you will foster high engagement and motivation among your team. 

Having said that, you need to develop strategies on how you are going to communicate the vision and values of the change to your team members so that they can actively participate in the change process. Further, you need to clearly define the key performance indicators that will track the performance of employees with respect to their contribution to the change. 

Parallel to your plan A for implementing and sustaining the transformation, you should also work on a contingency plan to account for unprecedented challenges in the entire process. Also, it is recommended that once you have made a clear plan for change implementation, you should conduct an effective gap analysis to identify any shortcomings before the plan is put to execution. Having open discussions with your team members on the plan can also be a great way to make the plan far more accurate and actionable.  What do you think about it? 

5. Extending support to employees

When the status quo changes and massive transitions transpire in the organization, it is natural for employees to feel perplexed. Employees are likely to show resistance to change and may also feel nervous about coping with the new status quo. This is where the top management needs to extend complete support to the employees. Winning the confidence of your team is as significant as convincing your investors that the change is transpiring for the better. After all, your employees are the ones who will make the transformation a part of the new normal by working around it relentlessly. 

Besides, explaining the need for the change and how employees too will benefit from it may not be enough. The change may also require the employees to upskill or reskill to build new core competencies that are essential for sustaining the new status quo. 

The responsibility lies with the management to introduce efficient training and mentoring programs in the workplace to assist employees in aligning their skills with the new ways of doing things. 

However, learning initiatives without high learning engagement would only be redundant, isn’t it? As a leader, you need to find great ways in which you can help your team members get rid of their resistance and actively participate in the change process by manifesting greater openness to learning. This is indeed going to be a crucial cog in the wheel of successful change implementation and management. As far as training is concerned, you can reap the benefits of LMS (Learning Management Systems) to foster a culture of advanced remote learning with a high scope of engagement.

6. Setting control measures

Establishing control measures for monitoring and measuring the progress of the change implementation is the key to sustaining the change within the organization. With the application of effective and relevant metrics, you need to consistently track the different stages of change management. 

As a leader, it is one of your key responsibilities to monitor and supervise any new changes that occur within the organization. It is always better if the monitoring is done in terms of quantifiable measures of performance and progress hence, the establishment of key metrics is essential.

You can simply segregate the control measures into two segments. The first segment is linked to the implementation of the change while the second is about institutionalizing it within the organization. The control measures too may be largely different for these two phases in successful change management. 

Effective monitoring will assist you in driving consistent refinements in strategies and actions linked to successful change management. Monitoring will offer you a clear picture of how successful or unsuccessful a change turned out to be in terms of its business benefits and institutionalization within the organization. If there are any lapses, you can briskly identify them and address them to improve the pace of progress. Eventually, success in terms of sustaining the change within the organization will be measured in terms of your control over the entire process.

7. Establishing measures for continuous improvement 

Successful change management merely does not stop at the integration of the change into the processes within the organization. As a change leader, you also need to create a roadmap for driving continuous improvements in the new status quo once a transformation is institutionalized. 

Having said that, effective strategies for continuous improvement of the newly incorporated transitions have to be formulated. Also, you need to fix accountability at all levels to make the change far more successful in the future such that the objectives linked to the change are met. For that, key performance indicators related to continuous improvement also need to be established and explained to those responsible for driving enhancements in the embedded transformation. 

Of course, your idea of change is linked to the long-term benefits and strategic goals of your organization. Do you think those goals can be accomplished in a few days after a change has been smoothly implemented? The change has to go through different stages of optimization for its benefits to reflect in the long–term goals of your organization. 

Therefore, framing continuous improvement strategies is as salient as any other step in the course of successful change management that can help an organization build sustainable competitive advantages. 

To encapsulate, business success in contemporary times is a lot dependent on organizations’ ability to adapt to the prerequisite changes with respect to the internal or external environment.

Traditional ways are no longer enough for business success and to keep pace with the ever-evolving business world, organizations need to run against each other in the bid to inculcate positive changes before their counterparts. This explains why change management is such a key process in the modern workplace. The above strategies will surely help you a great deal to drive great business outcomes with exemplary success in change management. 

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Artificial intelligence has evolved into one of the most awe-inspiring technologies in recent years. Gradually, this powerful technology has made an enormous place in the business world.

According to research, the AI market value is expected to reach $267 billion by 2027. Moreover, 9 out of 10 leading businesses have investments in AI technologies. But, less than 15% deploy AI capabilities in their work. This is because AI deployment is a huge challenge. 

The demand for professionals possessing enormous AI capabilities and suitable professional degrees is much higher than the availability. Even those who have studied AI in their college, don’t always possess mastery in this area. The lack of resources and suitable infrastructure are two prominent reasons for the same. 

However, sometimes those who self-learn from resources such as books, online courses, etc. develop better AI capabilities than their college-educated counterparts. This gives rise to the very important question, “How to determine whether a candidate possesses the skills required to become a true AI deployment asset?”  This blog will help you with this challenging task in today’s scenario. Now, let’s proceed to discuss the 5 crucial skills that are needed for successful AI deployments. 

5 indispensable skills required for excellent AI deployments

1. Abilities to learn, adapt and match strides with the advancements happening in the field of AI: 

Technology is ever-evolving and AI is no exception. The secret to being competitive in this highly technological and evolving world is to upgrade yourself consistently. Similarly, if your organization aspires to excel in the field of AI deployment, it should be equipped with AI professionals who possess the ability to learn, adapt and match strides with the advancements happening in the field of AI. New algorithms, tools, strategies keep emerging in the field of Artificial Intelligence. 

If your competitors use the latest algorithms but your AI team doesn’t possess the caliber to learn and use them, obviously you’ll lag behind. Having said that, you should examine whether a new hire or the members of your AI team possess self-improvement and consistent learning skills. Now, the question that arises here is how to examine the learning abilities of a candidate? The following are some pointers to help you with that.

1.1. Determine the additional certifications a candidate has achieved: 

One of the clearest indicators of a candidate’s learning abilities is the additional certifications he has achieved. Only those who are passionate about learning to undertake the journey of learning additional skills. A majority of individuals only learn what is taught to them in college and expect to get hired on that basis. But, passionate learners don’t stop at college learning, they expand their skills and obtain a clear edge over their competitors. 

1.2. Examine their willingness to accept others’ opinions: 

Those who possess good learning abilities are open to accepting others’ opinions. They don’t get fixated on their opinions and beliefs. They stay open to new ideas, perspectives and are willing to change their opinions if they learn something new. 

To evaluate the willingness of a candidate to consider others’ opinions, you can ask him some questions. One example of such a question is, “ Have you ever had a disagreement with a team member? If yes, what did you do or how did you deal with it?” 

Further, when it comes to your existing AI team, you can determine the willingness of your employees to learn by carefully watching how they deal with disagreements or how they respond when you try to teach them something new.

1.3. Ask about future endeavors: 

This is one of the best ways to determine someone’s passion for learning. Ask about his future endeavors. If those consist of something to learn or gain expertise at, the candidate or team member is definitely dedicated to the expansion of his knowledge. 

2. Industry expertise with domain and sector knowledge: 

Along with excellent knowledge of AI operations, algorithms and tools, there is something else that your AI deployment team will need to succeed. It is- industry expertise with domain and sector knowledge. It is only when your AI experts have significant knowledge of your industry and domain that they can devise accurate algorithms to bolster your business. Without proper knowledge of your domain and sector, their algorithms might be more complex than required. 

Insensitive sectors such as healthcare, these complexities can even be dangerous. Errors and misinterpretations can put people’s lives at risk. Given that, it is best to hire those AI experts who know your industry and the intricacies involved in your domain properly. Even if they don’t, it will come down to their learning ability when it comes to being a great fit for your AI deployment team. A good learner possesses the capabilities to learn effectively and excel under any circumstances. 

3. Governance skills: 

AI bias is one of the major issues that need to be addressed when it comes to AI deployment. For example, it is crucial that the identity verification processes work well without any discrepancies for everyone without any bias based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, etc. If AI biases exist in your products, services, or other machine tools, it is obviously unfortunate and may take your organization downhill rather than uphill.

 To minimize AI bias, it is important for AI teams to possess governance skills. Also, AI teams can use governance framework tools to enhance their decision-making skills and get rid of all biasing tendencies. The success of AI in the future depends on to what extent discriminatory and biasing tendencies can be eradicated. Given that, your AI deployment team should be well versed with AI bias and possess governance skills. 

4. Communication skills: 

AI deployment teams should possess excellent communication skills. Why is that so? Good communication is what helps team members interact effectively and produce the desired results together. Imagine, if your AI team lacks effective communication, can it’s functioning ever be smooth? The answer is obviously a big no. Strategic planning, discussion, and nearly everything require good communication skills. 

Moreover, everyone doesn’t possess technical expertise in AI. Given that, when interacting with your clients or non-technical members of the team, AI engineers should be able to explain things to them in a non-technical yet well-understandable manner. That is why your AI deployment team should possess excellent communication skills. You should definitely analyze a candidate’s communication skills before recruiting him. Even if he doesn’t possess good communication skills, but has good knowledge of AI and an ability to learn quickly, you can work on enhancing his communication skills after hiring him. 

5. Thorough knowledge of compliance practices: 

Artificial intelligence is a tremendous technology. It has a vast wingspan with immense possibilities. If the usage of AI is not bound by certain rules and regulations it can pose a huge risk to individuals, groups, and even society. AI can even violate the basic rights of individuals. For example, resume screening based on AI tools that are biased towards certain backgrounds and religions may definitely pose a threat to individuals from minority groups. 

Given that, it is essential to bind the usage of AI with certain rules. Authoritative rules come in 0multiple forms. There are International laws, country laws, and regulations set by companies on their own. Your AI deployment team should possess thorough technical knowledge of compliance practices. It is with this knowledge that they can help you stay secure legally when it comes to the usage of AI. 

Artificial Intelligence has become one of the trending technologies in the business world today. To make the most of this awe-inspiring technology, it is crucial for you to build a skillful AI deployment team. For this, you should know exactly what skills do AI deployment engineers need to possess to function effectively. The above-mentioned listicle contains the most important skills required for successful AI deployment. Don’t forget to consider them when hiring AI engineers. Wish you All the Best and immense success in your endeavors. 

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