6 Ways To Make Your Workplace More Human Centric

The world of work is ever-evolving, and the ‘work is work’ principles of then have no standing in the future of remote work. However, you would be surprised to know that ideas such as ‘work is what you do to make a living so you can make money and do other things, like buy a house and raise a family,’ are part of a philosophy that dominated most people's outlook on life till as recently as a few decades ago.

In the past 20 years or so, the corporate world has shifted its focus towards what we would call human-centricity. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Why don’t we begin by defining what precisely human centricity is, and especially how it applies to the modern workplace.

What is human centricity?

To start with, let us consider the simplest possible definition, which is as follows: “A human-centric workplace is crafted around its employees and takes their specific needs into account.”

This definition allows us to identify the three unique elements of human-centric design, namely:

‍1. Empathy,

2. Creativity, and

3. Business needs.

1. Empathy

‍When we talk about empathy, we are referring to the fact that we genuinely care for the people in our workplace. The adage, “try walking in their shoes for a day,” is especially pertinent here. Essentially, we are discussing trying to see things from someone else’s perspective. Once we do that, we put ourselves in a position to understand their reasons for not doing things and the motivations that drive them and encourage them to do things well. It would help if you immersed yourself in the community that makes up your employees to build genuine empathy and, in so doing, create the conditions for understanding their real needs and motivations.

‍2. Creativity

‍When we talk about creativity, we are referring not only to the creativity we desire from our employees. We are referring to the creativity that we need to use as employers to ensure that we are also finding unique solutions to the problems that our workforce may be facing. Do workers feel challenged? Are there issues such as a lack of connection between the different employees within the organization? Are the individuals that work for us able to achieve a sense of fulfillment? However, they may define it as per their outlook.

‍3. Business needs

‍Business needs refer to making our organization utterly supportive of our employees’ collaborative and communicative needs. When employees feel involved in something more significant than the individual tasks they are performing, they are much more highly motivated and, thereby, much more likely to produce optimal results. One easy way to ensure that your organization creates this environment is to use a coworking space rental instead of a traditional office, as some co-working spaces have perfected the formula for best meeting business needs.

Strategies to make your workplace more human-centric

1. Flexible offerings: As the pandemic forced the majority of the world’s working population to adapt to a ‘work-from-home’ or WFH culture, many individuals realized that working from home has many benefits, as it allows one to maintain a healthier work-life balance. However, the need and desire to go into an everyday workplace still remains; many collaborative tasks still necessitate physical human interaction. Indeed, many individuals long for that human connection that is all too often lost if one engages solely in WFH mode. Many organizations have shifted to a blended model, where they give their employees the flexibility to work from home on some days and come into the office on other days. This is a win-win situation for both employees and employers, as employees have a lot of flexibility in scheduling their work time, and employers do not have massive overheads and fixed costs to maintain a physical workspace. In today's world, nothing is more convenient for a company than to simply hire a coworking space for a limited number of days in a week, a month, or even a year, to allow their employees to come into work on those days.

2. Achievements recognition: As human beings, we desire validation. This trend starts right from childhood and continues throughout our lives. This does not imply that achievements must always be recognized via monetary incentives. Often, a simple acknowledgment from one’s manager or superior, a few words of recognition at an office meeting attended by the whole company, a plaque that lists someone as the ‘employee of the month,’ and so on, are more than enough in terms of motivation. A dedicated area in your office, such as a hallway or a notice board where achievements can be recognized, is a simple yet highly effective way to keep employees satisfied. These are the types of features that are usually already built-in to great coworking spaces.

3. Employee-wellness focused: Earlier, employee health was limited to offering your workforce access to a company health insurance plan. While this is important, it does not focus on the most important precursor to insurance, which is ensuring that your employees are healthy! As an employer, you cannot force anyone to engage in healthy lifestyle habits such as good eating and exercise. However, you can create the conditions necessary for your employees to adopt these practices easily. A simple strategy is having a snack area that is always stocked with healthy alternatives for employees who feel hungry during the day or have missed a meal because of working long hours. Another strategy is partnering with local gyms and other exercise studios close to the office to make it as convenient as possible for your workers to get in a workout whenever they have the time. Coworking spaces such as Worksocial have a well-stocked snacking station encouraging members to eat healthily.

4. Team goal creation: Working in silos is a thing of the past. Yes, there are still jobs in the modern corporate world where individual targets are linked to incentives. However, these jobs are the exception and not the rule. For the more significant part, most employees want to feel like they are part of something larger, and the easiest way to achieve this is to create team goals. Like team sports, where there is a sense of higher purpose and camaraderie, creating team goals helps individuals see the bigger picture and be more motivated to work toward a common goal.

5. Opportunities for learning & development: Employees always look to up-skill and learn new things in today's world. Often, individuals leave their jobs because they feel a sense of stagnation. This can be easily avoided if employers provide their employees with an opportunity to learn new things and develop new skills. Mind you; these opportunities do not all have to be a natural extension of their function at work. Giving someone in the finance department the opportunity to participate in a course that focuses on communication skills may seem like a mismatch but thinking about scenarios like these is short-sighted. As long as an employee is deriving value and happiness from their learning and development opportunities, there will undoubtedly be positive benefits that the company will experience.

6. Creating inspirational office layouts: Your office’s design significantly impacts how employees communicate and work together. Separate work areas allow individuals to zone in and focus on a task without interruptions. Similarly, shared spaces are essential for collaborative work, meetings, etc. A mix of shared and private focus pods, meeting rooms, discussion spaces, and social areas is critical to creating a human-centric workplace. This blended mix of slots is an essential feature of modern coworking spaces. Everything has been designed so that everyone's individual and collective needs can be met with the highest degree of efficiency and comfort.

Conclusion

The future of remote work is human-centricity, and to that end, human-centric workplaces such as coworking spaces are here to stay. As companies recognize the importance of human-centricity, the elements and strategies discussed above are slated to become the norms of the modern workplace.