Humanity in the workplace: how modern organizations bring their culture to life

This year’s Zoomtopia was filled with innovations and demonstrations surrounding Zoom Workplace. The panel titled “Humanity in the Workplace: How Modern Organizations Bring Their Culture to Life” focused on employee disengagement, an issue facing many companies nowadays. This issue costs businesses around $8.9 trillion worldwide. As workplaces become increasingly hybrid and remote, leaders are struggling with how to keep their team members engaged and maintain meaningful connections with them.

Some companies are addressing this challenge by focusing on building a strong employee experience (EX). With technology being at the center of every workplace, whether employees are in the office, remote, or on the front lines, companies need tech solutions that are focused on the employee experience.

During this panel we heard from Gavin Wrenn, COO of Workvivo at Zoom, Michele Williams, communications lead at ExxonMobil, and Lea Hawkins-Gaboc, head of employee communications at Virgin Group. They shared their experiences of undergoing major EX transformations and highlighted the benefits of increasing employee engagement, retention, and communication, particularly with frontline workers.

Wrenn discussed the importance of humanity in the workplace and how organizations are able to, and should bring their culture to life in a digital-first world. He emphasized that technology like Workvivo, specifically, can replace multiple different tools while also creating a sense of community, and ensuring that employees feel seen.

Williams shared how her company tackled challenges in communication. With over 65,000 employees, many of whom had been with the company for their entire careers, ExxonMobil and its employees were struggling to use their multiple different communication tools. Workvivo helped consolidate all these channels, which made it easier for employees to access information, communicate with one another, and “become advocates for the brand.” Similarly, Hawkins-Gaboc explained how Virgin Group used Workvivo to create a unified digital platform where employees could continue to build connections with each other, have access to brand guidelines and collaborate creatively. Workvivo helped Virgin to launch a mentoring program, which was designed to strengthen employee engagement and brand identity.

As organizations continue to evolve toward hybrid and digital work environments, company leaders and administrators must not forget to prioritize human connection. Workvivo is one of the ways to ensure that employees continue to feel part of a community, no matter where they are.