Workplace Reimagined 2024: OPM, USAID leaders on how to maximize employee experience

As much of the federal workforce continues to operate in a hybrid work environment, behind the scenes, federal leaders are focusing on ways to improve technology, workflows and processes.

But the work doesn’t end there. Agencies are simultaneously trying to figure out how those improvements can also make the employee experience as strong as possible.

The employee experience encompasses an employee’s entire work lifecycle — from starting a new job, all the way through retirement — and follows the relationship between an individual and an agency (or agencies). But in reality, the employee experience comes into play even before someone’s job begins.

Jason Barke, deputy associate director of strategic workforce planning at the Office of Personnel Management, said it’s important to start an employee’s experience off on the right foot, from the very point they apply for an open position. With a positive experience upfront, there’s a higher likelihood of ripple effects later on.

“What is that experience when they’re applying? Is it difficult to apply? Are the systems working? Do they have good communication through it?” Barke said. “They are going to be your future employees, and they will be the ones that will be thinking about, right from the start, how this all works. … We want to set them up for success right away, and by having all those things in place, it leads to really more engaged, more productive employees and [better] employee experience moving forward.”

During Federal News Network’s Workplace Reimagined Exchange 2024, Barke, along with OPM’s John Gill, executive director of human capital data management and modernization, and Jason Gray, chief information officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, discussed federal efforts to use both technology and process modernization to elevate employee experience.

Once an employee is in the door, agencies then have to think about ways to make hybrid work — which incorporates a mix of in-person work and telework — adaptive to how employees and teams function. The Office of Management and Budget’s April 2023 memo on organizational health focused not only on shifting the balance of in-person work and telework for employees but also transforming workplaces to make them more collaborative and conducive to hybrid federal workers.

Gill said the OMB memo’s focus on the design of hybrid work, as well as assistive technology, is beginning to show through at agencies.

“Those principles that came out as part of the organizational health strategy are the same things that we’re looking at in running the HR part of organizations. And it really centers on the individual,” Gill said. “I see major changes in that regard. I see agencies beginning to use and bring in the assistive tools that were mentioned last year — very purposefully — so that there are ways that they are being used not only from a personal efficiency standpoint but to do collaborative work as well.”

Adapting agency’s hybrid work environments with technology

Technology underpins much of the employee experience, so its functionality is certainly important. But USAID’s Gray is facing the added factor of managing hybrid work of employees who are spread all around the world.

“It’s a massive challenge when you look at making sure that you have the same technology or similar technology, so that people can transition from one place to the other and have that fair and equitable experience — whether they’re at home, whether they’re thousands of miles away or whether they’re in the office having those conversations,” Gray said.

“How do you create equity across the workforce when you have those short conversations that can really either shorten or remove the entire need for meetings? I don’t think it’s just a technology solution. I also think it’s how we shape our meetings and how we engage with the staff,” he added

Trying to engage staff members is also complicated by the challenges ingrained in hybrid work. At times, teleworking or remote working employees may struggle to have the same opportunities and input as employees who are working on site. To ensure true hybrid work collaboration, having the right technology and processes in place is key. Effective technology can help make sure team members have equal input, regardless of their location.

“That’s something we’ve really stressed, at least at OPM and with my team, that everybody has access — everybody’s involved. We make sure that we have technology so that we can all participate,” Barke said. “The lesson that we learned, and we’re still figuring that out, is how do we make sure that everybody’s involved in a meeting? It’s not just the people in the room, it’s the people online, and we [have to] continue to build on that, build that engagement with everybody. For my team, that’s something that we’ve really learned and tried to continue to build on as we go forward.”

Creating an employee experience feedback loop

It’s also important to recognize that agency headquarters and senior leadership don’t have all the answers, Gray said. They need continuous feedback from employees, across all work locations, to truly understand what’s happening at a more granular level.

“It’s making sure that we’re actively engaged and listening and getting feedback from staff across the entire agency to incorporate that feedback into best practices and lessons learned, so that we can replicate across the agency,” he said.

As an example, Gray said one piece of feedback he heard was about the importance of organic conversations happening alongside day-to-day work. That’s become more challenging in a hybrid work setting but something that technology can still support.

“That basic question of, how are you doing, or how was your weekend, or how are things going?” Gray said. “It’s not about an agenda item. It’s not about updates. … It’s really something that is just organic, and that then creates that connective tissue.”

At OPM, Gill said he helps run biweekly “innovation jams” for employees. It’s an opportunity for staff to contribute their thoughts on how to improve workplace processes to make them more collaborative and ultimately more effective.

“They’re also providing an avenue for individuals to, first of all, express themselves, secondly, collaborate, and thirdly, it is driven off the mission,” Gill said. “You’re able to do it with the technology that we have, with not having everybody sit in the same room to make it happen. That’s the kind of input and insights that we’ve gotten from the community, and we’re using that as the basis for forming different approaches to things, including how to run effective meetings.”

Moving forward, Barke said he will continue to focus on further process improvements, especially as he regularly asks for and incorporates employee feedback.

“Whether it’s annually through the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, whether it’s through pulse surveys, whether it’s through listening sessions, whether it’s through word of mouth, those are the things that are important to employees, and those are the ones that as a manager, as an executive, we really need to pay attention to,” he said. “That’s how we’re going to continue to grow our organization, how we’re going to continue to be productive, continue to be engaged and really help our employees have that great experience.”

Discover more articles and videos now on Federal News Network’s Workplace Reimagined Exchange 2024 event page.

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