My Workplace Experience experience
- By Leni Rivera
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- 01 Nov, 2018
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Little did I know when I began my role operating facility services, that I would eventually stumble upon establishing the industry I love in the Philippines.
When I first started working for the Property Services Group as the Head of operations for facility and corporate services of my previous company, I had no idea that it would be the start of a future life calling.
As with all my previous roles, I walked in with my bubbly can-do attitude and excitedly set to work. At the time I began, I had 5 departments to manage, but in just a few years my area grew to 13 departments, with so many other side responsibilities I lost track of how many areas I was really handling. It didn’t really matter, I was just so happy to be doing what I love.
The company is privately owned and the largest of its kind in the country. It is proudly a Filipino-run company dedicated towards improving the health and wellness of Filipinos, and as such is deeply rooted in Philippine tradition and culture. At the time I was working there, it was home to over 3,000 employees stationed nationwide, with about half of them situated in the head office.
Right from the start, I was deeply moved by the company’s noble mission, and my instincts kept telling me how great it would be to somehow put it at the forefront in their head office facility, for all employees to celebrate and for all guests to appreciate. But how do I bring an intangible spirit into a tangible space?
I was very fortunate to have a manager that was incredibly supportive of my crazy ideas and even weighed in on them and encouraged me to be creative. So, this very first crazy idea eventually resulted in the creation of a specialized greeting.
It sounds so simple, but I felt it would have a great impact. We trained all the facility front liners – all security personnel, cleaners, waiters, receptionists, maintenance crew, and including all of us in the Property Services Group – to greet all employees and guests with a unique and very Filipino greeting. Instead of the customary “Good morning” and “Good afternoon”, everyone in the corporate center would hear instead “Kamusta Po” (a traditional greeting that translates to “How are you, Sir/Ma’am”). The result was an entire head office facility with a pulse that was uniquely Filipino, which radiated throughout all facets of the space, and evoked a special pride in both being Filipino and in serving the Filipino people.
Another important aspect about the Filipino culture is the custom of eating together. As such, the Food & Beverage department was my largest operations, feeding over 3,000 people a day. We had one of the largest corporate cafeterias, with a hotel-standard kitchen serving heavily subsidized lunch to employees (which cost less than a penny), a subsidized buffet in the waiter-serviced executive dining lounge (for 20 cents per person), catering services for an average of 30 functions per day, and serving snacks and beverages to all meetings in all conference rooms daily. It was a huge undertaking, but certainly the heart of our operations.
In order to further enhance this culture of celebrating food, we hosted different events which made eating more festive and fun. In the cafeteria, we had lively music, offered featured deserts and unlimited rice, and hosted many product launches with freebies and giveaways. In the executive dining lounge, we created an event called Around the World in 30 Tuesdays, featuring the flavors and feel of a different country every week – highlighted throughout the variety of food courses, in special-made non-alcoholic cocktails, in the décor, music, and table information cards.
I knew food was an integral part to the culture of the company, but refused to settle with just serving it. My wonderful team found the opportunity to use food as a way to create an experience enhancing this special quality of the culture.
Creating events and special programs for each of my departments soon became one of my main thrusts. I realized that a facility that is clean, well maintained but empty is like a having a house without a home. And a workplace where employees merely came to work, felt to me like I wasn’t doing them justice. I wanted to create an environment that wasn’t just a place, but an experience. And I wanted it to belong to the company alone, so it needed to reflect who they are.
One of the challenges that came up within the latter years, was when more and more product managers wanted to advertise their products within the facility. To allow this would mean having a corporate environment filled with different posters and banners and booths all throughout the year, which was contrary to the company’s vision for the look & feel of their corporate headquarters. But at the same time, I understood the need to advertise the company products to employees.
This was how I came to open a new department, called Events Services. This department’s focus was to create a happy middle ground for product managers to advertise, as well as to support all events held in the corporate center, but at the same time maintain the integrity of the headquarters’ look & feel.
The “happy middle ground” we developed for the product managers was to host month-long events, held quarterly, and designed to create a more engaging way to advertise their products to employees. The Events Services team developed, constructed and operated the events in coordination with the product managers. Once a week during that month, the event would be highlighted with engaging festivities - food and drink stations (at discounted prices), games and activities, music, themed vendors (selling items also at discounted prices) and special stands for the various product teams to advertise and talk about their products.
The result of all these efforts and "crazy ideas" was a corporate center that was alive and active, with employees constantly looking forward to the next event, activity and program within all the aspects of their workplace. And because the corporate center was filled with specially created activities that reflected the company’s very own culture and spirit, this well-maintained facility turned into a workplace experience, which was celebrated by all those who were welcomed inside.
This time last year, virtually every company around the world shut the doors of their offices, and those that could, asked their employees to work from home. The definition of a workplace began its unforeseeable transformation from a physical office space to a virtual room from anywhere… or did it?
The reality is that this transformation had already started occurring over a decade ago. The pandemic that struck the world simply caused our perception of the workplace to finally catch up with this reality.
In 2019 (12 months before the pandemic struck), The International Workplace Group (IWG) released their annual Global Workplace Survey report, in which they examined responses from over 15,000 professionals from 80 countries. This report revealed that 70% of professionals globally work remotely at least one day a week, and more than half work remotely at least half of the week.
Working remotely is not a new concept, it was just perceived differently. Companies considered those who worked from home and those who worked in the office, as separate entities. They invested their resources on the workplace experience of the physical workplace, while disregarding the home workplace environment. But the pandemic has altered that perception. Everyone from the top executives down were forced to work from home, and thus experienced together the importance of a consistent conveyance of the company’s culture for all employees, regardless of where they work.
Taking this new perception into consideration, the corporate world is now facing an evolution in how they will redefine their “workplace” moving forward, post-pandemic. Some companies have evolved to a fully remote workforce, shifting the workplace to the home environment. Some have a hybrid approach. And others are adhering to a fully office-based work environment. Regardless of how this is defined, what is undoubtedly clear is that resources need to be invested in both environments in order to ensure that the corporate culture is consistently felt by all employees, anywhere.
To demonstrate how this is possible, here is a model of a potential hybrid scenario with employees working in both locations.
I have been a Workplace Experience specialist for 8 years now, and moved to the Bay Area because this is where the industry is prevalent. When I began developing and running a workplace experience for a company all those years ago, I didn’t even realize it had a name, much less understood the impact it would have on the productivity and happiness of people at work.
What most people seem to get wrong is that Workplace Experience is not – should not be – a mere collection of facility perks and benefits. I learned from that mistake early on, and still witness that mistake being made frequently, even here in the Bay Area. Just because you have a corporate gym on premises, or offer food in a company cafeteria, or designate a space in the office for a pool table, doesn’t mean that (1) your employees will even use it, (2) it will be appreciated, or (3) it will have any significant impact on employee engagement. I have seen free shuttle services for employees being underutilized, food in corporate cafes wasted, free gym classes underpopulated, and facility events fall flat. This is because the biggest misconception about a Workplace Experience is that it will generate a fun, unique, engaging environment all on its own. The mistake is a dependence on a Workplace Experience to create a corporate culture, and not the other way around.
The establishment of a corporate culture that is true to its values, principles and overall mission, is where it all begins, always. This forms the foundation of the relationship between the company and its employees. A solid corporate culture attracts the right employees because people want to invest in relationships that are based on mutual respect, trust, personal growth and a shared vision. But people are also wise to recognize when the company is sincere about its culture, or whether it’s just lip service.
Workplace Experience is the measure by which employees are able to quickly and easily gauge the culture’s authenticity. This is because it is the only element of a culture that can be experienced physically through all the human senses – touch, taste, sound, smell and sight, and so it bears witness to the sincerity of its purpose. That’s why placing a pool table in the office or sleep pods in the corner without having a reason behind their existence will cause more doubt than anything else.
Only if a company’s culture anchors itself on being truly invested in its employees’ health and wellbeing, for example, will facility features such as fitness classes, various healthy food offerings, placement of living plants in offices, allocating special parking spaces designed to optimize step counts, and facility programs aimed at helping people achieve their health goals, succeed. In the same respect, if the office areas of the company executives have vastly higher-end finishes, lighting, comfort and appearance than the work areas of the rest of the company, do you think that employees will believe the company culture supports equality and inclusivity?
And let’s not forget, the purpose of a Workplace Experience is far more than just offering attractive features in a workplace. Its primary function as a tool of the corporate culture is to enable and empower employees to be fully engaged and happy with their work. The scope of Workplace Experience includes the entire journey of an employee throughout their workday – from their transportation to work, their entrance into the facility, the ease with which they are able to access their needs (a meeting room, an appropriate work space, work tools and equipment, locating people and departments, etc.) and collaborate with each other (in engaging spaces, over coffee, with meals, through facility events and programs, etc.), and even providing relief by accomplishing chores before ending the day such as dry cleaning, car wash, or bringing home ready-cooked meals. That’s why Workplace Experience is such a powerful tool. It has within its very purpose, the capacity to directly impact employees’ productivity as well as directly influence their happiness at work.
If a company just throws in facility “perks and benefits” without anchoring them in their corporate culture, this investment will not only be a waste of money, it will be the large elephant in the room that constantly reminds employees of how inauthentic the company is. And conversely, as the only physical manifestation of a corporate culture, Workplace Experience can be the company’s most important tool in expressing to employees their sincerity.
Watch out for my first book on Workplace Experience, coming out this year!
