Workplace leaders share why they were hired for their roles

Great workplaces don’t happen by accident. A safe, collaborative, and enjoyable workplace takes a lot of hard work to create. Especially during the past year, as companies around the world reopened, the roles of workplace managers have proven essential. To learn more about the folks who make the workplace hum, Envoy surveyed 400 workplace leaders. Below we’ll take a look at some of the survey data, including what we learned about workplace roles, team structures, and skills required for their success.

Want to skip ahead to the full report? Get your copy of At Work: the 2022 workplace trends report.

Takeaway 1: Encouraging folks to return is a key reason workplace leaders were hired

As more companies reopen, they look to their workplace teams to create a safe, productive, and enjoyable space for employees. In fact, it’s a top reason many workplace leaders were hired. When we asked respondents why their companies hired them, many of them said it was to create a great on-site experience and encourage people to return. Here’s what some of our respondents shared:

“One of the main priorities for this position when I was hired was to encourage people to come and use the space. Relationship building has been so important. I reach out to people preemptively. Encouraging one person to come in and use the workplace makes it more likely that they’ll encourage the rest of their team to do the same.” - Samantha Spada, Experience Manager at Pereira O’Dell

“I was hired to make sure our physical workplace is as efficient, productive, and engaging as possible. Another reason is to think long-term about our hybrid and remote work strategy, and how all of that is going to play together in our physical space.” - Sydney Swanson, Workplace Operations Manager at Checkr

{{protip-1}}

Takeaway 2: Employee satisfaction is the top success metric for workplace leaders

Success can be defined in many ways. We asked workplace leaders how their managers evaluated the success of their roles. 76% said their success hinged on employee satisfaction. Workplace safety (e.g., maintaining zero incidents on-site) came in second at 34% and CDC compliance for return-to-work was next at 27%.

Outside of these measurements, some respondents said their managers looked at employee NPS scores, employee retention and performance, and issue resolution. Others noted anecdotal ways their success is calculated, including feedback from colleagues and the amount of work they complete.Pro tip: Collect feedback from employees on a regular basis. Check out this guide for pointers: How to get real, unfiltered feedback on your workplace experience.

Takeaway 3: IT problem-solving is among the top skills needed for future success

Many respondents recognized the need to develop new skills to be successful in their workplace roles moving forward. Here’s what some of the folks we surveyed had to say:

“We don’t have our IT team in every day. I’ve needed to do basic problem solving, like making sure on-site equipment works, connecting to Zoom, and calendar management.” - a workplace experience manager at an advertising agency “Project management has been big—in terms of coordinating things to prepare for people coming back on-site and being flexible enough to shift gears on the fly as pandemic mandates change.” - a human resources coordinator at a fintech company

{{protip-2}}

• Adaptability
• Dealing with ambiguity
• Project management
• People management
• Event management
• Time management
• IT problem-solving
• Communication
• Organization
• Collaboration
• Empathy

—

Whether you sit on the Facilities, IT, HR, or Security team, your role has been essential to creating a great workplace for employees over the past year. You’ve done great work—truly!—and your job will continue to play an important role as more folks return. Gear up. Explore new ways to improve the workplace experience. Fine-tune your skillset. And, if it’s not already clear, speak with your manager to understand how they measure your and your team’s success. Do these things and you’ll be in great shape for tackling the year ahead.