The Employee Experience Summit NSW 2022: All the best bits

Last week, I attended the 2022 New South Wales Employee Experience Summit. Here are all of my key takeaways from the speakers, or in my view - all the best bits.

There’s a return to the office, but no going back to normal

Josh Faulkner, Director of Employee Experience at the NSW Department of Customer Service, was very clear: a 'snap-back' to pre-Covid ways of doing business is extremely unlikely. This is true for consumer habits, like exchanging in-person trips to the supermarket for online grocery delivery platforms like Uber Eats and MILKRUN - and it is true for the office, too.

Faulkner explained that most people do want to return to the office, however the expectations and requirements for a workspace have changed. Employees want flexibility, and their desire for time in the office is now primarily driven by the need to physically collaborate with colleagues and build on social capital.

His view? It is now an employer's responsibility to design our workplaces around collaboration and socialisation.

AMP provided an example of a new collaborative workspace

Anya Fitzgibbon, the Employee Digital Experience Manager at AMP, talked about the company’s new office at Quay Quarter in Sydney’s CBD. This new space is being designed as a 'place with purpose', centred around collaboration and community. For AMP, their office will be a celebration that their staff have the opportunity to come together again - a perfect example of Faulkner’s suggestion.

What happens when you get it wrong? Damage to engagement and trust

Kelly Mitchell, the GM of Employee Experience at Tabcorp, provided valuable insight about her company’s journey in establishing a flexible working approach to suit the team and the business. She explained that in Tabcorp’s own experience, a one size fits all approach certainly does not work in encouraging staff back to the office.

In 2021, Tabcorp put in place a policy so staff would have to return to the office three days per week. However, this mandated approach was met with significant backlash from staff, which had a serious impact on staff engagement and trust in senior management.

While this initial approach failed, Tabcorp learned crucial lessons about the importance of collaborating with staff to find a flexible working approach that is mutually agreed amongst the whole team.

Don’t just drop tech on your team and expect a great experience

Various speakers also talked about the fact that software adoption has been huge in the last 12 to 24 months, as a method of improving staff experiences of working both remotely and in the office. However, it’s becoming clear that change management and supporting staff in using this new technology is even more important to ensure the benefits are realised.

Technology is a big part of the solution - but not if your staff aren’t happy and comfortable using it. Before you jump onto a new system or tool, make sure the technology provider has the skills and expertise to make onboarding a great experience for your team.

Flexibility tech that comes with expert onboarding

Here’s where the Parkable piece fits into the puzzle. Our parking management software makes staff car parks as flexible as a company’s workforce. With the Parkable app, employee parking spots are easily booked and shared between staff members, so parks can be used by whoever is driving into the office each day.

This gives people certainty about their daily commute, makes it stress-free to come into the office, and ensures that parking space isn’t sitting empty.

Plus - yes - we can confidently say we’re experts in change management and onboarding:

“We’ve found the customer care experience from Parkable to be excellent.”

- Ross Turner, Facilities Manager, KPMG

“Parkable is very easy to work with, both the platform and the people. They do great work and are very responsive and client focused.”

- Julius Moster, Project Manager at Tonkin + Taylor

“Parkable is simple and easy to use. We’ve found adoption to be very quick as the app is so intuitive.”

- Martin Longley, Head of Digital Experience, MYOB

“With Parkable, parking has been made easy for our staff, and the spaces aren’t sitting empty. The Parkable team has been fantastic throughout this process.”

- Brian Miller, Director Asset Management, Colorado Housing and Finance Authority

If you’d like to learn more about how Parkable’s parking management system could help with your employee experience and support flexible working, book a demo with one of our enterprise parking experts.