I think we can agree, with some degree of certainty, that remote work is here to stay. While many organizations entered the pandemic entirely unprepared for widespread home working, one year on, it is highly unlikely that post-pandemic, we will return to “business as normal.” The version of remote work that we see now will need to be reimagined, most probably in some hybrid form, and this of course will be underpinned and delivered by technology. Central to this design must sit the human experience, or the user experience (UX), to ensure employees can innovate, be creative, collaborate, and be productive.

To explore the subject in some depth, I had the pleasure of speaking with Brian Solis, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce, and an expert in how companies can become more digital, in a human-centric way (view the full conversation here). Historically, the concept of employee experience (EX) has been shaped around the three core key pillars of culture, technology and physical space. However, for more than a year, technology alone has become “the experience,” with the office and culture, to some degree, being removed from the equation. For this reason, the pandemic has brought the subject of technology-led EX firmly into focus, and the home environment has added important new dimensions.

As Solis shared with me, EX centers on how an employee feels while they are working.

“It is an emotional reaction to a series of moments,” he says. “It is what you feel, which triggers what you remember, and what you remember becomes a memory of that moment. So, if you recall that moment as a pleasant and intuitive experience that is great; but if it is not, then it is something that starts to affect your morale, your performance, your productivity, and ultimately sets the stage for what your future within that role or organization looks like.”

It is worth remembering that prior to the pandemic, the employee experience was shaped by traditional approaches to working, be it the 9-to-5, the five-day week, lunch breaks, or annual leave. Change was long overdue, and attempting to return to “normal,” or to create a new version of “normal,” would be a mistake, and an opportunity missed. Instead, it is time for reinvention.

As Solis shared within our conversation, “I am not excited about creating a new normal, but rather I am excited about reimagining new possibilities in this new world so that we can bring the best out of our employees, through technology innovation and work innovation.”

As part of this, we need to think about how we empower our employees to be better versions of themselves, and automation technology will help with this significantly, removing mundane repetitive tasks to free up time for creativity, serendipity, and innovation. Ensuring an equal experience, between workers at home and those in the office, will also need careful planning.

I find it fascinating that in the consumer world, there are myriad examples of successful, intuitive, human centric UX, but less so in the world of work where many tech frustrations still exist. As Solis puts it, “if you think of UX in terms of your favorite apps, they are designed very intentionally to change your behaviors and bring out the best of you, such as more time, more focus, more energy, and essentially there is a lot to borrow from these industries.”

Despite a movement toward digital transformation in the workplace, the “digital” element has sometimes been lacking. Think of the speed at which we navigate our personal devices at home, versus our technology inside the workplace. Sadly, when it comes to technology and app design for the workplace, what product teams see and what the user sees, are often different things.

“We weren’t thinking of creating proper user experience or human-centered experience, which is how do people use technology in their everyday life, and how can we design these apps and interfaces, and outcomes, to be more efficient, intuitive and delightful?” Solis says. “That is what needs to change.”

Instead, workplace technology needs to feel familiar and be a joy to use.

Ultimately, I fully agree with Solis’ sentiments that technology is at its most magical when it is invisible.

“It is not just about what we can facilitate or trigger in terms of productivity and outcomes, it is also how someone feels when they are using it. If they do not have to think about it, they can focus on doing their best work,” he says.

It is time for workplace technology to be reimagined and for us to design the technology around humans, instead of retrofitting employees to technology that has been created without them in mind. Only then will we see what humans are truly capable of in a post-pandemic world.

To learn more about how technology can be used to create a positive employee experience, watch my conversation with Brian Solis.