Our five senses continuously help us understand our surrounding environments. The workplace, an environment experienced by most on a daily basis, is rapidly changing more than ever before. Gallup states the changes affecting organizations today are overlapping and colliding in ways they haven’t before, they’re historic and monumental. Experience is one of the most effective ways to communicate change. People are vital to an organization’s success or failure, and it is important to ensure they understand and buy-in to work environment changes. By engaging all five senses, the workforce will start to make sense of changes within their surroundings, and successfully transition to a new way of working.
Most organizations leverage traditional communication methods (flyers, e-blasts, intranet posts) to reach a broad audience quickly and efficiently. While these are effective communication tools, they only engage our sense of ‘sight’, leaving four other senses left with nothing to do!
Many of our clients are making substantial shifts to their workplace that impact (positively and negatively) their workforce. To successfully communicate these changes, we work in tandem with our clients to create a strategy that engages the workforce and all five senses through a variety of communication methods. Here are a few examples:
- In-Person Experience – Creating a simulation of the work environment for employees to physically interact with can often engage all five senses at once. This typically takes the form of a temporary furniture mock-up or a pilot space (a built-out workspace). Both methods provide employees the chance to experience elements of a work environment first-hand such as trying out furniture and technology, visualizing the size of space types and furniture, or experiencing different noise levels.