The global out of office

Last week, as I was scrolling through social media and came across the news that LinkedIn was about to give a paid week off to its almost 16000 full-time employees.

What was the reason? To reward and encourage employees to take care of their mental wellbeing, now more than ever after a quite challenging year.

Experiencing burnout is phenomenon that I have increasingly started to hear more about lately and I am confident that I am not the only one. Not knowing too much about it, I did some research and discovered that working remotely has increased overall stress in professionals through numerous ways such as longer hours, exhaustion, and isolation. According to this LinkedIn article, the latter lead to a 33% increase in burnout signs in 2020 only. Honestly, I was shocked when I first heard about these numbers.

That got me thinking... a widely known firm giving some time off to its employees it's the kind of news I’d like to hear more often! But you might be wondering why I am talking about this matter as an inspiring customer experience example.  

Well, what do I see as a LinkedIn user? It might not have a direct impact on me as a customer, but my perception of LinkedIn as a company was affected positively.  

How? Seeing a company care about the wellbeing of its employees by giving them what is probably the most valuable thing one can receive nowadays: some extra time off to spend with loved ones and rest up.  

In other words, as a customer I don’t look at the product or service only, but I care about the overall experience and the company’s position on matters that I care deeply about, such as in this case. It’s great to see a company take real action for the wellbeing of its employees and showing that it cares.
Now not only my opinion on LinkedIn as a platform user has improved, but I also believe it seems like a place where I would like to work for.  

At MadeFor we have developed 8 Customer Way principles that can help drive customer centricity in the organisation. Principle number one is “Brand purpose drives strategy”. This principle talks about how organisations are valued by not only their products, but also what type of organisation it is. And LinkedIn example really proves the point.  

Hence, my question for you today for you would be: what are you doing as a firm to make both your customers and employees admire you?

‍

By Rosa.