There’s been a lot written about companies having to transform under pressure as COVID-19 regulations force employees to stay at home. But how are the workers themselves handling being thrown in at the deep end?

Across the world, people have set up workstations in their bedrooms or crowded on the kitchen counter between the toaster and the fridge; some have limited Wi-Fi, share space with roommates, or are juggling homeschooling and conferencing with clients. Then there’s the stress of constant interruptions as WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, and all of the other ping alerts. And forget health and safety; COVID-created home workers are lucky to have a desk.

It’s a wonder anyone gets any work done at all.

“When you peel back the layers, this is a really complex environment,” said Alex Bennett (pictured), global senior vice president of intelligent workplace at NTT Ltd. “It can get really frustrating.”

Bennett spoke with Jeff Frick, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during Upgrade 2020, the NTT Research Summit. They discussed the importance of employee engagement to business success and how bleeding-edge technology, such as digital twins, can increase operational efficiency. (* Disclosure below.)

Happy employees lead to a healthier bottom line

Data from a recent NTT survey indicates that 78% of home workers are ready to head back to the office, according to Bennett. “At a high level, one thing we’re really seeing is most people still want to have a level of human interaction. That we as humans like to like to work together and engage together,” he said.

But making the switch back to normal isn’t happening anytime soon … if ever.

“It’s not just about coming back for five days a week, eight to five. It’s about … can I come in for four hours, book my time in that physical space, carry that out, and then I can go home and do the research-based work in the safety of my own environment?” Bennett said.

Motivated, engaged employees are not only more content, but research shows they are more productive. This benefits the company’s bottom line, according to Bennett, who is active in advocating this balance, writing blog posts and educating executives about how employee well-being and experience is fundamental to the success of their business.

Employee engagement is part of the larger service delivery and systems integration picture NTT paints for its clients. “What we do is really take a holistic view of those areas that [are important] for you to reach that business goal, those key performance indicators,” Bennett said.

This includes applications, network, culture, property assets and security. “Anything around employee engagement ultimately is fed also by how good your network is and how secure that network is to deliver those applications efficiently for that employee to carry out their tasks in that frictionless way,” Bennett stated.

This circles back to the importance of providing employees with an environment where they can work comfortably, as well as considering them as individuals with needs rather than machines that fulfill a task.

“You’ve got to think of how to empower them with the tools that give them the choice to make decisions,” Bennett said, noting that companies that have a democratized decision-making culture are more successful than those with a traditional hierarchical structure.

“We’re really trying to prove that this idea of thinking about people first … with empirical data to show the benefits is the way forward for organizations today,” Bennett concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Upgrade 2020, the NTT Research Summit. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Upgrade 2020, the NTT Research Summit. Neither NTT Research, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE