The power of automation: Humanizing the employee experience
Although the people function widely understands that the pandemic has resulted in new employee expectations, delivering on these means choosing the right approaches, tools, and strategies.
Events of the last two years have massively impacted core areas of HR practice: be it equality, talent attraction, or talent retention.
What this means is that HR needs to focus on, and re-imagine, how it creates a thriving environment that creates an employee experience individuals want to take part in.
Yet doing so must balance the needs of the business with the needs of the individual; HR must understand what this looks like within their organization.
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EX and delivering for employees has changed
With so much changing as a result of the pandemic – the employee-employer was tested like never before, with organizations increasingly called upon to support workforce health, wellbeing, lifestyle, livelihoods, and dignity – employers are now in a position where they’re having to think actively about the working environment and how it affects talent engagement and retention.
This was the first topic of discussion that came up at the roundtable, with attendees discussing how they were changing their structures and experiences of work in response to evolving demands from their workers. One HRD shared how they had cut 10% of their hours from the working week, giving some functions, within this new model, flexibility over how they completed their hours. Another HR leader shared how they have rolled out wellbeing weeks and days where the company completely shuts down – giving employees extra paid time off. Others emphasized how giving employees the freedom to ringfence time for themselves within their work day is also key; essentially giving the workforce greater autonomy and flexibility over their time.
As part of this, to help with the feeling of belonging in an increasingly remote and hybrid world, the same company runs days that are centered around non-work-related activities, be it Pride events or general social activities, to help mitigate against feelings of dislocation that might exist as a result of remote work. That said, one HR leader said it would require extra work from the function to ensure that any changes to structures and offerings made sense to business operations and financial metrics. To help with this, some attendees referenced relying on technology to help them curate and structure a more positive experience of work; looking at data to understand where issues like burnout in the business might occur and what fixes might be needed to help alleviate this in the context of their firm.
Yet, the focus of the conversation wasn’t just on delivering extra benefits to employees. Those on the roundtable were also very aware that they were staring down the barrel of, or already experiencing, a skills gap crisis. They need to get the skills that are appropriate for tomorrow, and fast. Luckily, employer and employee needs do, largely, match up here – employees increasingly want professional and personal development opportunities from their employer – so it’s an area that if HR gets it right, as one attendee noted, can also boost EVP and retention strategies. Yet, organizations do need to disrupt their own thinking around how to alleviate the skills gap. As one leader explained, they need to think about creating lateral or lattice career pathways for incumbent staff to offer cross-functional development and progression opportunities; something which can offer greater fluidity and boost the experience of work hugely.
Radical approaches to the future of work
For some on the roundtable, they thought changes to the experience of work shouldn’t just amount to tweaking around the edges. Here, radical approaches to the future of work were discussed. One HR leader talked about a company that had gotten rid of its entire training department and made the development of people the responsibility of leaders. Others discussed those who are using technology to allow employees to self-set career goals, which can allow them access to opportunities and development that they might not have previously been open to them. As one leader told attendees: “This is the only way companies are going to be able to solve the talent shortage: by growing from within. This is what the data shows…and if you grow your own talent it keeps them engaged and it stops them from getting bored.”
With it only being just more than two years into this paradigm of work, HR leaders at the roundtable agreed that having the right tools will be necessary as these new structures are still very new. These tools could be those that showcase development pathways, or analytics tools that deliver insights from data. To help, new mindsets will also be needed, too. As one HR leader recounted: by allowing employees to bring their outside passions into the work environment, they were making roles more engaging, allowing employees to peer-help or peer-develop others, and were boosting the workplace as a result. This is a different approach to the professional-personal divides that existed before.
And, a renewed appetite for hearing from employees will be needed for any new way forward to be successful. Here, best practice tips included listening more actively and only listening if you have the capacity to act; the latter piece of advice is absolutely crucial, as one HR practitioner stated because if employees feel like there is no action after they have been vulnerable, it might result in them looking for a role outside the organization. In fact, recent UKG research shows that employees feeling like their wants, desires, and grumbles are listened to is now central to effective work. According to their data, 86% of employees feel not being heard impacts their productivity with a worrying 75% of employees say they do not feel heard on even basic topics. These issues will require HR to foster new techniques to actively listen to the workforce and these will have to be adapted to new structures of work, too. As attendees shared, they’ll have to make listening strategies effective within hybrid or remote settings, ensuring no one is cut out.
It is this inclusion and hybrid pieces that are especially important as they are, increasingly, what employees want and what they demand from work. It means HR has to deliver a world-class employee experience that fits these new parameters. No small task.
Why join an UNLEASH roundtable?
Amid the current disruption, HR leaders need to get ahead of the exponential trend where work, technology, and how work gets done have changed forever. But how should we approach the relevant questions, given the radical uncertainty we continue to face as the pandemic becomes more protracted than anyone imagined? Our exclusive Virtual Roundtables are designed to explore where business leaders are focused now, key challenges and prioritization for the rest of the year, and what matters most in planning for what’s next.
