Nissan: Driving employee experience forward

Nissan is one of the largest automakers in the world. To keep its business thriving, it relies on a very substantial workforce.

UNLEASH was lucky enough to catch up with the vice president of global people services at Nissan, Raju Vijay, ahead of his appearance at UNLEASH America, to discuss employee experience, how the team is turning challenges into opportunities, and its approach to moving HR future-ready.

Vijay begins by talking about the digital transformation of HR services and processes through social, mobile, and analytics technologies at Nissan.

“I started down the path with a digital HR competency that performed platform enablement from an employee engagement and employee experience perspective,” comments Vijay.

“This is where our human resource repository in Workday, as well as learning repositories in Cornerstone and ServiceNow, are housed.”

Nissan also added an adaption platform “on top of Workday, which was transformative for HR in terms of the ease of use and just-in-time training. It didn’t take us long to realize that this needs to be combined with the operational elements of what we do in HR.”

On the back of this, Nissan’s global people services division was established – combining a technology stack with an operational stack that enables HR to increase its employee support. To make sure this cross-section of areas is fully functional, Nissan has technology and HR professionals in the department.

With these tools and approaches in mind, let’s delve further how employees are heard and subsequent action steps are implemented based on their feedback.

Listening and acting

Nissan has “several touchpoints to understand the employee experience with HR platforms, including a voice of customer survey that triggers a simple two or three-part question that gauges the sentiment of the interaction platforms.

“The survey findings are then shared across the team to enable them to learn, adapt, and better leverage what we have in place,” says Vijay.

Nissan also talks to staff across the globe with an annual employee survey, measuring enablement and engagement.

Vijay adds: “The survey goes across the globe and we consistently measure employee sentiment. As we mature and grow, we are trying to enable, a model that provides more just-in-time feedback, and just-in-time touchpoints with employees.”

“Technology helps Nissan understand feedback and develop action plans. Various streams and teams are then tasked with addressing the low-hanging opportunities to address employee comments, concerns, and recommendations.”

Vijay explains: “This movement is top-down and bottom-up. Through the analysis of employee comments, change can be made across the organization.”

Benchmarking and employee engagement

Nissan continues to be conscious of benchmarking.

Vijay explains: “We look at how work is typically tiered within an organization, putting a three-tier definition in place – a strategic body of work that happens close to the business, a tactical body of work that is an execution of strategy set with the business, and a transaction definition of making sure everything is connected running the business as usual.”

With this in place, Nissan begin “benchmarking leading organizations in their shared and operational service environments.”

Vice-president of global people services at Nissan, Raju Vijay

Vijay notes: “We are setting milestones and targets to make progress.

“Our goal is for Nissan to be a leader in employee experience when it comes to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).”

The global people services teams have managed the tactical and transactional elements of data alongside benchmarks.

They also use a continuous learning cycle that evaluates what isn’t working and how the likes of chatbots and automation can improve the business.

“What we will see in 2022 is the level of stability of what we have invested in the hubs, getting to a point that we can make sure they work properly and that they’re delivering higher than the declared value,” comments Vijay.

“After that, teams can determine what can we digitize and automate as we progress on this path.”

Looking ahead

During the pandemic, Vijay saw numerous policy changes as COVID-related mandates were enforced.

“On the back of this, Nissan has seen an increase in the use of data that was captured to be more inclusive of the entire population (contractors and employees) and to be a mix that reflects the future,” he adds.

As it continues to look ahead, Nissan will work to understand what human capital intelligence can tell the organization and investigate how this intelligence can be improved.

Vijay explains: “The ‘Great Resignation’ is contributing to what we can predict and prescribe based on trends that we see from what we have captured on interviews. It is also helping us understand how we then intercept what is potentially coming down the pipe.

“Ultimately, we are approaching this as an opportunity and an exciting area for us to explore the needs of talent.”

Vijay adds: “Finding what needs to be paused and what needs to be explored is an ongoing journey for me.

“Talent acquisition is a big domain and area for me – I am regularly researching and building on the entire employee lifecycle from a journey perspective and what it needs to entail.”

Part of this is looking at Nissan’s net promoter score.

In terms of UNLEASH America, Vijay is looking forward to having an “active dialogue with peer groups about the ‘Great Resignation’ and the related talent war” including how to mitigate attrition”.

Additionally, Vijay is keen to discuss: ”Employee experience, and wellbeing, and the approach to remaining collaborative in a largely hybrid or remote work environment.”

Want to find out more about employee experience at Nissan? Raju Vijay is speaking at UNLEASH America in Las Vegas (25-26 May). See you there.