Smart connectivity in the hybrid workplace
How can EX tech help manage efficient hybrid workplaces?
Why You Should Care
Recruiting and retaining talent has become significantly difficult for employers, leading to a surge in interest in the employee experience and how to optimize this to retain and recruit talent.
Workforce engagement, productivity, and financial outcomes for the business as a whole can be directly linked to the employee experience.
Technology, whilst oftentimes seen as the arbiter of "bad," can play a huge role in responding to the urgency of repairing and enhancing the employee experience.
Perhaps seen as the victim of its own success, most HR departments across the globe have onboarded a multitude of technology solutions over the last decade or so and will continue to, as bellwethers and innovative startups launch new tools every day. But, this can oftentimes lead to a huge level of disruption, disconnect, and a poor experience for the users – both the employees and the HR professionals alike – despite good intentions.
In addition, in the context of post-global lockdowns and the resultant shape-up of the nature of how and when work gets done, there has been a seismic shift in the expectations of employees towards their organization. Evident in the realities of the current labor market, not only did the pandemic take its toll on employees, but recruiting and retaining talent has become significantly more difficult. Most organizations are now faced with a reality of a blended workforce that’s here to stay, that brings with it additional strains and individualized needs for getting work done.
To meet the changing demands of the workforce there’s clearly an innate understanding that the employee experience needs to be optimized to better performance, reduce turnover, increase profits and customer satisfaction. According to Wills Towers Watson’s 2021 Employee Experience Survey, more than 9 in 10 employers have plans to make enhancing the EX a top priority for post-pandemic success.
And the old method of onboarding new technology isn’t necessarily the wrong move here. In fact, optimizing the employee experience with technology can offer long-term benefits. However, what’s required is a layer in the middle to bring together the various systems of record that integrates seamlessly with existing tech, whilst being prepared for future developments and what technology transformation solutions might bring to the fray. Above all other EX priorities, providing a unified and personalized experience for all employees has to be at the top of the list.
How can HR tech impact and improve the EX?
Hybrid Collaboration
The shift to a more flexible way of working is redefining how employees connect and collaborate. With fewer people on-site and distributed workforces increasingly the norm, employees are becoming vastly more reliant on technology. HR, specifically, has the opportunity to provide an experience that fosters asynchronous communication such as digital assistants or document sharing applications. There is also an opportunity to connect all these different elements of the HR tech stack into a single platform, making it easier for teams to work at different times and places and to meet only when necessary. Gone are the days of needing to knock on HR’s door for a Holiday Request Form!
Productivity
Creating a smooth employee journey from end-to-end, that isn’t complicated or provides blockers to the user, is one key way that employee experience technology can benefit the organization. In doing so, HR can make work-life much easier for employees and help them stay connected, engaged, and more productive. Automating workflows across applications, and making processes seem like a single workstream, can significantly enhance the employee experience.
Employee Satisfaction
At a time when employees are questioning their organization’s values and commitment to them as an individual, HR has a key role to play in ensuring that employees are satisfied in their job and feel supported. Enabling employees with a ‘better than great’ EX will enable employees to do their job easier, and feel listened to and heard. Implemented in the right way, technology can provide individuals with the ability to do their job easier and have the right access, to the right things, at the right time, leading to them feeling connected to the company and satisfied in their job.
What does ‘good’ HR tech need to have?
Nowadays, employers see the importance of needing the employee experience to be just as good as the consumer experience – where everything is easy. The expectation leveled by our personal lives from booking dinner to calling a cab has heightened our expectations for the workplace, meaning we want things to be super intuitive, accessible on the go through our mobiles or watches even, and ideally doable in one click. We also understand the need for personalization in experiences. With 90% of companies not personalizing employee experience, there’s an opportunity here to stand out for getting EX done well. Smart organizations will prioritize the effortless efficiency of key HR events, but also sync this with AI to enable personalization at these moments – delivering the right information at point of need, making employees feel valued and seen.
Moreover, if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that nothing can be taken for granted, and we all must be prepared for change. To meet this need for agility and future-readiness, what’s required from our HR tech stack is a layer in the middle to bring together the various existing tech systems, whilst being prepared for future developments and what technology transformation solutions might bring to the fray. Organizations gain great levels of freedom with a solution like PeopleSpheres’ to smart-connect the tools and software that meet their business requirements. And when their business requirements change, tech teams can quickly change or adapt the technology and bring it into the employee journey without much disruption.
Smart connectivity with an Employee Experience Platform
The PeopleSpheres solution uses the composable business application by presenting three key layers: smart connectors, which integrate multiple applications into a single platform, a unified database that stores the data from all integrated applications, and finally the employee experience platform which provides employees with usability of each integrated application in an enhanced manner. It is the first 100% adaptable and adjustable composable HR platform.
This smart connectivity solution meets the needs of HR practitioners for delivering unbeatable EX, providing solutions to the challenges of the HR leader today, as well as working to meet broader business objectives like bettering performance, reduced employee turnover, increased profits, and improved customer satisfaction.
If you’d like to find out more about PeopleSpheres, then make sure you attend UNLEASH America from 25th-26th May and find them at booth 503.
