The Digital Transformation of Workforce Experience

“If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.” - Jack Welch

This is one of my favorite quotes because it perfectly describes the digital transformation shift taking place in the modern enterprise.

I was a guest this morning on the HR Congress podcast and content series (check out the full podcast here). My conversation with Ben Churchhouse, Content Producer for HR Congress, began with the usual fare - the tenets of my book, The Ultimate Guide to a Digital Workforce Experience, the difference between digital and technology, and the critical importance of employee experience.

Leapgen is a digital transformation company shaping the future of work. So the title of my book is quite intentional and strategic in its use of three seemingly simple words that pack a huge punch.

Digital: A combination of mindset, people, process and technology.

Workforce: Not as obvious as it seems because it’s comprised of more than employees. Your workforce includes applicants, alumni, vendors, contractors - the entire workforce needs to be considered in designing an experience that will serve all.

Experience: We live in an experience economy. What does that mean, exactly? Consumer brand loyalty and loyalty to companies is at an all-time low, so we need to create a compelling experience to garner interest, loyalty, commitment, and results. This is the only way a modern enterprise can compete.

EXPERIENCE DELIVERS

So many things go into the creation of that “experience.” Certainly the tools we provide the workforce need to be integrated and work seamlessly, they need to be specific and personal to them, and they need to allow an employee to do 99% of the job they were hired to do (i.e., spend their time doing work, not trying to figure out how to). Simply put, it’s about creating a friction-free experience that allows employees to work.

But allowing employees to do their work better and more easily is not the reason you create an employee experience you can stand by. Employee Experience equals Customer Experience. Just as you want customers to have the best experience possible so they keep coming back, you want to create an organizational experience that will attract talent who want to be their best, most productive selves. And you have to create a great employee experience so they can deliver the best customer experience. Workforce experience for the sole benefit of performing work is table stakes; workforce experience that delivers true business results is your competitive differentiator.

DIGITAL V. TECHNOLOGY

So what is the difference between digital and technology, and why does the distinction matter? The Human Resources function of the past has been afraid of technology - technology has been the job of IT. It’s my mission through Leapgen to get organizations to understand that creating and owning a digital strategy - understanding how people work, putting a strategy in place to best activate the workforce - is the role of the People (HR) function. It’s not the job of IT to come up with that strategy. The People function needs to define and embrace their own strategy, understand the mindset shift required to implement it in the enterprise, remix processes to support the experience you design, and then execute the technology plan that will enable and support it.

So you can see a technology plan is not enough. A digital strategy with a technology plan embedded into it and which ALSO addresses mindset, people, and process will be 10-15 times more successful than a technology plan alone. This will get us out of the vicious cycle of buying too much technology or having technology that isn’t being used properly. With a digital people strategy, you can clearly articulate what your organization wants to be GREAT at versus what it’s OK to be just “performing” at. And deliver accordingly - some of your workforce experience can and should be delivered in a high-touch human way, and some can be as effectively delivered in a high-touch digital way.

THE NEW ROLE OF HR

The role of HR professionals in crafting the organizational experiences of tomorrow is evolving and needs to. Purpose is at the center; purpose is what today's working generations care about when we choose where we work. We, as a society, care about what we do and who we do it for; we want to do work that matters and in which we find meaning and value.

We can’t be a purpose-led HR organization if we don’t measure purpose. We need to avoid throwing out a bunch of HR processes that seem compliance-driven or that are based on workflows. A digital people strategy will shift your approach to designing processes that serve the workforce, not that serve the HR function. This is how Human Resources will transition to a purpose-led People function that designs with the workforce in mind.

True digital transformation, far different than a simple technology transition, will allow enterprises to drive toward purpose, sustain a modern and compelling workforce experience, and compete and thrive in the digital age. This is our mission and mantra at Leapgen, and we’re thrilled to spread the message at HR Congress this November.

Take a listen to my full podcast on Designing a New Workforce Experience. And when you feel stuck, contact [email protected] to shore up the digital HR/people strategy that will support this new workforce experience now and into the future.