Employee Engagement and the Consumerization of Employee Experience

I've been talking, directly and indirectly, about the Consumerization of IT for more than a decade. The trend emerged as employees started to demand software and technology at work that was similar to the software and technology they use in their personal lives. Employees wanted to know why their intranet looked like a mainframe. This was driven by the popularity of smart phones and the inundation of technology into the daily lives of consumers. Companies like Apple began to really shift the expectations of digital experience and it soon spread to the enterprise. Unfortunately, the enterprise wasn't ready. Employee discontent with business software, particularly the monolithic, home-grown kind, started to push IT organizations to think and work differently. Enterprise IT started to embrace concepts like user experience and agile methodologies.

In recent years, the trend of Consumerization of IT has evolved into what I'll call the Consumerization of Employee Experience. As companies raise the bar on exceptional customer experiences, employees are continuing to expect similar products, services, and ecosystems from their employer. Think about Apple's emphasis on elegant design and seamless ecosystems, Disney's passion for providing immersive and magical experiences for visitors integrating physical spaces with cutting edge technology, or the numerous social media platforms that make it more and more effortless to interact, build connections, and share content in a community. While tremendous gains have been made by IT organizations on internal applications and experiences, plenty of it has been slow, and expectations have outpaced much of the progress. This means the expectation gap at many companies is wider than ever. Modern companies are providing amazing experiences that anticipate customer needs and continue to delight patrons, contributing to a figurative customer/employee gap. Ironically, many companies that have embraced customer experience are falling further short of an ideal employee experience.

This Consumerization of Employee Experience refers to the increasing expectations around employee experience (and potentially B2B customer experience as well). It's not enough to provide consumer-grade applications anymore (and let's face it, many companies are still failing here). Experience expectations today are way more than an application with a slick UI and an intuitive flow. Complex ecosystems are now seamless for customers to use; AI/ML is driving anticipatory interactions and personalization in a way that was previously impossible. It's not just the acknowledgement of human-centricity or cursory user research anymore. The underlying technology and data investments need to be in line with consumer (i.e. employee) expectations. IT might use words like integration, extensibility, and platforms to describe this ecosystem ideal, but customers just call it normal. And every one of your employees is a customer when they're not at work.

Recent layoffs aside, the war for talent continues. Leaders know that a minority of employees have an outsized impact on their organization's success. And retention is increasingly important in complex business environments where leaders hope to retain top talent and grow the next generation of leaders. Employee experience is core to these efforts. As employees see more and more delightful, human-centric experiences in their personal lives, they expect the same from their employer. By providing exceptional experiences for employees, companies will benefit from better engagement, retention, and loyalty. Here are a few examples to consider intersecting employee experience and technology:

• Virtual onboarding: In an increasingly remote workforce, companies can use video and virtual tools not just as a crutch, but as a way to create an immersive and interactive onboarding experience for new employees. This can help to make new employees feel more valued by the company, excited to join the team, and provide them with a clear understanding of the company mission and culture (another critical part of employee experience).
• Chatbots and AI-powered HR: Companies can use chatbots and AI-powered HR tools to automate routine HR tasks such as answering common questions, scheduling interviews, or providing benefits information. This makes it easier for employees to access the information they need and frees up HR staff to focus on employee engagement where it matters most.
• Employee engagement platforms: Companies can use employee engagement platforms to create a sense of community and foster open communication and collaboration among employees. These platforms are also a critical mechanism for measuring engagement and gathering feedback from employees. Just doing a survey once a year is insufficient to determine if you're on the right track with your employee experience.

These are some technology-specific examples, but employee experience isn't confined to digital channels any more than customer-centricity is. This is a responsibility for HR, recruiting, corporate communications, executives, hiring managers, and IT organizations to tackle together. Companies that embrace innovation and use it to create empowering employee experiences will be well-positioned to attract and retain top talent in the digital age.

We don't hear as much about the Consumerization of IT anymore, and I hope that's because we've collectively made great strides and raised awareness on the importance of not treating employees like second class citizens. I think it's important, however, to not lose sight of the continued expectation growth of employees. Organizations still have a tremendous opportunity and, if they desire to shun mediocrity, an obligation to challenge the status quo on how their employees work and interact. As we reflect on the increasing demand for great customer experience, maybe it's time more businesses started thinking about their employee experience with the same urgency. Maybe we all need to talk more about the Consumerization of Employee Experience.