EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE AS A CAREER

Every so often, I get approached by students who are exploring a career path in Employee Experience (EX). I am always eager to discuss my thoughts and experiences with this new generation of HR innovators!

I recently spoke to a student who is enrolled at the University of Indianapolis’ Masters of Professional Studies in Human Resource Development and Administration. I was thrilled to learn that their curriculum includes an introduction to design thinking.

I thought that in today’s newsletter I might share excerpts from my Q&A with this student in case it’s insightful to others who are contemplating a career in the field.

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Q: How and why did you transition from talent management?to employee experience?

A: Many of us who are not designers by trade remember the moment when they first experienced design thinking. Six years ago, I worked on a Talent Acquisition Strategy project for a client. When we got to do hiring manager workshops to identify pain points, the CHRO said to me “why don’t you talk to the head of our innovation lab. He uses a method that managers are familiar with and maybe we can integrate it into the workshop.” ?I came to find out that they use design thinking for company innovation, and we ended up co-creating the workshops. My mind was blown! I am not someone who jumps on trends quickly, especially when it comes to HR. We do need innovation, but many of our practices are not grounded in science. What resonated for me with design thinking is its focus on co-creation and empathy. That’s why my tagline is “let’s bring the HUMAN back to Human Resources”! I then decided to become a student of design thinking. Initially, I studied with IDEO U and I became a coach for them. I am also a LUMA Institute certified practitioner of human-centered design, and an instructor in Northwestern University’s MSLOC program where we apply design thinking to organization design and change management. Eventually, I started integrating design thinking into my offering at talent.imperative inc .

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Q: What differentiates employee experience practices from talent management? What is the role of design thinking?

A: Think about the term – Talent MANAGEMENT. It means I am managing you, the talent. Which is already putting us in a hierarchy and making you passive in the process. Contrast this with Employee EXPERIENCE – who does that center? The employee. If you think just about the terms, it already tells you the difference in focus. Why not apply design thinking and employee experience design principles to talent program design? When we design TM programs ranging from candidate experience, to onboarding experience, to performance management experience, to succession management experience – talent programs and processes – but thinking about them from an employee perspective and how we can make them more experiential. The method we can use to do so is design thinking or human-centered design.

Q: What are the key responsibilities of an employee experience expert??

A: To put this question into context: For the past twenty years or so, most HR organizations have been optimized for effectiveness and efficiency by applying the Dave Ulrich model which organizes HR activities into business partner, center of excellence, and shared service center. The model was designed because HR was a back-office, non – revenue generating function.

In this model, there was no consideration of the employee experience. That is an emerging trend. We do not currently have a consistent approach for how we execute on the employee experience. In a recent LI Newsletter article I outlined the different EX models that I have seen companies experiment with.

Organizations that have an employee experience function do have dedicated employee experience designers. Responsibilities of these designers may vary depending on how the function is structured. Many EX functions I know start with a “pull” model where they would receive requests from other HR functions or the business to either be advisors or design end-to-end experiences. As the function matures, they tend to add “push” elements in the form of a more strategic articulation of how the EX function can deliver value to the organization.

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Q: What skills, knowledge, and experience do I need to get into the employee experience field?

A: You have work experience in HR, Marketing, and Employee Communications. What a great combination of skills and experiences for a career in Employee Experience! I have also seen career shifters from service design being hired into EX roles. I think almost more important than experience is having a growth mindset and being open to embracing key design thinking mindsets and competencies.

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YOUR TURN:

Fellow EX practitioners: How would you expand upon my responses?

Aspiring EX practitioners: What other questions might you have about EX as a career?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Design Thinking for HR is a biweekly LinkedIn newsletter that aims to inspire HR professionals to experiment with the human-centered design framework. The newsletter is curated by?Nicole Dessain who is an employee experience consultant, design thinking workshop facilitator, and Northwestern University instructor. Nicole is currently writing her first book about Design Thinking for HR. Join the Early Readers’ Community here .