Moments that matter

Today I was invited to be a panelist at the Design Thinking for HR event hosted by HR Shapers and skillupHR. There were over 200 HR professionals participating. Boom! There is such a curiosity about this topic. The panelists gave very interesting perspectives of what worked, what didn’t work from their personal experiences of running design thinking inspired programs.

The biggest question though was can HR teams use design thinking in every function and also sustain such an effort?

As always let me start with a story, in the third year of college, they hauled us into this big auditorium and sat us down for a whole day. We were being wooed by senior HR leaders from different IT companies. They were painting a dream — very much like the American dream. From the way the infrastructure was designed to the massive cafeterias with world class fast food joints, to the colorful team outings with wide smiles, to group pictures with CxOs. By the end of the day, all of us were googly-eyed. For someone who was so clear that a master’s degree was the way forward, I seemed to waver a bit in my thoughts about placements. In three months companies came and on the first day of placements, I was picked. That was the first company I joined, and a place I remind till I quit and started my own firm. One of the most memorable experiences was when I entered the incubation training and got my ID card — once you wore it around your neck it felt like you belonged. The HR executive gave us a tour and treated us to a good lunch, and off we went to the academy to learn and to become coders, testers and designers.

I had no ordinary career. Started a Java coder, tagged into the retail domain, worked in a couple of projects while pursuing my working professional MBA in Finance and HR. Went to blog at an event called the innovation summit, found my calling, and landed myself in the corporate innovation team. For the next seven years, I was an Innovation Consultant and a Design Thinking coach. At one of the best times of my career and lucrative offers to for two exciting projects — one was marketing for the venture team and — second was to develop employee engagement technology for the CIO’s team — that too under very powerful women leaders, I quit. So I was leaving a place that treated me well, that challenged me, and a work that I really loved. I spoke to my boss, and she understood my entrepreneurial spirit and encouraged my decision. I went to the online portal and submitted my resignation. The HR send me a mail, with my reporting manager in cc, we came to a consensus on my relieving date. I finished all my departing formalities without having to move away from my desk. An impressive technology integrated employee management system, one should say — definitely the CPO, CIO and CTO would have been proud. My team gave me an amazing farewell, with lovely gifts, flowers and handwritten cards.

The last day came, I submitted my systems and even gave away my access and ID cards — it is a really emotional thing to do when you leave a place you actually love. I was waiting to give my exit interview. As the name would have it I was expecting my talent manager to call me up any time, I had a few suggestion and ideas to share. I got an online form, a lengthy questionnaire; I filled it and submitted it. I thought the HR would call me to discuss the comments I had made on the form. No call came. I got a digital goodbye. From the VP of HR wooing us, it came to a junior most executive writing me a mail to just freeze my exit date in the system. Eight years of employee loyalty and not even a personal goodbye? In the eight years, I served there I can hand count the number of HR interaction I have had. Most of them were during employee engagement programs.

The human resources teams — followed by learning and development, administration, internal tech support — have some of the most important interactions points with the employees. They have the chance to create the best of experience for the employees both professionally, personally, physically and mentally. They have the chance to interact with the employee even before they join the organization and well after they leave the organization. Your employees were, are, and always will be your biggest ambassadors. To make them a positive influence or a negative one is totally up to you.

To create great experiences tap into life-defining moments in the employee’s life — these are the moments that matter…

#1 typical HR touch points:

- Recruitment and on-boarding

- Appraisals and Promotion

- Transfer and Relocation

- Achievements and Recognition

- Return to work

- Separation

My friend joined a CRM company. He sat down with the HR team for a career progression plan, and when the HR asked him, did he plan to have children soon, he was slightly offended. Then the HR explained that they took parenthood very seriously and that it was a very important part of an employee’s life. It would shift the choices and phase at which a person could grow. Many times employees make great sacrifices of professional career based on personal life choices. Like becoming single parents, sudden caregivers of elderly parents, having children in crucial age, and so on puts immense pressure of the employee to perform and behave differently. I have seen moms coming back from maternity and feeling guilty to be at work, I have seen people letting go of great growth, exposure and big dreams so that they can spend more time at home and balance personal life. If we are there for them in moments that matter to them, they would be there back for us in our moments that matter.

#2 personal moments that matter:

- Birthdays

- Marriage & wedding anniversaries

- Pregnancy & parenthood — maternity, paternity, adoption

- Children going to school and college

- Children graduating

- Empty nest

- Menopause

- The sickness of oneself/family — change in dependents and dependency

- Breaks up and divorce

- Immigration

- Personal health

- Death of loved one

- Retirement

Change causes stress and anxiety in individuals. It can either be an organizational change or a personal change. Transitioning them through these stormy and ambiguous times would be the key to creating smoother experiences.

So what is this story about? Let us put empathy back into human resources and employee support programs. Let us get our internal customers (employee) happy.

Take inspiration from Virgin’s obsession with employee first mentality,

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” ―  Richard Branson