My top take-aways from: Employee experience in the New Reality

My top take-aways from: Employee experience in the New Reality

“How can we harness intelligence to build a future-ready workforce?” ?

This was the question we asked in a recent panel discussion hosted by Accenture and Workday, attended by HR Executives, Digital HR Leads, and Technology Executives across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and India on 14 February.

To put this question in context, let’s start with the HR trends shaping the next-gen employee experience in 2022. I see this year’s people challenges falling across three dimensions:

1.??????Human – HR must attract and retain scarce talent, who have new expectations of employers, including working with consumer-grade technology platforms and in an inclusive and diverse culture

2.??????Digital – HR must support increased Human + Machine collaboration by building trust, increasing digital fluency, and upskilling talent at pace

3.??????Physical – HR must curate new types of office spaces that support hybrid work models, socialization, and sustainability

Our panel discussion teased out many fascinating insights from these trends. Here are the ones that resonated most with me:

COVID-19 has made work more human – and HR more important

One of our panelists, Dr Bob Aubrey, Founder of the ASEAN Human Development Organization, reminded us how the pandemic has changed both business and societal view of HR. He noted how companies with stood down workforces redirected their employees to help with health care and logistics needs – making a significant different to societies in crisis.

In short, the last two years have given HR a makeover, elevating its status. Previously, the HR stereotype was all about annoying admin. Now, employees have come to understand that HR is there to help. While executives have realized that HR can innovate – aided by advanced technology, HR can provide a workforce that can adapt at speed and at scale.

HR has become a hero. How will it use its new-found superpowers?

The ‘great disconnect’ is increasing skills scarcity in traditional companies

Forget the ‘great resignation’. According to panelist Alvin Aloysius Goh, from the Singapore Human Resources Institute, Southeast Asia is experiencing the ‘great disconnect’. Alvin says that, in search of purpose and flexibility, Gen Z are leaving traditional, structured companies for tech start-ups – businesses that proactively invest in digitization. They are specifically looking for organizations where they can shape culture and how work is being carried out.

In other words, they are seeking a personalized, EVP-driven employee experience.

To win the war on talent, HR needs to design and deliver a personalized work environment that inspires people to be their best and amplifies human potential by helping employees to transition into future roles. The conditions for success and meaningful work, require flexibility, personalization, and choice – choice in the way people interact with others and in how and where they perform work.

Employees want to be treated as a human – not a resource

To this point, as they anticipate a post-pandemic world, employees will expect from employers. They will look to their employer to help meet their needs across what Accenture calls six “net better off” dimensions: individual “me” needs (physical, financial, employable, emotional/mental), their “me and you” needs (relational) and their collective “we” needs (purposeful).

Our research found that 64% of a person’s potential is influenced by whether they feel better off across these six dimensions.

I believe these findings help build a business case for CHROs to reclaim one of their most fundamental missions: the care and resiliency of human workers. There are strong business benefits to reimagining the employee experience based on what matters most to people. Every time employers boost these dimensions and create meaningful and trusting relationships with employees, they see an increase in business performance.

Digital will be the essential enabler of employee experience

To create a personalized employee experience, data is critical. With five generations in the workforce, we cannot solve for everyone in the same way. AI supported by thoughtfully designed data collection and retrieval methods can empower HR leaders to make informed business decisions

During our discussion, Workday’s Senior HR Director, Melissa Bowden, shared with us that intelligent technology platforms can help CHROs to efficiently, easily, and rapidly:

• Understand what employees are thinking and feeling – Digital tools can appropriate live feedback to listen to the voice of employees in real time. I was intrigued to hear that Workday has instituted “Feedback Friday”, where 1,400 workmates give Melissa and her HR colleagues live feedback on what’s working (and what isn’t), how people are coping with new challenges and how they are feeling. Melissa says the data from these feedback sessions has been “life changing”.
• Match the supply and demand of skills – On a platform, companies can define the skills required to execute jobs aligned with strategies (demand). Now employees can see the skills required and specifically develop towards a career path (supply). HR can also use the platform to seek the right skill sets from the external market.
• Empower careers – A Career Hub uses AI to help employees map a career path and find the skills they need to get to that level or lateral move. It also finds them work experience, on-demand learning, and mentors to help them upskill quickly.

In 2022, as organizations work to keep their people safe, employed, supported and equal, the CHRO will be one of the most vital roles in the C-suite. HR is no longer only about efficiency and process execution. Modern HR organizations must serve as an active innovator within the company, collaborating with other functions to harness technology, personalize the employee experience and drive results for both the business and employees.

Companies embarking on the HR and talent transformation journey are advised to:

1. Understand the problem they are solving for and determine their current and future state.
2. Understand the end user to support people’s engagement with the transformation.
3. Assess their current ‘engine power’ and ensure all the connective tissue is well integrated.

Find out more about these ideas.

Many thanks to our panel for generously sharing their ideas: Dr Bob Aubrey, Founding of the ASEAN Human Development Organization; Alvin Aloysius Goh, Executive Director of the Singapore Human Resources Institute; Noriko Uchida, Lead – Workday Business Group, APAC, Middle East and Africa, Accenture; and Melissa Bowden, Senior HR Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, Workday