Intelligent People Experience: A Holistic Approach to Talent Throughout the Entire Lifecycle

In an era where the differentiation between the customer experience and employee experience is blurring, organizations like UNIQA are pioneering a strategic framework known as the Intelligent People Experience (IPX). IPX encapsulates a comprehensive approach that not only aligns with the aspirations of the workforce but also propels customer satisfaction and business success. This fusion is achieved by integrating customer listening (Voice of Customer) and employee listening (Voice of Employee) into a singular, potent experience framework.

Fostering a People-Centric Culture

UNIQA’s dedication to fostering a culture that listens and responds to the voices of both employees and customers has resulted in a suite of initiatives aimed at enhancing every phase of the employee lifecycle. These initiatives are born from the listening feedback from UNIQA’s main stakeholders – including talent, leaders, shareholders, and customers – ensuring a harmonious balance between meeting internal development needs and exceeding external expectations.

Key Initiatives Shaping the Intelligent People Experience

If you're wondering what have we been up to in our wide Group Talent Team, here are a few examples of some of the key initiatives that have been keeping us & our agile teams of local country People/Talent & cross-functional experts busy:

TALENT ACQUISITION & ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE

• Deploying an intelligent Talent Acquisition Suite (TAS) to refine the recruitment process and drive collaborative recruiting with AI driving efficiency gains.
• Redesigning a new word of mouth driven Employee Value Proposition (EVP) under the one brand promise.
• Driving Talent Acquisitionn & Onboarding Excellence by building a state of the art Talent Discovery team and upskilling / reskilling the current talent acquisition & onboarding teams, while matching people to opportunities through an AI powered, interconnected Talent Marketplace.
• Providing a seamless onboarding experience, including a virtual induction platform and automated onboarding experience tool, which underscores the importance of a smooth transition into the organization.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

• Emphasizing upskilling and reskilling, leveraging AI and modern tools to enrich learning content and methodologies.
• Ensuring knowledge sharing and best practices across all UNIQA countries and business, fostering a unified learning culture that is lived throughout the organization across all levels, countries and businesses.
• Implementing a new, AI powered global Learning Management System (LMS).
• Integrating executive education and functional learning academies to align with global standards and future business needs.

TALENT DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE

• Developing a new approach to performance management that not only establishes clear and meaningful goals but also promotes ongoing feedback, recognition and agility.
• Structuring a job & skills architecture that encourages undertaking stretch assignments, accessing mentors, and taking ownership of one's personal development.
• Designing a skill-based approach to career management & succession, powered by AI and empowering talent to take ownership of their development.

Synchronizing Employee and Customer Experiences

People centric organizations recognize that a great first step in crafting a people-first environment is to ensure that the employee experience reinforces the customer experience. This approach leads to higher engagement, productivity, and a stronger allegiance to the company’s values, which in turn, are projected outward to the customers. The feedback loop created between employee and customer experiences becomes a catalyst for improvement, driving UNIQA’s commitment to excellence and innovation.

The Fusion of Skills, Experience and Intelligence

Talent intelligence has become a linchpin in the recruitment domain, vital for organizations aiming to attract and nurture top-tier talent. As organizations pivot towards this approach, it is crucial to recognize that the workforce is the foundation upon which the company grows, especially as the economy recovers. Robust hiring strategies, particularly during challenging times, are significantly correlated with competitive outperformance.

Talent intelligence platforms now offer a dynamic array of tools, employing advanced AI to parse through resumes and identify the best fits, representing a significant advancement from traditional keyword matching. These platforms not only house job descriptions and employee data but also provide actionable insights into career aspirations and skillsets, facilitating a seamless match between opportunities and individuals and in return equip organizations with a holistic view of the skill gaps they need to focus on as part of their strategic workforce planning efforts.

Talent Mobility as the New Recruitment

Emphasis on internal job mobility and talent redeployment illustrates an agile response to the changing economic landscape. This agility in talent mobility and the strategic placement of individuals into roles that maximize their capabilities underscores the company's dedication to employee growth and satisfaction.

Inclusivity and Experience in Recruitment

Inclusivity in recruitment practices is paramount, reflecting a societal call for equity and diversity. Commitment to creating an environment where diversity is nurtured ensures that the organization is not just attracting but also retaining talent from all walks of life, fostering a supportive and enriching atmosphere.

Opportunity Growth as a People Experience Pillar

Opportunity growth remains at the heart of the employee experience, aligning with personal and professional development goals. The company's key initiatives based on feedback from its primary stakeholders — talent, leaders, shareholders, and customers — focus on nurturing an environment where employees are encouraged to grow, develop, and contribute to customer satisfaction even if indirectly.

Skills: The Currency of Modern Talent Management

In this skills-centric ecosystem, talent intelligence platforms serve as the cornerstone for measuring and matching people to opportunities. The shift from rigid competency models to dynamic skills ontologies enables a nuanced understanding of the roles and capabilities required, offering a fertile ground for talent to flourish.

The Emergence of Talent Intelligence Platforms

These platforms, such as Phenom, Eightfold, and Gloat, analyze vast amounts of data to suggest career paths and development opportunities, tailoring experiences to individual growth trajectories. They have transformed the recruitment landscape, integrating with organizational strategy to ensure that new hires and internal promotions are matched not just to a job description but to a future within the organization.

The Rise of the Talent Marketplace

A talent marketplace, incorporates a variety of features designed to optimize the match between talent capabilities and organizational needs. This feature of Talent Intelligence Platforms(TIPs) are sophisticated ecosystems that support the dynamic and agile nature of modern work environments. Here's a list of the key features that these talent marketplaces typically offer:

• Career Planning: Tools to help employees plan and visualize their career paths within the company.
• Skill Development: Platforms for learning and upskilling / reskilling, providing personalized recommendations based on individual career aspirations and business needs.
• Mentoring and Coaching: Facilitation of mentorship pairings and access to coaching opportunities for personal and professional development.
• Gig and Project-Based Work: Systems to support the identification and engagement with short-term projects and gigs, promoting agile work practices.
• Internal Mobility: Features enabling employees to discover and transition to new roles internally, facilitating internal rotations and job shadowing.
• Succession: Tools to identify potential candidates within the organization for succession planning and preparing them to take on the next step.
• Talent Analytics: Advanced analytics and AI to track skills, performance, and potential to help guide decisions on talent deployment and development, including a holistic organizational talent profile for strategic workforce planning.
• Employee Resource Groups: Platforms to connect with and participate in employee resource groups, enhancing community building and inclusion.
• Agile Communities of Practice: Creation of communities or groups focused on sharing practices and knowledge in agile methodologies.

Getting Started with Talent Intelligence Platforms

In order to adopt an intelligent, skill-based approach to talent you should:

1. Simplify your job architecture to encompass diverse roles, making the structure more flexible and accommodating.
2. Define the critical skills your organization needs, focusing on the core capabilities that drive your business forward and decide on your single source of truth for your skills ontology (HCM, TIP, ATS, LMS... where will your skills live?)
3. Start with the most pressing use cases, such as talent mobility or skill-gap management, and gradually scale up the platform's scope to cover mre areas of talent management.

Note: While a Talent Intelligence Platform is a layer on top of your key HCM and talent point solutions to empower employees to navigate their career and provide organizations with actionable talent insights, they will most likely not replace your main HCM system not operational solutions for payroll, time tracking etc. You will need to integrated your TIP with your HCM and point solutions such as your ATS and LMS.

Conclusion

By integrating the Intelligent People Experience with skills and talent intelligence, organizations can craft a synergy that propels not only the individual's career but also the collective success of the organization. The thoughtful incorporation of employee and customer feedback into this framework ensures that a company's trajectory is one of continuous evolution, marked by a workforce empowered to deliver exceptional customer experiences.

For comprehensive insights, the sources to explore further include

1. Talent Intelligence Platforms to look into: Phenom , Eightfold , Gloat, Beamery , Perceptyx, Avature ?
2. The Rise of the Talent Marketplace by Josh Bersin ?
3. 9-Grid? for Talent & People Success by Fosway ?
4. Guide to Talent Intelligence Platforms by TalentTechLabs ?