Reimagining the Employee Experience Using Technology With Zach Beegal

The employee experience is a hot topic in the human resources space, but what does it actually mean? My guest today has the answer.?

Zach Beegal is chief operating officer at Strive, which focuses on reimagining the employee experience. In this episode, I ask Zach what the heck employee experience is and what technology has to do with it. We also discuss personalization in employee experience and how to take a different approach.

This conversation is the result of my curiosity about how HR can leverage platforms to make their jobs easier and improve employees' lives. From what I see on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, many of you are also curious about this topic. Get ready to nerd out a little about EX and the power of tech to really make work better.

Punk Rock HR is proudly underwritten by The Starr Conspiracy. The Starr Conspiracy is a B2B marketing agency for innovative brands creating the future of workplace solutions. For more information, head over to thestarrconspiracy.com.

• Listen on Apple Podcasts
• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on my website

Winning the Employee Experience

Zach explains that employee experience encompasses all the interactions, communications programs and benefits a person has in the workplace. Getting this right is more difficult than many companies realize. For example, many leaders have good intentions in providing a catered lunch or virtual happy hours, for example, but that’s not really part of employee experience.?

“I think that's the biggest thing we've taken away as well is, when you say the 30,000-foot view of employee experience, everyone’s like, ‘Yes, we care about that. That’s important.’ It’s a buzzword, just like ‘culture.’ But are you actually dedicating the resources to figure out what your employee experience is?” Zach says.

Everyone has their own idea about what employee experience means. And that makes sense, because one person’s employee experience isn’t going to be exactly the same as someone else’s. Zach says you must be willing to look deeper to understand the employee experience your workers want.

“The first thing you have to do is assign people, dedicate resources to understand what employee experience your employees really want, and then start to curate it and optimize it and track the data and information,” he says. “The first step is the hardest step, but it’s also the easiest step in the sense that you need to just start thinking of it as a critical initiative.”

You Have All the Data. Now What?

When you audit your current employee experience, you’ll see that most employees want something different than what the workplace is offering. They have many ideas for what can improve their experience and about what’s lacking or should be removed.

Collecting these insights and data can tell you what people want in the aggregate and also what you need to do to improve each person’s experience.?

“The critical thing that you need to do is encapsulate what you’re trying to push and your values to them,” Zach says. “So it’s targeted communication. It’s personalization. It’s not hitting them with everything. It’s hitting them during the moments that matter and ensuring they have the right tools and processes.”

Don’t try to perfect, Zach says. When there are complaints, use them as an opportunity to listen, adjust and support your employees.

A Different Approach to Personalization

Early in my career, my parents told me that I had to pay my dues at work. Work was work, and you get a paycheck because it’s uncomfortable, and if I wanted to have fun with what I’m doing, then I should get a pet. So my expectation around work was that there was no room for personalization. Many people in the workforce today have a different perception, however.

Zach has written about the different stages of the employee experience and about finding the biggest overlap of values and personalizing from there. At Strive, this approach has three components: unity (connection), growth and wellbeing.?

Personalizing the employee experience doesn’t mean that every employee is the right fit for every company, however.

“So I think the critical thing that leaders and executives need to start thinking about is, how do I find the gems? How do I find the people that fit my culture, align with my values and drive it?” Zach says. “It's less of catering to exactly what the individual wants, but more promoting what you have to offer and what you think is critical and finding the people that align with it.

People in This Episode

• Zach Beegal: LinkedIn, Strive website?