MARKET VIEW 01
Mangesh Sharma
GLOBAL IT BUSINESS PARTNER
Referencing the PWC announcement recently around spend being ramped up for Employee Experience (EX). With the budget reaching $2.4Billion, it is clear that PWC has placed considerable priority on EX. Compared to other HR investments, where do you think EX should rank as a business priority?
This coming year is very important because HR has never seen this kind of limelight previously. It was always a focus on supply and procurement. Nowadays, organisations are recognising that employees should spend their time on more valuable and strategic activities rather than tactical and operational activities. Building a better employee experience elevates and provides more self-service in line with this viewpoint.
PWC's business is highly driven by people, therefore their high level of investment for EX does make total sense, given the nature of their business.
Talking about my industry, that of the consumer space, usually 4% of revenue spend on EX is already an extremely high number. Every project is quite focused on experience, we’re producing and implementing EX with improved architecture so that employees have the smoothest journey possible. We don’t want employees to have to waste time on finding information that should be easy to navigate towards. Currently, we can estimate that Diageo's revenue spend on EX is around 1-2%, which is within industry standards.
We definitely challenge this and being quite a revenue-focused business, priority is inevitably on sales & marketing with T&D often taking a back seat.
Having said that, it is important to note here that investment in EX will definitely increase over the coming year. It's very important to the executives to get our HR and EX upscaled. Therefore, during this year we are working on the foundations.
We are currently tiering technology in three layers, first of all Streamlining our foundation, because data plays a very important role, so making sure our data is integral.
Then we have systems like Service Now, which are elevating our traditional system. This is where we are spending more now, to create a more integrative and distinctive Diageo experience for employees and customers alike.
Talking about my industry, that of the consumer space, usually 4% of revenue spend on EX is already an extremely high number. Every project is quite focused on experience, we’re producing and implementing EX with improved architecture so that employees have the smoothest journey possible.
With moments that matter it's often the simple things that are the most important.
What steps can organisations take to ensure positive ‘moments that matter’ throughout the employee lifecycle? How can longer employment tenure be ensured?
There are certain general moments that matter, for example, onboarding, change of role, and basically getting paid. Then there are the second tier of moments that matter, which differs from company to company. For example, PWC may have a different people-driven way of operating.
So, identifying the right moments that trigger the employees' motivation and satisfaction, the moments that matter, is indeed key. Then defining that journey and simplifying the process, can cut across the system of record to a system of transaction to a system of experience, as well as all underlying processes.
So, yes, identifying the moments that matter, relating to the triggers and the satisfaction of employees that can be done through various channels, and creating a simplified journey around that is the most important thing at the moment.
With moments that matter it's often the simple things that are the most important.
To be able to capture genuine feedback from employees, we have a survey function, yet we are not entirely there in terms of a comprehensive feedback system. There should be more real-time data that we would intrinsically use for all projects - not just HR, but all internal projects. This should reflect the current information structures throughout the business.
What can HR leaders do to ensure employee experience transformation programmes are successful? What are the greatest challenges when rolling these out?
The traditional way of working is that leaders can lead by example. Definitely, doing a lot of change management in terms of showing why it is important. How it's going to change their work? And why they should learn this?
It's that mindset of creating a mindset from top to bottom, and then creating that kind of help, and that the kind of change mechanism or change champions within the organization that can really help to drive and improve this. It's more behavioural rather than systemic.
We can definitely have the best system. But if you don't, tackle the behaviour of the employees, it's not going to give you the value that you're desiring after.
In terms of learning and development, this can be more of a distraction than a help at times.
Changing a bit of learning strategy, making some aspects mandatory and others more proactive. Getting behind the intelligence of learning as well, based on a specific role and specific skills, what should they be learning? Also, what is essential for the potential for growth in the current platform? Those kinds of learning approaches can change a lot in terms of how to navigate within the organisation, as well as how to develop employees accordingly.
It's that mindset of creating a mindset from top to bottom, and then creating that kind of help, and that the kind of change mechanism or change champions within the organization that can really help to drive and improve this. It's more behavioural rather than systemic.
Diageo plc is a multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It was the world's largest distiller before being overtaken by Kweichow Moutai of China in 2017. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits.
