Mangesh Sharma
GLOBAL IT BUSINESS PARTNER
How can businesses help employees to perform valuable work in a post-pandemic world?
Since Covid, HR has been in the limelight like never before. Businesses are increasingly recognising the value of employee experience as a key way to make sure that employees are focused on what adds value to the business. Building a self-service employee experience reduces the time employees have to spend on mundane activities and creates more time to focus on meaningful and valuable work, particularly strategic work. The simplest way to move to a self-service employee experience is, as a business, ask yourself “How can I reduce the number of clicks required to complete routine tasks?”.
Following on from that, make sure that you give employees the access they need to take advantage of your best policies and support. For example, if you offer free childcare, make sure that your employees know how to benefit from this without the need for asking lots of questions or going through complicated processes. Otherwise an employee will become frustrated that their expectations aren’t being matched and more often than not, this will be reflected in their work performance.
Building a self-service employee experience reduces the time employees have to spend on mundane activities and creates more time to focus on meaningful and valuable work, particularly strategic work.
Identify what triggers motivation and satisfaction for your employees, define the journey and then simplify it.
What can businesses do to avoid high employee turnover?
If an employee is happy with the work they do and feel it is relevant, then it is much easier to retain them. It is up to business leaders to provide an employee experience that keeps staff motivated and focused on what matters most. The rise of technology companies who provide learning and talent acquisition products, combined with a huge appetite for investment from businesses, make this a very exciting space to be in right now. More companies are trying to define their own, unique employee experience that resonates with and engages their employees. Think about it this way - if an employee is happy to tell their friends and family about what they do and the way that they do it, then you are far more likely to retain them.
The experience starts from their very first day - how easy is it for them to get access to the technology they need to start working? Who is there to greet them? You need to think about the entire employee journey and ensure it is filled with positive moments. Positive moments don’t need to be grand gestures, they could be little things like asking an employee if they are happy with how their email address is presented - they may not always use their full, given name in a business setting. Identify what triggers motivation and satisfaction for your employees, define the journey and then simplify it. This is a continual process so make sure that there are robust feedback loops in place for employees and that they can see when their feedback is actioned.
How important is open communication between businesses and employees?
Communication between employees and businesses is key. If expectations aren’t managed on both sides, then issues are likely to arise. If an employee doesn’t have a comprehensive understanding of their employee’s expectations, this can create frustration for employees as they know that they are working hard but don’t know how much of it really matters. As part of an annual review, an employer should be able to put in writing what the performance expectations are for the coming year. As well as relieving frustrations of the employee, it also provides opportunities for employees and managers to have more meaningful conversations throughout the year i.e. we are on track, here’s how we keep momentum going or we’re behind, here’s what we can do to change that. We talked about the importance of identifying motivation and satisfaction triggers, but it is equally important to identify frustration and dissatisfaction triggers too, so they can be addressed before becoming an issue that affects work performance.
Communication between employees and businesses is key. If expectations aren’t managed on both sides, then issues are likely to arise.
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