Sponsored by:
Produced by:
Konstantinos
Tzevelekos
HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS PARTNERING - EU REGION
What should be the priority when deciding what to invest in driving employee experience?
Organizations typically invest 4-6% of revenues into technology to support employee experience, but the exact proportion invested should not be the priority. Instead, leaders should make sure that the conversation about employee experience is happening at the top of the organization, continuously, and the right people are brought to the table.
While technology is important to delivering moments that matter for employees, these moments matter to customers. Better EX impacts customers because it improves confidence, satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy towards customers within the organization.
Delivering better experiences for employees requires more than the right tools. The technology must be balanced with investment in leadership, so the organization has the skills needed to drive up standards and support employees to fulfill their potential. Higher employee engagement leads to lower turnover, which in turn delivers greater business opportunity.
A company can use the best tools available, but without strong and impactful leadership, the employee experience can suffer, which in turn will impact engagement and performance.
Better EX impacts customers because it improves confidence, satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy within the organization.
People want to work in an environment where they can be themselves and express their views and have a culture of trust and transparency.
What are the most important considerations in keeping employees engaged and productive?
The combination of strong leadership and technology is key. It’s worth remembering that buying off-the-shelf software provides access to features that can be used by any organization adopting the same technology.
True differentiation comes from leadership, and particularly leadership that focuses on cultivating a strong culture and clear purpose through the employee experience. People want to work in an environment where they can be themselves, express their views and have a culture of trust and transparency. We have recently deployed a new platform to manage the employee lifecycle and one of the key benefits is that we are having access to data helping us understand how effectively our people connecting and navigating within the organisation.
These technology platforms and tools provide a consistent employee experience on a global scale. However, within that framework it is important to leave some room to create localized, personalized experience. So, we understand that someone using the same tool in Greece versus Ireland might want to communicate with an employee in a different way at a specific point in their employee lifecycle. While there are consistent processes around onboarding globally, for example, there is scope to personalize how that process is experienced by employees within various of markets, and leaders play a significant role to that experience.
What do you think is the role of trust in building a better employee experience?
Trust is key to the employee experience. Equally important is transparency and integrity; it’s crucial that the story the business tells is aligned with the reality of the employee experience.
Many employers oversell their potential or experience when they need to attract talent. The problem is that employees who experience work that is very different to their expectation will soon become disenchanted and disengaged. It is more effective to be pragmatic and consistent with employees, even if this means explaining that the business is on a journey, and the starting point is some distance from the ‘dream’ you hope to deliver in future.
This communication, where you deliver on basic promises consistently, builds engagement and loyalty between the employer and employee.
It is more effective to be pragmatic and consistent with employees, even if this means explaining that the business is on a journey, and the starting point is some distance from the ‘dream’ you hope to deliver in future.
Vodafone is a global telecommunications company, with operations in Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania. The company owns and operates telecoms networks in 22 countries, with partner networks in a further 48 countries. Vodafone Global Enterprise provides telecoms and IT services to customers in 150 countries.
