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Vicky Gray
HEAD OF HR
Does employee experience get taken seriously enough?
Employee experience is fundamental to absolutely everything an HR department does. Too often it is seen as an isolated stream of work, focused on reward and recognition schemes. When really it should be written as a key metric into all work undertaken. Everything you do, no matter how big or small, has an impact on employee experience. HR professionals that are serious about delivering an exceptional employee experience need to be considering it in every thing that they do.
A key part of the employee experience is making sure that employees have access to high quality tools and systems. This is particularly true for technology companies! If you’re selling a great tech product, but your own internal technology is rubbish, then you create frustration for employees. But before diving deep into new technologies, businesses need to understand what really matters to their employees and whether the basic processes in place are working. All too often humans work around the systems in front of them, rather than in harmony with the system. Plus it’s a well known fact that if you put a technology solution over a bad process, you’ll end up with a bad technology solution and a bad process. Get the process right first, and then find the right technology.
But before diving deep into new technologies, businesses need to understand what really matters to their employees and whether the basic processes in place are working.
It is companies that have an amazing sense of purpose, and ensure this purpose goes through everything they do, that enjoy the best levels of employee engagement.
What can businesses do to improve employee engagement?
Having a real awareness of your organisation and the people in it is crucial to ensuring a high level of employee engagement and satisfaction. Many businesses are quick to jump on the latest bandwagon after seeing another company share their latest initiative. Whilst this is always done with great intent, it is rarely thought through in terms of delivery and actually thinking about what the business wants the initiative to achieve. It is companies that have an amazing sense of purpose, and ensure this purpose goes through everything they do, that enjoy the best levels of employee engagement.
A very common example of where purpose and delivery fail to meet is sustainability. Nearly all businesses now claim publicly that sustainability is important to them. But in reality, single-use plastics can be found in abundance across their offices. This leads to a disconnect between the company and employees as the company is not following through on their statements regarding sustainability. When there is disconnect between a business and its employees, then naturally employee engagement will suffer. People want to do work that matters, so it is up to businesses to show them that their values are backed up by action.
Where can HR departments make improvements that really matter to employees?
There are some great user experience principles out there that technologists have been using for a very long time, that now need to be brought into the world of HR. The main principle is simple - put yourself in the shoes of your end user. This rarely happens in HR. Think about all of your processes - what actually matters to the person going through them? And why does it matter to them? Moments that most commonly matter to employees are getting paid correctly and on time, knowing what to do when sick and knowing what support is available during big life events such as a death in the family. Moments that really matter are small and frequent, it is rarely receiving an ‘employee of the month’ award! That’s why getting the small things right first has to be the priority of any HR professional. Take a step back, identify the moments that matter to your colleagues and put yourself in their shoes. Once you’ve done that and gained a vital human understanding of your workforce, then you can build the processes and put in the tools required.
Getting the small things right first has to be the priority of any HR professional.
Vicky Gray is a senior HR professional, with over 10 years’ experience in HR management and leadership. She currently holds a senior management position within one of Google’s specialist technology divisions and has previously worked across financial services, manufacturing and the public sector.