Managing the employee experience. Where to start?

“When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion.” This ancient Ethiopian proverb shows that recognizing the value of employees and placing them at the centre of strategies in organizations has been a maxim for companies throughout history, taking hold as an important trend nowadays.

While it is true that currently, the HR areas in companies undertake a multitude of activities across all levels with the aim of aligning business needs with their employees’ needs: implementation of flexible-hour policies, compensation, social benefits, development, and others. To achieve the best outcomes, it is of interest to ask: Do our employees perceive and value all such actions? What is their true impact on people and the business?

Data from various studies by prestigious consultants such as Hays, Randstad, KPMG, Michael Page, Future for Work Institute, among others, demonstrate that the impact of these measures is being limited and even when the relationship between supply and demand is evident, employees exhibit symptoms of disaffection. For example, according to data from job site called Trabajando.com-Universia and Randstad Workmonitor, 61% of employees claim to be dissatisfied at work and 16% are actively seeking employment.

These data suggest that certain initiatives are not obtaining the desired results, either because of a communication problem or because they do not meet the expectations and / or aspirations of the employees.

Given this worrying situation, we should address questions like: How can we become more efficient in the development and implementation of our employee-centric strategy? How can we deliver excellency in the employee experience?

To sure that these employee-centric models are effective, the HR strategy must necessarily be clear, acknowledged and aligned with the needs of employees and the business. Furthermore, to successfully implement this employee-centric philosophy, it is also just as necessary to involve all our stakeholders in the definition of the strategy and the associated actions. In both aspects. it is worth highlighting the need to have the right technological tools in place to allow us to both use and exploit the information and, when the time comes, to share actions and results.

Once all these aspects have been defined, what are the elements we should consider when implementing these actions? Let’s put it in another way, where do we start?

1. Establish the strategy and action plans based on reliable and quality information: think ahead about your employees’ skills and their activity, thanks to the possibilities that technology provides through integrating the data on employees, processes and the business.
2. Make visible and value the strategy through the employee experience: to ultimately improve the working experience of employees, based on specific initiatives associated with their “moments of truth” aligned with the company’s reality as well as that of their employees, optimizing the information stored in the technology solution.
3. Attract and consolidate the best employees: reinforce the employer brand of your organization to attract the best talent and ensure they integrate properly and swiftly into the company. Likewise, find out in detail the employees with the highest potential, so you can define your talent search patterns.
4. Evaluate, plan and develop your employees in a simple and transparent way involving them: allow your professionals to participate actively in the definition and management of their performance appraisal, training and development programmes according to their needs and develop specific action plans for each group, based on the critical success factors for your business.
5. Drive career development and advancement: deploy active professional career policies that motivate your employees, making the most of the information and management possibilities offered by an HR technology solution, to boost performance among your teams and employees.
6. Improve the remuneration model and how it is perceived: align the compensation model with the company’s strategy and the talent within your employees. Additionally, make the compensation model more flexible in line with your employees’ concerns, using the unified information on processes and people gathered in the HR technology solution.
7. Empower, implement and manage new organizations and work models: analyse your current organizational structure and establish alternative options that are innovative and beneficial for your company and its professionals. At the same time, manage the new employment models that your employees and collaborators may demand—freelancers, knowmads, partners, and others—with a complete view of their life cycle with your organization.

To conclude, we want to highlight that defining an employee-centric strategy and implementing it to achieve a compelling employee experience that stands out is not an easy task, however, quoting Nelson Mandela “It always seems impossible until it is done”.

If you found this article interesting, explore our roadmap for HR professionals, “How to put the employee at the centre of your HR strategy?”, and discover the main keys for developing strategies focused on improving the employee experience.