Prioritising Employee Experience By Building a Culture of Engagement

In today’s competitive business landscape, the importance of employee engagement cannot be overstated. I have been writing and speaking about how employee experience and engagement are the key trends in retaining and developing the workforce of the future for some time. I have also been researching how organisations are addressing employee engagement and where there might be opportunities for improvement.

I was interested in a recent research report from MHR – who specialise in HR, Payroll and Finance – which looked at some of the key challenges businesses face in trying to get accurate and actionable feedback on employee experience, and how to go about fixing them and I hosted a podcast chat – Overcoming the Roadblocks to a Better Employee Experience – with MHR’s Kate Featherstone about the research.

We identified 6 key actions for HR leaders looking to improve employee experience:

1. Embracing a Culture of Feedback

HR teams know it’s important to get as much feedback on their employees’ experiences as they can, but often struggle to dedicate enough time to both collect and – most importantly – analyse employee sentiment. Organisations must prioritise creating a feedback culture within the business by leveraging technology to streamline the feedback collection process. They should also implement a process of regular surveys and one-to-one check-ins to gather more insights into how their employees feel about their wellbeing, development needs, and overall satisfaction.

2. Investing in Technology

Technology plays a crucial role in understanding employee sentiment and identifying key trends. As the tech develops at pace, HR teams should start to leverage the potential of AI and natural language processing tools to properly analyse feedback data effectively. This can help the wider business to gain actionable insights into employee needs and preferences, which should help them to make better informed decisions when it comes to enhancing the employee experience.

3. Prioritising Wellbeing and Development

Employee wellbeing, and their development opportunities, are probably the most significant drivers of employee satisfaction and retention. Organisations should invest in wellbeing management tools that can give them the insights they need, and also learning software that supports employee growth and engagement effectively.

By providing employees with access to resources and opportunities for professional development, businesses can help foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement, which most research shows is essential to employee satisfaction.

4. Fostering Open Dialogue

Building trust and transparency within the organisation is a crucial cornerstone for creating positive employee experiences. Leaders must empower managers to have open and honest conversations with employees, to encourage feedback and help active participation. By fostering a culture of open dialogue, HR can address any concerns proactively, underlining their commitment to employee satisfaction and wellbeing, which in turn drivers greater engagement.

5. Implementing Regular Touchpoints

Underpinning most of these actions is the need to have regular check-ins and feedback sessions, which are critical if you want to maintain open communication channels with employees. Organisations should establish a rhythm for regular feedback collection – often something like quarterly surveys and/or monthly check-ins – to ensure continuous engagement, alignment and to foster two-way conversation. Set reminders and prompts for managers and leaders so that the businesses is having meaningful conversations on a regular basis and can address any employee needs or concerns promptly.

6. Embracing a More Holistic Approach

Employee experience encompasses the entire employee journey within an organisation, from hiring through onboarding and development through to promote and exit or further promotion. Businesses must take a holistic approach to the employee experience, which is why factors such as wellbeing, development opportunities, and overall satisfaction are so important.

By prioritising employee experience at every touchpoint, organisations can create a supportive and engaging work environment where employees feel valued, supported, and empowered to reach their full potential, which will foster long-term employee loyalty and ultimately commercial success!

You can listen to my full podcast chat with Kate Featherstone here:

Making the Business Case for Recognition

In today’s competitive talent landscape, retaining top talent and keeping employees, at all levels, engaged is more critical than ever. If 2024 is the year of retention then organisations need to build and maintain a culture of retention – and that starts with the way we recognise and support our people.

One of the memorable keynote observations for me recently came from best selling author on human relationships Esther Perel at Workhuman’s 2023 conference, when she said “We used to leave our jobs because the factory closed. Today, we leave jobs because we aren’t being recognised”. All the research I’ve been involved with in recent years on retention and engagement always comes down to how well recognised and supported our people feel.

The conversation around recognition in the workplace has now evolved from a mere nicety to a strategic imperative for organisations worldwide. However, this often requires an internal culture shift for many HR and business leaders, and it can still be a struggle to have the necessary conversations with the right people.

At Workhuman Live I had a podcast conversation Brenda Pohlman, a practice leader and senior recognition strategist at Workhuman, about how we can shift the dial on internal conversations around recognition and engagement and make the business case for the investing in recognition.

Here are the 5 key points from the conversation:

1. Seeing recognition as the cornerstone of Engagement and Retention

Brenda underscored the undeniable link between recognition and employee engagement and retention. At the time of our conversation there was still a lot of speculation around trends like “great resignation”, which underlined an opportunity for organisations to see that recognising employees for their contributions is not just a feel-good practice, but a strategic necessity. Research consistently demonstrates that employees who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to stay with an organisation and exhibit higher levels of engagement.

2. Leveraging Technology to Facilitate Recognition

While recognition may seem like a straightforward interpersonal interaction, Brenda highlighted the role of technology in driving and facilitating these practices within organisations. Contrary to any concerns that technology may erode human connections, it can be the conduit for bringing back the natural inclination to express gratitude in the workplace. We are used to thanking people digitally in our day to day lives and there’s no reason why technology-enabled recognition platforms at work can’t streamline the process, ensuring consistency and scalability across the whole organisation.

3. Training and Tools for Effective Recognition

One crucial aspect that often gets overlooked is the need to help and support employees with the necessary training and tools to express gratitude effectively. Brenda raised the point that whilst the sentiment of recognition may be natural, the skill to articulate it meaningfully requires guidance and practice. By offering training programs and intuitive tools, businesses can empower their workforce to engage in consistent and impactful recognition practices.

4. The Role of Monetary Rewards in Recognition

Non-monetary recognition is valuable as it’s usually expressed personally (whether in person or through technology) and creates a positive emotion. However there is a strong case to be made for incorporating a monetary component into the recognition experience too. This can enhance the impact and connection of recognition, especially when it’s coupled with specific feedback. Contrary to concerns, research indicates that monetary rewards, when appropriately integrated into the recognition, contributes significantly to the overall recognition experience and wider employee morale.

5. Making the Business Case for Recognition

The imperative of building a robust business case for recognition should resonate well with HR leaders and line mangers. Demonstrating the tangible benefits of recognition initiatives, such as improved employee engagement, retention, and improved organisational performance, is essential for getting support from organisational leaders. By quantifying the ROI of recognition programmes, HR professionals should be able secure the support and resources necessary to embed recognition into the organisational culture.

It’s clear that now, more than ever, recognition isn’t a formality or nicety, but a strategic lever for driving employee engagement and retention. By embracing technology, providing training and tools, integrating monetary rewards, HR leaders should be in a position to build a compelling business case, enabling their organisations to harness the transformative power of recognition to create thriving workplace cultures where employees feel valued, motivated, and inspired to contribute their best.

You can listen to my full conversation with Brenda Pohlman on HR Means Business – Helping Business Leaders to Understand the Power of Recognition

Navigating HR Trends in 2024: A Holistic Approach to Employee Lifecycle

I was recently invited on to the HR Superstars podcast by Adam Weber of 15Five. He called our podcast chat “Keeping the Humanity in a Humanless HR World” which chimed with the parallels I drew between the much discussed AI driven concept from 2023 of ‘Recruiterless Recruiting’ and why the increasing use of AI in our day to day HR operations would create the need for much more humanity in our organisations, rather than usher in an era of ‘Humanless Human Resources’.

We talked about the emerging HR trends shaping the employee lifecycle in 2024. Our discussion covered a range of topics, and I think we shared some valuable insights into the evolving landscape of HR practices. I was certainly keen to share some of the latest research I’d been involved with and particularly summarise the key trends and conversations that I’d had during last Autumn’s busy conference and expo season.

For me, there are 4 key areas for HR to focus on in 2024 and beyond. Over the last couple of years we’ve been overwhelmed by conversations around remote, flexible, hybrid and asynchronous working, not to mention the relentless progress of AI into our daily interactions, so the adoption of a more human, compassionate and supportive approach to work should be very much on the corporate agenda.

The four key points we discussed were:

From Management and Direction to Support and Enablement

Our historic approach to our workforce has been what I often refer to as management and direction. We manage processes, people, their careers, their performance and day to day involvement. We direct people. In fact, we have directors of most parts of their career lifecycle. It’s all a bit autocratic. Yet our digital talent are keen to learn and figure things out for themselves. A phrase I often use is ‘Digital talent has intellectual curiosity’.

They know their roles are evolving and changing and want the opportunity to discover and explore the opportunities. They don’t want training courses, but access to self-directed learning. Our role is to support them, to create an environment where our people feel empowered to perform, learn, develop and achieve their best results.

Multifaceted Nature of Engagement

Engagement is a much used term for a myriad of things. Engagement isn’t something we can create. It isn’t a management directive. It’s the outcome of treating people well and with respect, recognising them, giving them opportunities to learn, grow and reach their full potential. Creating positive work experiences.

Key to this is recognising the importance of our workforce’s wellbeing. All of it. Mental, physical, intellectual, emotional, physical, digital, and in particular right now – financial. Is ours a culture where people can ask for help? Without being judged? Do we have managers and leaders trained to help and understand when they might be needed? Can people raise a concern in private and know that it will remain private?

Flexibility and Recognition

Our people want agency in how, when and where they work. For many, whose job is location specific, this will manifest itself in flexibility of hours and communication. For the others, it will centre on the flexible, remote, hybrid and asynchronous working debate. Flexibility itself is a crucial aspect of supporting employees in the modern workplace.

Managers need to perfect a number of different approaches that can give their people access to what they need and input to the way they work. Not least when it comes to support and recognition – the latter playing a key role in creating a positive, diverse, engaged, happy and productive workforce. Personalised recognition, at an individual level, fosters a positive work environment for everyone.

Evolution of the Employee Lifecycle

We had a good conversation on the evolving nature of the employee lifecycle, which is now accelerated by technological advancement. Anyone familiar with my co-authored books – Digital Talent and Exceptional Talent – will know I believe in the growing concept of a seamless talent journey. This journey emphasises the need for positive experiences all the way through the key touchpoints – from recruitment, through onboarding, development and right throughout the employee journey. The emergence of career experience managers and talent experience managers within organisations highlights a growing focus on overseeing the holistic career experience for all employees.

As all HR professionals embrace 2024, I hope the podcast conversation and the insights I’ve shared can provide a compass for navigating the evolving landscape. I believe that by prioritising a human-centric approach, embracing technological advancements, and ensuring continuous support and enablement throughout the employee lifecycle, we can foster a thriving, profitable workplace for years to come.

Hope you enjoy the chat!

Looking for Inspiration and Learning at #HRVision14

In my last post I looked at employee engagement and what the future may hold. This will be one of the core topics at HRVision14, a 2 day conference in Amsterdam next week involving European HRDs and global leads for talent, branding and and engagement.

Sessions and cases studies are being delivered by a combination of TED speakers and senior practitioners from companies as diverse as Starbucks, IBM, Microsoft, L’Oreal, Phillips, Unilever, Zappos, HSBC and Siemens. There will also be a mix of workshops and ‘doctors surgeries’ with specialists in a variety of fields offering their advice and insight on a range of issues that keep the HR population awake at night.

The core specialist themes are:

Talent Management
Employee Engagement
Leadership Development
Branding and Recruitment

And there are some bold event promises too. I’ll be looking to see how they deliver on:

Learning how to foster an environment which allows for innovation, collaboration and empowerment, where people can openly discuss central issues.
Closing the development gaps in leader capabilities.
Exploring how to integrate social technologies into recruitment and engagement practices with forward thinking HR professionals making the connection between having a solid social media strategy and finding top talent.
Assessing critical future workforce gaps ensure attraction, identification, assessment and development of talent in order to ensure these gaps are closed.

Keynotes include Phillips on their global, cultural transformation, also leadership ideas outside the box (delivered by Tim Macartney), brand ambassador networks from Zappos and performance excellence with Dr Melissa Luke.

Away from the keynotes there are several sessions that interest me including rethinking internal comms with eBay, 21st Century guerrilla recruitment by Accenture, interconnected leadership and the previously referenced schmooze or lose approach to engagement.

I will be there on blogging and tweeting duties and hope to bring you some of the big themes and conversations through this blog and my Twitter feed. Follow the event hashtag – #HRVision14 – and also the twitter feed from OsneyHR, the event organisers.

There’s a promise of some fun time too with the Big Fat HR Quiz!

If you fancy some spring sunshine and HR debating in Amsterdam then there’s still time to book – hope to see a few of you there…

The Future of Employee Engagement

As an HR blogger I know the perils of dropping the ‘E’ bomb. Few words occupy more gigabytes of space, are more debated and argued over, than ‘engagement’ – particularly when prefixed by the word ’employee’.

I’ve taken part in many discussions, read many blogs and watched many presentations, all concerned with trying to nail down what employee engagement actually is, what does it mean and how to do it right. And does it even matter. For many years it was considered that a pay cheque, with the correct amount arriving in your bank account on time, was all that was really needed for engagement.

The thinking has moved on though. As an HR recruiter I used to interview many aspiring managers. When I got them talking about achievements many would give priority to the engagement initiatives that they had worked on, offering both anecdotal and data evidence of their success. For some it could be simply organising awaydays or parties, fresh fruit for every department, a proper coffee machine or a new style of internal communication. For others it was down to benefits and perks, finding ways of recognising people who went the extra mile for colleagues. And for many there was also the nitty gritty, some would say real core part of engagement, of understanding and communicating vision and values, defining guiding principles.

For my part there are certain recurring messages that crop up at most events:

People don’t wake up in the morning thinking ‘am I engaged?‘
Engaged workers are more productive
Engagement is an outcome of doing the right things, not about the process itself
It starts with a CEO committed to the people agenda
People need to be treated with respect and dignity, shown that they are valued
It needs to be assessed in the ‘now’ and not with historical surveys
Social media is the new water cooler and you can pick up how your employees feel about you by being in the conversation

There are many more – and you’re welcome to add some in the comments – but the main drift is always that it starts with a mindset, of having a vision and culture that values employes and the contributions they make.

As Meg Peppin says in her latest blog on the subject:

“The solution is simple, create time and space for people to talk with each other to make meaning. Time, patience, space, respect. Simple and yet so difficult.”

Most people tend to see this as easier to achieve in a smaller business where employees are closer to, and likely to be more aligned with, the core vision and values, whilst leadership also tends to be more visible and approachable.

However it’s clearly on the agenda of most major businesses also. This report on the future of employee engagement suggests that over 80% see it as a priority, with pretty much everyone (97.4%…to me that’s everyone) saying that they will be investing in improving engagement levels over the next 12-18 months. All companies involved said their CEO was involved – although only 20% classified the CEO as instrumental – whilst recent Chartered Management Institute research suggested that the number one priority for business leaders this year is a reshaping of workplace culture, with employee engagement and better leadership at the core.

The report was produced by Osney HR ahead of next month’s HR Vision Conference in Amsterdam. They pulled together a panel of 9 specialists in employee engagement and comms from a range of business sectors – IBM, Starbucks, Electrolux, Zurich Insurance, Starwood Hotels to name some – and put 7 questions to each. They ranged from ‘who will be the drivers of employee engagement?‘ (line managers not surprisingly featured heavily) and ‘will engagement be replaced with empowerment or enablement?‘ (seen as drivers not replacements) to the thorny subjects of measurement and ROI (crowdsourcing and assessing impacts feature).

One contributor said

“Times will be challenging. Building engagement does not happen via tricks or treats, it’s about shared vision, challenging goals and being given the appropriate tools to achieve.”

You can download the e-book here – it’s an interesting read.

I’ll be heading over to the HR Vision conference and will catch another of the panel – Ralf Larsson (Director of Employee Engagement, Electrolux) – presenting a session on engagement at the event. He’s called it ‘Schmooze or Lose‘, which I guess could become a new catchphrase for the whole employee engagement debate. I noticed some of his suggestions:

Breaking down the silos through social technology
Development of internal social communities
Getting buy in from leaders to connect with employees via social networks
Power of a collaborative workforce through crowd sourcing and idea generation

Much about our workforce is evolving and changing – from technology to working arrangements, email to enterprise social software – and hence engagement needs to evolve too. Ensuring people have the right technology to get the job done may seem obvious but nothing disengages more than not feeling that you have the right tools to perform.

And with labour market shifts embracing new arrangements such as zero hour, managed workforce, and freelancing, businesses will need to find ways to engage people who are working for them and representing them, but may not actually be employed by them.

The future for employee engagement may involve a lot more schmoozing…