Only 13% of employees are fully satisfied with their experience at work, according to a survey conducted by Gartner.
The need to accommodate diverse employee needs and provide them with the required experience is now more imperative than ever. How does transformational HR practices impact employee experience? Tracy Micciche shares her thoughts in this episode of Neeyamo’s HR Cookbook podcast.
Companies increasingly emphasize employee experience and focus on HR transformation more than ever. Employee productivity and performance are among the important reasons behind it.
How does an HR professional ensure that their employees get the experience they want?
It is more intricate than what one thinks it entails. “Understanding employee experience is putting yourself in their shoes,” says Tracy, who changed how she managed her team.
She found a knack for deciphering employees’ problems, leveraged technology, and implemented a bottom-up approach to solve them. It included methodologies like brainstorming, mind mapping, etc. Instead of telling them how to solve a problem, “they tell me what the problem is and what we need to do,” says Tracy.
In a dynamic world like ours, companies must change regularly. Remaining where they are is not going to help.
Implementing technology is great, but technology without a vision will get your company nowhere.
Improving the employee experience across a workforce with diverse employees could entail various other benefits because every employee is unique.
Making matters trickier is the presence of different generations who bring their unique traits from their technical expertise to the way they work. While Gen Zs like technology, the older generations might have difficulties with the same, says Tracy.
However, artificial intelligence has been helpful across all generations – chatbots can answer queries in many languages. But everything has a catch, and so does artificial intelligence. Teaching the system the answers to all the possible questions one might receive is arduous.
On the other hand, meticulous planning is required from leaders, senior managers, and the management. The needs of employees will increase, and meeting all of them will be demanding. Hence, organizations need to think differently. Instant pay is one way for employees belonging to the lower end of the spectrum to realize their needs. But “it is more than just salary,” says Tracy.
It is essential to understand the different motivators, drivers, and values determining the behavior and action of all employees.
Courtesy of the pandemic, employees, working from home have realized that they have more flexibility. Working from home gives you the option of stepping out for a school play and working late at night to compensate for the lost time, says Tracy.
However, employees are sometimes unable to decide when to stop working for the day. Hence, a balance is a must no matter where one works.
Tracy’s secret sauce? Never stop learning. “Get outside your comfort zone; take some risks, take some chances,” she says. This is precisely what one needs to do to stay ahead of the curve.
Listen to Tracy Micciche’s podcast episode to understand how vital employee experience is and how transformed HR practices can benefit organizations while keeping the employees happy at their workplace.
