Fast Tracking Digital Employee Experience is New Normal

BE FAST OR BE LAST!

The forced need of the hour is to RETHINK, REVIEW, REINVENT, REBOOT, or RESET. Rules of the game have changed, or I must say the game itself has changed, and we are all defining NEW NORMS & RULES to survive and win the game. The more significant challenge is the pace at which equations are changing.

We learned to SURVIVE and transitioned to the CONTINUITY stage with our best capabilities and limitations. Still, to excel and switch to a PRODUCTIVE and SUSTAINABLE phase, we have to ADAPT faster. Companies that were earlier just thinking and talking about Digital transformation are exploring ways to accelerate their digital transformation strategies and plan. Few companies have witnessed 4 years of digital transformation in just 3 months.

In any game, there are strategies, external situations, internal circumstances, planning, and many other aspects. No matter how perfect everything else is, but if the players are not focused, positive, result-oriented, motivated, and ONE as a team, winning is just next to impossible. Similarly, organizations can claim to have the best practices and culture, but if employees are not engaged and valued, even survival becomes difficult and challenging. As Stan Slap rightly said, “You can’t sell it outside if you can’t sell it inside.” It is believed and has been proven by many that if organizations take care of the employees, employees take care of everything else. Employee engagement and experience matters most.

According to one recent study, organizations with the best workforce experiences enjoyed 12 percent greater customer satisfaction than other organizations, and their three-year revenue growth rate was 2.3 times greater than the average of the whole sample.

Humans are wired to connect. They have always believed in SOCIAL CONNECTIONS, not SOCIAL DISTANCING. Today’s situation is such that we are all talking about TOUCHLESS processes, social DISTANCING, no GATHERING in large GROUPS, etc. Unfortunately, we can’t even change this scenario. We all have to live with it for a much longer time than we all assumed initially. So, do we drop the ball here or ADAPT to the current situation and need? The quote by Jimmy Dean fits here really well, where he said that “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”  The only mode of survival is “USE OF TECHNOLOGY.”

Today, practically everything is virtual- virtual meets, connect, work, conferences, chats, coffee breaks, gossip breaks, team meetings, fun activities, feedback sessions. Name any doable thing that connects you, your work, and your organization, I am sure it’s more feasible if it’s DIGITAL. D: Dynamic I: Intuitive G: Governed I: Instant T: Transformational A: Agile L: Linked

• Organizational culture, engagement, and employee experience remain top priorities this year as well.
• Nearly 92 (Last year: 79%) percent of executives rated employee experience very important but only 32 percent (last year: 26%) report that their companies were excellent at building a differentiated employee experience.
• 67% of HR survey respondents reported they don’t know how to address and reduce the employee experience disconnect

A fast track digital transformation is THE solution to most of our current issues. Organizations have to ensure that emotional connect is maintained and build stronger in the present scenario. It’s time to re-imagine, re-engineer, and redefine our experience and engagement strategies considering VIRTUAL /DIGITAL WORLD AS A NEW REAL WORLD. To remain in the game, we have to embrace the change as quickly as possible, as there is no tomorrow.

Handled correctly, digital EE makes the business more efficient and agile. Lack of technology structure now will be considered only as an excuse for failure. With the help of technology, the best employee experience can be assured throughout the Employee life cycle. Ease of use, flexibility, and other sophisticated experiences that individuals enjoy in their private lives has set a much higher expectation for organizations to meet. To win and sustain, organizations need to fast track DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION and design tech empowered employee experience models and initiatives. Benefits? Organizational loyalty, connect, engagement, and productivity.

A survey that was recently conducted for 1500 executives, asked them to define factors that contribute to a PERFECT EE and top 7 were:

1. Purposeful work
2. Growth opportunity
3. Recognition
4. True job fit
5. Great coach/mentor
6. Fair performance management and
7. Positive workplace.

It is a digital world. We may feel that most of the top-rated parameters are subjective but with the help of digital and mobile tools organizations can design and deliver a great employee experience.

Employee Experience is all about optimizing each stage of the employee life cycle and ensuring it’s aligned with the organization’s vision, purpose, and culture. With relevant digital solutions, organizations can use human behavior insights to bring out the best in people, teams, and culture.

Any dip in performance or engagement level, rise in attrition numbers, more absenteeism, fewer participation in training, these are few of those clear indications that something has to be reviewed and addressed. Fortunately, there are apps for almost every worry! Blink, Energage, Honestly, Inpulse, Teamphoria are just a few of many options available alone for EE.

But the key to EE isn’t just an app or any other fast digital platform. 67% of employees still feel that EE is more effective when the human touch is involved. The magic still lies in the balance. Organizations should know how to balance the human touch, and technology is Employee Experience.

Low Human touch & high tech, High human touch & low tech, High human touch & High tech. Whatever is the best-suited combination depending on the need and nature of the business, one should always consider 7 ESSENTIALS OF EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE (7Es of EE) strategy: Ethical, Effective, Engaging, Encouraging, Emerging, Empowering, Evolving & Enabling.

Research from McKinsey shows that a staggering 70 percent of digital transformations fail, primarily due to lack of engagement. To add further, 80% of engagement activities fail due to casual and disengaged experience.

Employee experience remains the most critical aspect to manage, and organizations must manage need & change continuously. Without a robust change strategy, even the most advanced digital experience will not see success. A fast adapting digital employee experience strategy should always have a basic yet strong foundation: it should be SIMPLE, PERSONALIZED, MOBILE, REAL-TIME, AGILE, DYNAMIC, INTUITIVE, HOLISTIC& REAL.

NOTHING EVER BECOMES REALTILL IT IS EXPERIENCED – John Keats