Starting in the last few years, culture has played a central role in a new focus on employee experience. Employee experience encapsulates what people encounter, observe or feel throughout their tenure at a given organization. The desire to create the most authentic, user-friendly experience has given rise to what is known as the consumerization of human resources. This is the process of creating a social and mobile interface for employees inside an organization, which serves as the entry-point for an immersive dive into the company’s culture and what employees experience every day.
Driven by a more dynamic HR and c-suite involvement than most of us are used to seeing, this setup portrays the organization as quickly evolving with the needs of its workforce, and able to communicate in real-time where the company is, where it’s going, and how the individual employee fits in. Each employee accesses the experience via their own devices, all content is digital and available on demand, recommendations are customized due to input from analytics, and social interaction is prized and promoted.
Today and in the future, the notion of employee experience is complex and requires forethought, planning, and coordination between HR and the c-suite. Journey Mapping is a tool that got its start in the customer world. It imagines the employee experience across the entire talent lifecycle, and as an employee progresses through the Journey Map, they might go through stages like the following. Alongside each stage, let’s propose some activities a collaborative HR/executive team can undertake to influence and shape the experience.
Apply and Evaluate Stage: How the candidate learned about the company; how they engaged with recruiters or hiring managers and learned sufficient information about the organization to make an educated decision.
Your experience must answer the candidate questions: What is this organization about and why would I want to work there? Is this the right organization and role for me? How can I be a part of what this company delivers its customers?
HR and Leader-Driven Activities:
- Target job boards, employee referrals, and internal career sites/social media platforms to attract top talent
- Convert top talent by telling a compelling story online and tuning candidates into company messages early
- Leverage mobile and one-click apply apps to simplify your process
- Create and deliver personalized messages for consistent touchpoints
- During conversations, provide insight into brand and talent goals
- Engage candidate in behavioral interviewing and assessments
- Provide access to a variety of sources, including current employees and supervisors
- Solicit and address feedback on the recruitment experience
- Provide a customized e-offer letter
- Upon acceptance, launch new hire onboarding experience
Join Stage: How the new hire was on boarded and assimilated into the organization.
Your experience must answer the employee questions: What can I expect here, and what’s expected of me? Where, how, and with whom should I work?
HR and Leader-Driven Activities:
- Deliver personalized content and solicit feedback on job location(s), schedule, and role
- Enable new hire to easily complete new hire paperwork
- Introduce new hire to team, mentors, and leaders
- Set job scope and performance expectations
- Connect individual goals to overarching strategic goals
- Survey new hire about experience and monitor performance
Learn Stage: Projects and training opportunities that facilitated integration into the organization.
Your experience must answer the employee question: What do I need to do right away to be productive and efficient at my job?
HR and Leader-Driven Activities:
- Serve up relevant content via a mobile-responsive interface at the right time in the right dose
- Recommend supplementary content to ensure continuous development
- Set mutually-agreed upon, short-term performance goals and provide interactive touchpoints to reinforce them
- Create an automated process to monitor completion and ensure compliance
Contribute and Grow Stage: How the organization fostered an environment of innovation and collaboration and provided opportunities for promotion and new responsibilities.
Your experience must answer the employee questions: How can I make a difference here? How should I give and receive feedback? How can I further develop the skills necessary to drive my career forward?
HR and Leader-Driven Activities:
- Check in regularly to monitor progress, improve relationships, and recognize accomplishments
- Leverage ongoing reviews to identify skills gaps and create learning plans
- Adjust short-term goals to achieve long-term objectives
- Foster a culture of giving, requesting, and receiving feedback continuously
- Illuminate development paths, mentorship, and additional training opportunities
- Empower employees to take charge of their development and skill acquisition
What else can you do to foster a positive experience at these different stages of the employee lifecycle?
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