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Have you ever thought about the fact that HR doesn't have standards for employee experience? Of course, HR is running around implementing every new trend because they have nothing to work towards.Â
In the customer service environment, a clear standard for customer service forms the customer experience. This is how we make sure that service hence customer experience is consistent across the outlets. So why doesn't HR have standards?
How do we create HR strategies without knowing the desired outcome?Â
How do we ensure consistency in employee experience?
How do we reiterate the culture across different locations/departments without standards?
How do we implement initiatives without knowing they would add to employee experiences?
How do we establish the type of training and leadership development programs?
How do we outline leadership competencies without knowing what experiences those leaders need to create?Â
How do we implement anything in HR without knowing the type of experience they are meant to create?
Without standards for employee experience of course we are just creating a mess. Nothing makes sense at organisations and that's because we don't know why we do things. Why do we have these competencies and not others? Why do we measure this KPI and not something else? Why do we have wellbeing or any other initiatives when nobody is using them? What makes him/her the HR person of the year? Why am I the employee of the month when all I was doing was my job? We have no answer to any of these questions because we don't know why we actually do the things we do. There are no standards for what we want to achieve when it comes to people management.Â
Yesterday, I was talking to a business owner about redesigning their employees' experiences and he wouldn't understand that it means redesigning the HR infrastructure, policies, and procedures. So I told him, "Look, employee experience design sets the standards for employees' experiences. Once you formulate the type of experiences you want them to have throughout the employee lifecycle you can then start designing everything in HR accordingly." I gave him the customer service example and he got it.Â
It is so simple that I don't actually understand why we don't have this in place!
Employees are the company's/HR's service users and you can only provide great service if you:
outline what that looks like
constantly measure the level of service/experienceÂ
use the user feedback to make adjustments
Yet, what we see is, that HR professionals and leaders come up with strategies that are hanging in the air (have no foundation apart from improving the business) saying "We are working so hard, implemented so many things and nobody is noticing or valuing it."
Well, maybe that's because you come up with stuff you like doing instead of listening to your users? HR strategy must have three aspects; serve the business objectives and shape employees' experiences through the third aspect of policies, systems, procedures, and processes.Â
If you are missing the people part of course employees will say "HR is there to support the business" and you cannot even argue with it because your strategy does only that. You have crafted your HR strategy to meet the needs of the business but you missed out on the users. The people who are going to execute the strategy.Â
Of course, employees feel ignored and demotivated. Here is a video I would like you to look at its comments. Social media comments and videos are a goldmine for HR because people tell you exactly how they feel, and what works for them and what doesn't. HR's job is to listen and correct so you can create better employee experiences and improve your reputation.Â
Not having standards for employee experience resulted in the current state of the workforce and in HR running around with all sorts of initiatives nobody wants. What a mindless waste of money if you ask me. Don't do things for the sake of doing or because you want to show off. Do things strategically and by thinking things through!Â
If you want to know how to design your employees' experiences i.e. setting the standard for them contact us. We are here to help you in 5 different ways. Click below.Â
If you want to learn more about the concept here it is:Â
Or, if you want to implement it by yourself here is a book that will help you!
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