As published on HRMS World.
Attracting and retaining good talent is a continuous struggle for companies today. Employee engagement and employee experience are two recent trends that go hand-in-hand to help companies address this challenge. By engaging employees and making them feel a part of the organization, they are more likely to have a positive experience and want to remain with and contribute to the organization.
The employee experience starts the moment someone becomes an applicant and continues through the onboarding process, their employment, and also their departure from the organization. People want to work in an environment where they have the freedom to express themselves. Making people feel included and giving them a voice will lead to a good experience.
HRMS vendors are now developing platforms that provide employees with that voice and sense of belonging. Cutting-edge HRMS solutions are now offering tools to provide a place for employees to interact and engage with each other and, with departments such as HR, to share information and to communicate more easily. The interaction these tools enable makes employees even more valuable to their employers than just completing their day-to-day responsibilities.
Stepping It Up
Self-service made a significant impact on the HR industry and now employee engagement and employee experience offerings are taking self-service to another level. It is all about streamlining processes even further and putting tools where they need to be. With mobile technologies, everything is at the users’ fingertips, and employees are able to easily view their paychecks, access benefits enrollment information, request time off, and much more.
A manufacturing company, for example, with a majority of their employees working on the shop floor, could have tablets in their breakrooms with secure access to the company’s HRMS. If an employee has an HR question, they can access the information right there or simply send a text or email the HR department while on break, eliminating the need to take the time to walk to HR to get their question answered.
Engaging Employees
It is much more than providing access to information. Now, HRMS solutions provide more interactivity and enable employees to get engaged in the information. For example, an HRMS solution can provide a “wall,” similar to a Facebook wall, where daily tasks can be managed and profile information (e.g., photo, title, previous experience, work schedule, job responsibilities, FAQs, and resources) is available. Employees can view their coworkers walls and communicate with each other—no matter if they are in the same office or across the country.
Part of a good employee experience is having a positive culture. Good companies recognize people constantly. These walls can serve as an informal way for co-workers to complement each other on a job well done. And, as part of the HRMS solution, these comments can go directly into the employee’s file for their next performance review—facilitating a 360-degree review process with both their peers and managers.
Bringing Everyone Together
With HRMS solutions that focus on employee engagement and employee experience, the facilitation and coordination of teams can also be greatly enhanced. Teams can keep track of their goals, tasks they want to accomplish, items they want to discuss, reminders, and each other’s calendars, for example, all in one central location.
These solutions are also eliminating the feeling of working in a silo. Whether they work from home or at a satellite location, an employee can easily see what is happening throughout the company, within a department, view company or department goals, or just see what events are coming up. They bring everyone together across the organization. Just like with social media profiles, the wall concept can put a face with the name and help employees learn more about their coworkers, building relationships and cultivating better experiences for everyone.
Providing a Variety of Options
The adoption rate will depend on the industry and the company culture. The employee engagement and employee experience trends are definitely influenced by the younger generation who expect this at their place of work. However, with the varying ages of most workforces, it is critical to offer different ways to communicate in order to engage everyone and give them a positive experience. And, no matter what—everyone wants that easy, intuitive, Apple-like experience—where they can go from one platform (e.g., desktop, phone, tablet, watch) and easily use and access information the same way on each. The more intuitive the platform, the more likely employees will engage and have a positive work experience.