Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/1220817
N E W S 10 www.hrreporter.com Retention all about employee experience In looking at top trends for recruitment, employee experience is number one, according to a LinkedIn report. But how it's defined, and how it can be improved, are still a challenge, finds Sarah Dobson Josh Bersin, president and co-founder of Bersin & Associates in Oakland, Calif. "Now, companies are saying, 'Wow, maybe we should do all that for our employees,'" he says. "In every single industry, there's an awakening going on that 'If we don't make the employees' lives better, we cannot possibly achieve our business goals.'" Almost every company is expecting more out of their people to accommodate their growth plans, says Bersin, so they're pushing people. And high-growth companies are often the most stressful places to work because there are high expectations and a lot of infrastructure doesn't exist yet. "Everybody's a little bit behind because something's happening a little bit faster than you thought it would. So the companies that are focused on [employee experience] are almost forcing the organization to slow down a little bit to say, 'Alright, yes, we want to go into this new business; yes, we want "The general, unwritten or unspoken narrative was, when you're an employer, 'What can you do for me when I hire you?' That's definitely shifted to… 'What is your company doing for me and my career?'" Focus on retention In the HR space, employee experience may feel like an unwieldy topic, says Brown, but an easy way to understand it is to say it involves the four Ps: people (relationships, interactions), place (physical workspace, flexible work options), product (the work itself, matching skills and tasks) and process (how work gets done and is rewarded). "Engagement is the end goal — employee experience is the means to get those employees to become engaged," he says. Not surprisingly, more than three- quarters (77 per cent) of companies are focusing on employee experience to increase retention, found the survey. Other reasons include increasing employee productivity (71 per cent), meeting the expectations of millennials and generation Z (40 per cent) and attracting more candidates (29 per cent), found LinkedIn. It's the employee experiences that drives the employer brand, says Brown. "At the same time, if employee experience is strong, I'm more likely to stay at my job I feel like I'm invested in, I'm comfortable with work-life balance, I feel included at work — all these types of things, which are big topics, but they're all connected to my health and well-being and work meaning." For 20 years, employers have looked strategically at how to improve customer experience and customer retention, says to open a new office; yes, we want to go into a new country. But let's slow down a little bit and figure out how to get the employee situation so they're ready for this." Employee experience is about expec- tations, experience and environment, says Ilana Hechter, a partner and leader of talent strategy and transformation at Mercer in Toronto. It's about what an employee expects from their organi- zation, and how it fits within their life. It's about work events, life events, career events and organizational events such as leadership changes or acquisitions. And it's about the culture, processes, technol- ogy and the way work is done. "We see it really as an intersection of these three areas." It's also about an individual who feels whole, she says. "They can bring their whole selves to work, they can align with the purpose of the organization, they feel that they are welcomed and embraced, for whatever that definition for them means," says Hechter. "An individual that has a positive experience will perform better, will be more productive, will seek to be more collaborative, will feel able to raise WHY INVEST IN EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE? "In a lot of managers' minds, employees are the labour and they do as they're told — and that's just out of date." Josh Bersin, Bersin & Associates 77% Increase employee retention 71% Increase employee productivity 40% Meet expectations of millennials and gen Z 29% Attract more candidates WHEN it comes to the top trends that a r e c h a n g i n g t h e w a y employers hire and retain talent, employee experience easily tops the list. That's according to a recent report by LinkedIn that found that 94 per cent of talent professionals globally feel employee experience is "very important" to the future of recruiting. Further down the list are people analytics (85 per cent), internal recruiting (82 per cent) and the multigenerational workforce (74 per cent), found the report, which combined survey results from more than 7,000 talent professionals in 35 countries, LinkedIn behavioural data and interviews with 40 experts. With a tighter labour market, employers are competing for talent, and candidates are looking for employers where they can grow their career, gain help with their purpose in life or develop their skills, says Chris Brown, director of talent solutions at LinkedIn in Toronto. There's definitely been a power shift, he says. Source: LinkedIn