If you want to be an employer of choice who is able to attract, recruit, and retain the top talent in your industry then you need to treat them the same way you treat your best customers….
These 5 areas need to migrate from the customer space into the employee experience;
Personalisation, Analytics, and Predictive Modelling
We spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to understand, predict, and benefit from customer behaviour and associated patterns. To that end, we have invested in data analytics tools and innumerable behaviour modelling tools. Consequently, we already have many of the platforms in place in many of our businesses, what we need to do is turn the lens inward as well as outward. In the course of our daily work and the interaction we have with ERP and other systems, we collect as much information about the work and lifestyle habits of our employees as we aspire to harvest about our customers. It is time to access and use that information to improve the experience of our most valuable asset – our people. When they find us anticipating their needs and effectively meeting them – the positive impact on loyalty and employee ROI will be tangible.
The power of Mobile
At the moment mobile technology offers convenience, but due to small screens and difficult keyboards, they are not practical alternatives to bigger less mobile devices. The rise of bigger smart devices that use new modes of input aligned with native Artificial Intelligence in the devices means that this is changing…. quickly. At the recent F8 event hosted by Facebook Mark Zuckerberg spoke about Facebook moving away from keyboard and screen inputs toward an Augmented Reality and AI driven interface using the camera, voice, and gesture recognition. When the way in which we manage our relationships is updated it will be part of our new normal. We will create interfaces for customers to engage with our businesses in these new ways – we need to do the same for our staff.
Virtual Assistants
When you access the TomorrowToday Global website one of the first things that happen is a chatbot window opens up for you to interact with our organisation. Applied internally chatbots can become useful virtual assistants – offering an assistant to employees who would not normally qualify for one is a massive benefit and will generate more goodwill and commitment than the investment in the tech (especially considering it is already in place serving your external customers).
Omnichannel Technology
As a customer, there is nothing more frustrating that being told that something cannot be done because the system won’t allow it or because it hasn’t been enabled. Our employees use their own personal technology across omnichannel’s. Taking a picture with a smartphone that is instantly available on a desktop to be edited and used. Updating a contact’s information in one place and have it instantly change everywhere else. This is the default experience that is had outside of the workplace. We need to enable a more effective omnichannel employee experience. When an incomplete task at the office can be sorted out in the train on the way home over the most convenient device we have begun to offer an omnichannel employee experience.
Social Network and Community Development
Slack, WhatsApp groups, Yammer, and other social network platforms enable the modern employee to work with colleagues and peers without needing to be in physical proximity…. much like Facebook, Instagram and other platforms do for our personal social and consumer lives. If we are not integrating social networking technology into our work environments we are creating spaces where our employees experience a form of internal dissonance. This conflict is created by them having to effectively leave their view of “normal” outside the door when they walk into the office. In effect, we make the work environment the place that feels least comfortable.