In the past, most employers have shied away from discussing more personal subjects with employees like health, family, or finances. We all know the reasons why: Because we don’t want our biases to negatively impact the employee experience or relationships within the workplace.
By proxy, we had adopted the philosophy of “work is work, home is home, and the two shall never meet” or “the less we know, the better.”
However, if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that our work and personal lives are very intertwined – we’re the same people, no matter where we are.
5 moments that matter to the employee experience
During the SuccessConnect event, one of the themes that resonated was the importance of the employee experience, and how organizations must focus on providing moments that matter to employees.
Those areas include:
- Family: Whether we’re talking about an employee’s biologically connected family or the group of people who help the employee when they need it, everyone has people who are important in their lives. Organizations need to realize this, and help employees best care for those they love.
- Financial: We can’t dismiss that money is important. Employees want to be paid fairly for the work they do. They want competitive benefits, and to work for organizations that think about their future in terms of retirement and offer opportunities for saving.
- Career: In addition to money, employees want to work for organizations that invest in their career. It could be by offering training programs, mentoring, or feedback from their manager and coworkers about their performance.
- Health: Organizations want employees to be healthy, as it supports them in doing their best work. As a result, organizations need to create wellness and wellbeing programs that encourage employees to be healthy and give them a way to seek the proper attention when they’re not.
- Time: While our work and personal lives are very interconnected, it’s important to realize that we need moments when we can shift the balance. There will be times when we’re asked to make work the priority. Employees also want moments when their personal lives are the priority.
HXM: Creating a great employee experience
In addition to creating moments that matter, organizations need to focus on how those moments are delivered. We’ve become a very “instant” society – we’re used to doing things right away and getting immediate results.
We can check the news on our phone, order food online, and chat with our friends from anywhere around the world at any time. Employees also want this instant component in their work lives, and they expect organizations to deliver it.
What does this have to do with moments that matter?
The more time we spend focused on delivering moments that matter, the better the employee experience.
Organizations will want to keep creating moments that matter as they think about the type of candidate and employee experience they want to create. The goal is to align moments that matter with expectations.
For instance, is it possible that we create a disconnect when we meet people in-person during a career fair or a college recruiting trip and then tell them the only way the organization can consider them for a job is for them to apply online? Then when we tell a candidate to apply online, instead of accepting a link to their online profile or social resume, we require a them to upload their resume, which is what they were trying to give us in the first place.
Oh, and don’t forget, we want all the information to be in the applicant tracking system (ATS). We want the system to scan the information for keywords, etc. There’s got to be a better way to connect the process and offer a more human experience.
Employees want moments that matter in their workplace. Their motivations, values, and purpose haven’t changed. But with today’s technology, their expectations have. Organizations need to deliver.
