Leveraging Technology To Boost The Employee Experience
Simplicity, stability, and safety
Posted on 09-22-2020, Read Time: Min
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2020, wow, what a year. The positive news is, it’s almost over. If we could hit the reset button or live out a scene from Back to The Future, remove all of the unnecessary and repetitive memes, and completely forget Covid-19 existed, we would.
In light of the very daunting year it’s been, there has been some positive news recently. Chiefly, the U.S. unemployment rate has declined from April’s pandemic-high of 14.7% to 8.4% in August, according to the Department of Labor (DOL). Additional high-frequency indicators, such as the Workforce Activity Report, show continued increases in shift volume week by week. While the situation isn’t great, it’s slowly improving.
With the labor market gradually shifting, I’ve spent some time consulting with companies on the “return to work” and how it will impact their “new” employee engagement strategies. For some businesses, they’ve been operating all along: grocery store clerks and delivery drivers who were suddenly considered essential in the spring. They had to figure things out on the fly and continue to make adjustments even today. Others have been working remotely for the last six months and must now figure out a proper reentry strategy.
Three Big Questions
What’s interesting about this evolving discussion is there’s no playbook: no one really knew where to start and each organization relied heavily upon the Human Resources (HR) department to figure it out. This is no small task and HR, who may or may not be equipped to do so, stepped up and executed.
The common questions from the HR professionals I’ve worked with include:
The common questions from the HR professionals I’ve worked with include:
- How do we keep our employees safe? A recent survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) found that 86% of employees believe their employer has an obligation to notify employees who have been in contact with a co-worker who tested positive for COVID-19, while a separate survey found 40% are concerned with coming in contact with an asymptomatic colleague – both of which emphasize the need for rapid contact tracing to assuage concerns.
- How do we support employees and their families? According to The Workforce Institute at UKG, nearly three-quarters of employees (72%) with kids are concerned about balancing the demands of work and child care, including virtual learning, while only about a third (37%) of employees without children have taken time-off to mentally and physically rest and recovery since the pandemic began.
- What resources can we provide to ensure the company is doing its part? Employee assistance programs, parent portals, virtual networking and happy hours to reduce feelings of isolation and increase connectedness. The options are really endless, but Workforce Institute research points to three primary buckets for organizations to focus on: physical safety, psychological security, and job stability/flexibility.
These aren’t new questions: Strategic HR departments focused on these concerns well before COVID-19. It’s just that more organizations have woken up to the fact that the above points are no longer nice-to-haves, but table stakes. And the approach to solving these problems needs to shift.
Don’t Forget About Your Technology
This is a prime opportunity to not only talk about caring for your employees but proving it. Yes, we need the human touch right now more than ever! But we can also make our employees' lives a little bit easier by leveraging technology, which can make or break an employee experience depending on how intelligent, personalized, and curated the experience feels.
1. Safety Should Be SIMPLE:
This seems like a ‘no-brainer’ but I still see the need to call out its importance as it’s often overlooked or taken for granted. Instead of sifting through hundreds of timesheets to figure out who worked with who, when, and where, leverage technology to provide leaders and managers with the real-time data needed to quickly address urgent concerns, like a confirmed or presumed exposure in the workplace. Ask questions of your vendor to derive maximum value from your deployments. For instance, can your workforce management solution create a contact tracing report? It should.
2. Reinforce Stability Through Support:
With back to school efforts in full swing, supporting your employees can be a difficult task. And while it’s important to keep parents of school-aged children in mind, don’t forget about those with toddlers or newborns, employees caring for aging parents, or those without kids or nearby family that may be feeling isolated. We’ve all been in situations where we feel as though the employer just “doesn’t understand our situation.” An easy way to prove this is allowing for flexible scheduling or shift swapping. Imagine a scenario where an employee can utilize their work app to drop a shift. It notifies only their qualified and eligible colleagues to pick up that shift, and the manager never has to lift a finger. The employee has achieved a little bit of work-life harmony, both parties avoid further exposure, and the employee knows their job will be intact.
3. Exceptional 2-Way Communication and Resource Provision:
The research also shows nearly 9 out of 10 in U.S. employees (88%) …would not want to risk returning to their workplace if there were rising cases of COVID-19 in their region. So how do we “return to work” without understanding if employees are comfortable with doing so? Utilize your technology to push out surveys – AI is now capable of powerful sentiment analysis to understand if what employees say is really what they mean. Share clear expectations and guidelines for when employees should come to work and when they should stay home. Provide benefit coverage information and leave policy details in the event of a potential COVID-19 exposure involving the employee or a family member. Most importantly, act with empathy – and make sure people managers, who are often the conduit between the company and the employee, also act with empathy.
With employer responsibility increasing, employee expectations continue to grow just as fast – if not faster. Instead of doubling down by investing in new perks and trendy benefits, it’s paramount for organizations to get back to basics and perfect their delivery of the fundamentals, like safety, communication, and flexibility.
The Workforce Institute research also found that one in five organizations dropped the ball in their initial Covid-19 response, but a third (33%) say they trust their employer more now than before the pandemic. This is proof positive that even if you don’t get the response right initially, putting your people at the center of important decisions is a cornerstone of any employee engagement trust. It will build trust, boost engagement, and as an added bonus, help propel the business to new heights well after Covid-19 is hopefully a concern of the past.
Author Bio
| Chas Fields, MSHRM, is Partner in the HCM Advisory Group at UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group.) Fields works with organizations to optimize the intersection of people, processes, and technology to create a stellar people experience that drives employee engagement, retention, and great business results. Connect Chas Fields |
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