There are five important “moments that matter” for employees and managers that should be the starting point for designing great people experiences, writes Jordan Griffiths
When you look at your HR process – who do you see it designed for? Has it been crafted for the process, or for the people it serves to look after and delivering on the moments that matter at work?
Within Australia, the workforce is changing, and staff are expecting a very different experience from the companies they work for now, then in previous generations. Employees are no longer just employees; they are consumers and the first receivers of your business’ product or service. If we stop to consider this point for a moment, we begin to think about staff in a completely different light and we start to realise that the traditional company boundaries that have existed for years are no longer fit for purpose.
With the help of insights and a service-oriented model, it’s possible for HR to move from the role of simple ‘call triage’ to that of a trusted advisor. By digging deeper, HR can anticipate what an employee may need. HR also has a critical role in guiding the ‘people asset’, treating employees as an asset and addressing the skills gap in each organisation. Employees can also become trusted advisors that address both the spoken and unspoken intent of the contact from each staff member. This means addressing the core employee issue, and not just the symptoms.
Below are the key ways HR can win the workplace through services designed for people, not process.
Moments that matter
To design great experiences, you need to start with moments that matter. Designing great employee experiences starts with transforming from the transaction and function orientation of HR, to orienting around services and treating employees as consumers.
“In order to focus on the moments that matter, HR needs to simplify and automate transactions”
To anchor the delivery model around employees as the consumers of services, we identified five “moments that matter” for employees and managers. They are:
- Joining the company
- Transferring roles within the company
- Leaving the company
- Having or adopting a child
- Just about anything related to payroll
These “moments that matter” represent a set of commonly occurring scenarios that require coordination across functions within HR and beyond. When you look at your HR process, do you see similar moments that matter? Are there more that are unique to your business?
These “moments” represent significant opportunities for organisations to offer a more satisfying experience, foster positive perceptions of the company and produce meaningful outcomes. For example, health insurance provider Medibank has recognised the changing dynamic of working Australians and the importance of raising a family by offering 14 weeks of paid parental leave to primary and secondary carers within the first 24 months.
By approaching it as “moments that matter”, you can improve employee satisfaction and importantly – reduce repeat calls for the same issue and deliver savings.
When you better understand each moment, you’ll be able to better orient around services.
“It’s important we are leveraging emerging technologies that are available to us to design HR services for people”
Hi-Touch/Hi-Tech
To create a seamless employee service, you require an integrated operating model – one that incorporates multiple processes and systems across digital and physical channels. With the right balance, employees will be able to choose the channel that works best for them – from self-service to high-touch, and mobile to voice.
Even better, this new employee services model balanced between hi-tech and hi-touch will provide an expanded line-of-sight for HR, anchored on delivering against the expectations of the customer – both spoken and unspoken. Expectations such as:
- Personal and relevant: “Make the experience relevant to me”
- Intuitive: “Should be easy to figure out”
- Accessible on demand: “I need this to be available when I have time”
In order to focus on the moments that matter, HR needs to simplify and automate transactions. As part of their recruitment process Rio Tinto has adopted AI-powered recruiting tool Pymetrics that uses gaming style assessments to collect behavioural data. This technology removes bias in the hiring process resulting in a more suitable talent pool and an improved candidate experience, whilst also freeing up HR talent’s time and energy.
Robotic process automation, virtual assistants and artificial intelligence can handle high-volume, otherwise manual transactions with ease. For example, Ava, Accenture Australia and New Zealand’s virtual agent, has changed the employee experience when wanting to ask HR-related questions. Ava can provide immediate assistance for over 15,000 questions, covering topics such as travel, policies, and leave queries.
“Data and analytics are imperative if HR teams want to deliver exceptional experiences in the moments that matter”
Trusted advisor
Data and analytics are imperative if HR teams want to deliver exceptional experiences in the moments that matter. Data and analytics can help with the smallest things – like improving the safety and wellbeing of employees.
Canberra-based company Seeing Machines has developed AI technology backed by 1.3 billion kilometres of driving data, that tracks and analyses drivers’ eye and head movements to spot driver fatigue and improve safety across various transport sectors.
With the right use of data and analytics, the results can be profound and not just in terms of reducing attrition and improving retention. With HR stepping into the role of trusted advisor and gathering intuitive, relevant insights to its workforce – the performance will improve immeasurably. It could also be the difference that’s needed in the new global talent ecosystem that’s proving more and more competitive.
How do you get started?
Moving from a traditional function model to one that looks at employees as consumers and orients around services can be daunting at first. However, it’s not an overwhelming task. It’s best to consider early on how your employee services model will look – especially as you’ll need to incorporate the non-HR activities.
As the Australian workforce continually changes, it’s important we are leveraging emerging technologies that are available to us to design HR services for people. By finding the moments that matter, balancing our integrated operating model, and becoming trusted advisors, we can secure a strong workforce with profound results.
