Managing Employee Experience in the Asia Pacific Post Covid

What is your business doing differently to attract the best talent? Is the offer you are providing lucrative enough for the best in the industry to come and work with you? The employee experience (EX) you offer goes a long way in determining the growth and success of your organisation. Any company that is unable to attract or retain employees, would find it impossible to survive the market competition. 

As the pandemic has provided us with the challenge as well as the opportunity to reimagine work, rethink working conditions as well as relationships, EX has emerged as an important factor for navigating changes in companies asmajor post-pandemic reshuffle is ongoing across the world.

Employee Experience is not a new concept and employers have dealt with the idea in their own way over time. However, EX as a consolidated idea and an indispensable job of the HR is new, and the term was coined in the year 2016 referring to a set of changes to be brought about at work places to make employees’ lives more productive, healthy, developmental and meaningful. 

HR across the world has worked tirelessly to ensure that the meaning of work and its position in an individual’s life elevates and employees feel compelled to work. As a result, we have seen some major trends come to the fore-front in talent management-

1. Mission and Purpose – Giving employees a higher purpose to chase,something they connect with on a more personal level. It helps maintain motivation and adds a sense of belonging.
2. Encourage Specialisation – A jack of all trades may not be particularly good at or motivated by any of them. Encourage people to form a deep knowledge about a particular field that they feel driven by.
3. Performance Management – Rather than keeping a close tab on employees’ performance, it is wiser to switch to a two-way model where emphasis is placed on feedback from the employees as well.
4. Cross-functional teams – People grow and learn with those around them. Being a part of the same team for a long time creates a status-quo and co-dependencies where personal and professional growth is hindered. Cross-functional teams formed on the basis of requirements and projects can provide the necessary change as well as the challenge to employees from time- to-time.
5. Flexible work – Flexibility at work contributes greatly to an individual’s attitude as well as overall approach. Providing flexibility enables employees to live their life as they want without having to compromise on work. Netflix’s unlimited vacation days or the four-day week experiment are some of most recent examples of trying out new ways of working.
6. Diversity and Inclusion – Ample studies have indicated the benefits of having a diverse range of people to work with, for the company as well as the growth of the employees. However, conclusive action on this is still lagging. 

EX is more than just an HR function today. It is a business strategy, and a tough one at that. Managing employee experience is not an easy feat given that any organisation comprises of individuals from diverse backgrounds, with personalised problems and very different set of needs. Here’s a quick recipe for an excellent employee experience-

• Build a strong culture of work and set a clear vision as the leader to inspire respect and trust of your employees.
• Use technology as an enabler of a better understanding and communication between the HR and the employees.
• Apply design thinking to simplify complex and unnecessary procedures. This will enhance their experience of working greatly.
• Allocate time for feedback, listen to your employees and follow up on their issues until they are resolved. Feeling heard, seen and valued to the organisation are key in talent retention.
• Consider diverse needs and take actions accordingly to not leave anyone out of the company welfare policies.