Employee experience and talent strategy

In the context of an organisation, Employee Experience (EX) refers to the summation of feelings, be it positive or negative, that any stakeholder comes across on getting in touch with an organisation as a stakeholder, be it investor, customer, employer, or supplier connected with an organisation.

The experience is influenced by a wide gamut of factors. A narrow approach would look at EX in the context of process. Leaders/managers could use the 20/80 principle to identify the key processes/areas and invest their energies and resources to ensure the processes are analysed, redesigned to deliver superior EX in relation to the past.

One may think “Is it not akin to missing woods for trees”? Well, it definitely does, as the organisations may end up creating islands of excellence.

The question then is what approach an organisation should adopt to move in the direction of becoming an 'Experience Levered'. The solution lies in adopting a '360 Degree' approach. The organisation will review the feedback coming from all the stakeholders connected with it and identify the opportunities for improvement.

A high level of commitment among the employees actually helps the organisation get positive feedback from its stakeholders. Even if there were to be adverse feedback, the employee at the point of feedback will be able to take quick corrective action.

The days of an organisation carrying out all activities don’t work in its favour in the competitive digital era. Today, they look at focusing on the core and for non-core areas and identify partners to work with, based on the business needs. This aspect calls for organisations to co-partner with external organisations on feedback systems.

The other aspect of the feedback system in the digital era is that it is very complex and calls for a high level of tech tools that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to track the feedback on social media like Facebook, Instagram and reach out to customers concerned and try to solve the grievance.

The key to transforming an organisation into an “Experience Levered” is to build synergies of supportive forces and neutralise the opposing forces.

Some ways to manage the change would be

- Constant communication on the need for change by the leadership

- Communicating the consequences of the cultural status quo

- Identify employees who are supportive and mobilise them towards the change

- Create success stories, communicate and celebrate

- Reward champions of change for positive and compliant behaviour.

(This is excerpted from 'Winning with Employees', published by SAGE Publications)