The Human Experiences (HX) and Human Resources (HR)
More than ever before, employees who are engaged, passionate, and excited about their jobs are critical for a company’s success and growth.
The good news is that the percentage of employees who feel engaged in their work and workplace at the start of 2020, per Gallup, was the highest it’s been in twenty years. The bad news is that figure is dropping fast — and it only represented about 38% of the workforce in the first place.
That means roughly two-thirds of the workforce is merely showing up to work and going home again without really connecting.
What Happens When Employees Disengage?
When employees aren’t engaged in their workplace (or, worse, are actively disengaged), they lose motivation to learn and grow in their job. The lack of enthusiasm may color their interactions with their peers, team members, and clients. They stop looking for solutions to problems, fail to embrace the company’s vision, and lose track of their organization’s values and purpose.
In other words, they simply check out.
Employees want purpose and meaning in their work. A paycheck may motivate them to clock in every day and meet their goals, but it isn’t enough to make them put their heart into what they do or expend their creative energy on the company. The lack of engagement eventually stifles innovation and causes the best and the brightest to drift away in pursuit of something better.
That’s why human resource (HR) management is evolving into human experience (HX) management. Employees today want a workplace experience that matches how they work, what they need to be productive, and what it takes to feel connected to their teams and companies.
What’s Holding Companies Back From Improving their Human Experience?
In the past, employers who wanted to assemble a stellar workforce focused on the employee experience by offering perks and rewards. In contrast, the human experience focuses on creating personal connections, supporting the employee’s goals, and recognizing that employees are humans first.
Unfortunately, a lot of HR departments are stuck in reactive mode instead of being proactive. They’re often so focused on meeting the workforce demands that they aren’t thinking ahead. All too often, prospective employees are also concerned with finding a job instead of finding the right job.
What Can HR Departments Do to Improve the Human Experience for Employees?
According to Revelio Labs, one of the leaders in workforce intelligence, “Employers and employees alike suffer from a lack of shared understanding about the way that organizational goals and talent align. That makes it difficult to match the right person to the right job — and that ultimately serves nobody’s long-term goals.”
HR departments that learn to use SaaS technology that takes a deep dive into the workplace data surrounding their employees can make better hiring decisions by matching candidates who have comparable qualities with their most engaged employees. They can also better monitor signs of disengagement in their existing workforce and pivot to reverse the developing problems.
Creating an extraordinary employee experience isn’t something you can leave to chance. It requires focused strategic thinking. It requires intentional choices about the experience you want your employees to have and the company culture you want to create.
