WHAT IS THE EMPLOYEE JOURNEY?
The employee journey is increasingly being a key priority amongst HR and organisations today – and for a very good reason. The employee journey is defined as “the time an employee spends at a company, starting when the employee applies to the organization and ending when the employee quits the organisation.” The duration as well as experiences between these two key moments is known as the employee journey.
Identifying pivotal moments during the employee journey is key for HR to be able to improve and enhance the overall employee experience. Viewing the employee experience from two different perspectives – the employees’ and employers’ – will provide deeper insights on how HR can create a better overall employee journey.
FROM THE EMPLOYEE’S PERSPECTIVE
There are several notable moments during the employees’ journey which HR should focus on – the first interview, the first day at work, the first interaction with the line manager, first full performance review, team events, company restructuring as well as the exit interview. Other key moments would also include day-to-day interactions with co-workers and clients, which could significantly impact the employee’s experiences with the organisation.
Given that there are numerous key moments during the employees’ journey, employees might experience pleasant moments in some instances, and unpleasant experiences in other instances. A good way to identify areas for improvement is to measure employees’ engagement levels during their entire employee journey. Employee engagement surveys as well as regular feedback sessions are a great way for HR and organisations to measure existing employee engagement levels. At the same time, it helps HR identify strong points and weak areas for improvement.
FROM THE EMPLOYER’S PERSPECTIVE
The employee journey from the employer’s perspective is to be able to measure and monitor. Suppose an employee had a bad experience in their first week at work. They are likely to carry this bad experience with them throughout their employee journey and chances of this employee leaving the organisation in their first year increases significantly. If employers are able to measure and identify key areas for improvement early in the employee journey, this allows employers to take action quickly before the issue escalates.
MEASURING THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
There are various approaches that organisations can take to measure employees’ experiences. It can be through quantitative or qualitative methods. Quantitative methods can help organisations to derive a number of hypotheses which provides valuable next steps on areas for improvement. Concurrently, this helps HR and organisations to streamline their approach towards creating a positive employee journey.
Essentially, the employee journey focuses on the “moments that matter” and if organisations are able to ensure positive outputs from these key moments, this would translate to happier and engaged employees in the long run.
As teachers like to mention, learning is lifelong. And this does not stop when one enters the working world as well. Attending workshops, conferences and networking sessions are a great way to learn from industry peers as well as broaden one’s horizons. However, from an organisation’s point of view, such learning and development initiatives can be costly. Worst is when it does not add value to employees
When it comes to setting training budgets, there is no denying that it ranks low on your top management’s list of priorities. However, that does not mean that your employees should be deprived of learning and development opportunities. In fact, there are other ways in which your employees can still pick up new skills – broadly classified as informal learning.
Based on the definition provided by Training Industry, informal learning is defined as “learning that occurs away from a structured, formal classroom environment”. It could come in numerous forms – self-studying, reading articles, participating in forums such as TED talks or attending coaching sessions. Essentially, informal learning encourages employees to set their own learning goals and objectives.
ON THE PLUS SIDE OF INFORMAL LEARNING
The plus side of informal learning that it provides the flexibility that employees need. After all, every individual learns at a different pace and have different ways to absorb information. Instead of having a one-approach-fits-all, organisations can consider provide a suite of learning and development initiatives. Employees can then pick and sign up for courses that they are interested in or attending webinars or conferences that might appeal to them. That way, instead of having to wait for seminars or workshops to be arranged by the HR department, employees can simply search for what really interests them and just go for it.
ON THE DOWN SIDE OF INFORMAL LEARNING
Why informal learning may get a bad rep within certain organisations is due to it falling short of its potential. Given that informal learning means that employees are largely responsible for their own learning and development, it may easily slip to the bottom of their to-do list within the pressure of daily tasks and workload. At the same time, while it is easy to offer a plethora of online courses or events that employees can sign up for, do they actually know what they need? Employees might tend to stay within their comfort zone and sign up for courses or read content that they are familiar with.
Nonetheless, there are ways in which both organisations and employees can avoid such pitfalls. Providing employees with helpful sources to trusted and useful learning content is a great way to direct employees towards somewhere to begin their own learning path. At the same time, top management and leaders should encourage employees to share their favourite content or course so that other employees could benefit as well. It is also imperative for organisations to build a learning culture whereby managers and employees are aware that their learning choices will be supported by allowing time away from work to attend these learning and development courses.
Learning within the workplace is also now a two-way process, whereby both seniors and juniors share their experiences and mentor each other. These are some of the success factors for learning and development in organisations today.
Healthy Employees, Healthy Business – 3 Ways To Promote Workplace Health
In recent years, employers are recognising the fact that competitive salaries are no longer the only main driver for talent attraction and retention. While the competition for talent remains fierce, employees’ wellbeing are increasingly becoming a key focal point for employers today.
According to Aon’s APAC Benefits Strategy Study, it was found that 7 in 10 employers in Singapore recognised the impacts of stress and mental health on productivity. However, slightly over half of the survey organisations (51%) have implemented wellness programmes to address this, while more than a quarter (38%) indicated that there are no plans to introduce any wellness programmes to employees.
IMPORTANCE OF WORKPLACE HEALTH
Healthy employees translate to a more productive workforce as it means fewer sick leaves and lower medical costs borne by organisations. Concurrently, given that Singapore is facing an aging population, it means that people are living and working longer. In order for organisations to continue tapping into this talent pool, employee wellbeing is no doubt going to be a key concern.
Likewise, people today are increasingly more aware of health issues such as stress, burnout or even mental health issues and its link to workplace stress. As such, employees today look beyond competitive salaries and focus on how the organisation can take care of them in terms of their well-being.
HOW CAN ORGANISATIONS PROMOTE WORKPLACE HEALTH AMONGST EMPLOYEES?
Integration
The first step towards promoting workplace health is to integrate it into the organisation’s culture. There are various studies which support the fact that workplace health programmes are more effective when integrated to impact the entire organisation – employees, infrastructure and activities. Simple changes such as switching towards ergonomically-friendly desks or chairs can help to encourage a healthy lifestyle within the workplace.
Management
Strong support from top management is imperative to ensure the success of workplace health programmes. This is because management can provide the necessary resources to execute these programmes and increase the legitimacy of these health programmes. Concurrently, management also acts as a role model in championing the acceptance and uptake of these health programmes.
Ownership
Finally, employees should be able to take ownership of their own health. This includes educating employees on how to take care of their own physical and mental wellbeing at work. At the same time, encouraging employees to initiate their own health programmes, utilisation of wearable technology and health monitoring applications can help to provide a sense of ownership and empowerment as well.
Employee health is crucial to drive productivity and engagement levels within the workplace. There are various ways in which organisations can monitor the employees’ wellbeing through applications and employee analytics. These can then help management and HR to create appropriate health programmes to encourage a healthier lifestyle amongst employees.
