#employee-experience
‘But they have to come to work, they have to pay the bills, eat, put kids through school. So why should I care that much? Anyway work is serious, it is about numbers and not people, so just get on with the job you are paid for.’
This sounds outdated, right? Or maybe it should be outdated but possibly you recognize elements of this attitude from your daily business interactions. In an Industry 4.0 era, this attitude has no place if you genuinely are interested in people. But maybe that’s the issue, how many of us are really interested in the folks that we work with? How many of us really stop and think about the experience we are part of providing to our colleagues?
It takes mental energy to stop and consciously think of this. Short term, this may feel like a distraction from getting tasks done. However, you have to ask yourself, what sort of world do you want to live in? How much do you want to put humanity into the workplace? Are you happy with your periodic employee engagement scores? Are you really sure you cannot have both great productivity, and provide your team with a daily experience which they value and enjoy…especially as the research suggests the two are linked?
Jacob Morgan, writing in his book, The Employee Experience Advantage, uses the Employee Experience Pyramid to argue his case. The Pyramid comprises:
1) A foundation layer called ‘Reason for Being’…(tip: think Simon Sinek and his ‘Start with Why’ philosophy)
2) Three necessary components: Technology, Physical Space and Culture
3) Moments that Matter
How many of us think in such a systematic, architected manner about the environment our colleagues will enjoy on a daily basis? You often hear coaches in the sporting realm say that they focus on getting the team environment right first and then the results should follow. Peter Drucker’s very famous line that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ remains as relevant today as when he first used it decades ago. Therefore this is not some millennial driven, trendy topic, which will pass, though for sure the millennials have given it a bit of a push. What do you think the miners or the cotton mill workers, from the 1800s would have wanted? To carry on working in a dirty, dangerous, repetitive and dull environment? Why do you think Unions appeared on the scene at the same time that the Industrial Revolution started to demand high intensity use of human capital? Experience is a basic human ambition that can be found throughout history. It may not have been seen as very important in the ‘serious’ business of work, however forward looking organizations are stretching their ambition levels to elevate the focus upon employee experience. This is enabled by the mega disruptive forces of global, mobile, digital and social which increase expectations of what is possible.
But alone, these mega trends are not enough since it also requires us, as individuals, to think as servant leaders, in networks not hierarchies, and value people and how they feel. For some this comes natural, for others it is quite some shift.
The cynical reader may say that this is not altruistic, rather it is greed dressed up in modern clothing, just another way of making more money. Maybe that view will be seen as true in years to come. I hope not, and even if the case, if it results in folks finding their daily work ritual more rewarding, surely in a world that can sometimes be tough and unfair, this is a step in the right direction. So, next time you walk into your work place, take a moment to reflect on your contribution to the employee experience. A couple of decades ago there was a big push around ‘client centricity’. Maybe it is time complement this with #employee-centricity.
