Editorial
Hyper-personalization and flexible work arrangements based on individual preferences are setting the tone for the modern employment relationship. Organizations have responded by redesigning employee value propositions, rethinking employee experiences and incorporating a variety of new flexible work models. All these initiatives help, but they don’t address the root issue.
Employees are acting more like consumers — of products, services and experiences within the context of an organization.
They have new expectations, demand more from the working relationship and are willing to voice their concerns if their needs are unmet. In the past, HR has viewed employees more like customers or clients. This was a well-intentioned step in the right direction, but we need to go further today.
Why Employees Are Consumers
Characterizing the relationship with employees as customers immediately signifies a transactional relationship. A give-and-take relationship is based on the assumption that employees give their skills, time and expertise and, in return, receive compensation and rewards. Organizations invest in this relationship to get a return on investment in productivity and performance, which leads to organizational impact.
The workforce no longer works according to a transactional contract. Employees want their organizations to offer more in terms of a meaningful and human work experience.
Organizations that want to be seen as top talent destinations in a skills-scarce market must be transparent on their unique selling proposition and why they need to be top of mind when talent considers potential opportunities.
These new demands call for a new consumer-like relationship between employees and employers. This does not negate the fact that a mutually beneficial transactional contract exists. Instead, it highlights that we need to think more broadly than the just transactional relationship when defining the employee experience. We must apply consumer-like principles when designing experiences and ask: “If employees had the option, would they buy it?”
Employees to date have been captive consumers. They had no option to use certain organizational products or services, but that reality is no longer valid. Employees are no longer content to put up with experiences and technologies that are outdated, user-unfriendly or unintuitive. They will leave organizations where the value proposition does not meet their specific needs or at least allow the opportunity for choice. Employees are far less likely to be silent about “bad experiences,” instead using public forums and platforms to voice their opinions and views.
Related Article: Your Employees Value Fairness Even More Than Pay
Organizations and HR need to step up or risk losing the ability to attract, engage and retain talent.
Creating this shift will be more complex than what many anticipate. As HR, we have started to incorporate design thinking and other techniques into how we design practices and systems, but we have never considered that perhaps the practices themselves are what need to change.
Adopting an Employee-as-Consumer Approach
We propose three shifts organizations must make to build a consumer-like relationship with employees.
Throw out the Employee Lifecycle
The traditional employee lifecycle highlights the engagements and interactions of the employee through the stages of recruitment, onboarding, learning, performing, rewarding and offboarding.
Suppose instead we viewed the life cycle of the employee as similar to that of a consumer. In that case, we consider the purpose of interactions to be vastly different than in a traditional employee lifecycle.
When we shift toward a consumer lifecycle, the interactions start to move towards:
- Awareness: A potential employee becomes aware of the organization through public media or their network, and we want to create interest in our employer brand.
- Engagement: The first interaction where the potential employee and the organization engage on what they offer, who they are and what they are looking for to spark a potential relationship.
- Conversion: The decision the employee makes to join the organization and setting the terms for the relationship in terms of mutual expectations based on organizational value and experience proposition.
Once the employee is a consumer within the organization, instead of phases such as engaging, learning, performing and rewarding, we should approach it differently:
- On-board and enable the employee in the organization by providing them with the required networks, tools and resources to apply their skills.
- Educate the employee on how best to use the resources within the organization to do their job and achieve their goals.
- Expand the employee’s impact by providing internal opportunities to gain more exposure, develop further and contribute.
- Nurture the relationship with the employee to drive mutual value through performance and retention.
- Appreciate the employee’s efforts by keeping them motivated through rewards and recognition.
- Loyalty in terms of keeping employees committed to us as an organization and retaining their contributions.
Design for Consumers With Cross-Functional Collaboration
Adopting this approach requires more multi-disciplinary collaboration across traditional functions. HR cannot do this alone, and will need to work with departments such as IT, Facilities, Marketing and Finance, to mention a few.
The biggest shift is to start all design processes from a consumer perspective rather than a focus on traditional functional processes. Instead of asking, “What are the steps in this process?” we need to ask, “What do we want consumers to think, feel, do, and achieve?” This will have significant implications for how we design work and how we craft an integrated consumer experience across different departmental touch points.
The New Role of the Manager
Crucial to this relationship is a change in philosophy in managing people. Like an account and relationship manager, the manager's role has to be focused on delivering the intended consumer experience while the consumer also adheres to their responsibilities. This becomes less than a transactional and hierarchical relationship and more of a healthy, dual-ownership and accountability relationship.
Related Article: How to Put the Human Back in Your Human Experience Programs
A consumer must use all the product features to get all the benefits. The relationship manager must nurture the relationship so the consumer becomes loyal to the organization.
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Your Consumer Value Proposition as an Organization
Even though this approach holds significant value for the organization, an organization cannot be everything to everyone. Similar to a product with limited features that may not meet all the requirements of the consumer, organizations need to be clear and comfortable regarding what they can or can’t provide.
The key to this approach is expectation: You need to articulate your position before the consumer relationship is formed. Otherwise, similar to a consumer being disappointed with the features of a product, an employee will be discontent with what the organization as an employer offers. We fall into the trap of promising employees flexibility, development and future opportunities. Realistically, some organizations can’t provide all these benefits all the time. Similar to product marketing, organizations should instead focus on the unique selling propositions that make them different, which will form a vital part of the relationship.
To successfully adopt this approach, organizations need to incorporate consumer-like principles by understanding the following questions when thinking about the employee relationship and experience:
- Understanding who your workforce is beyond demographics. If your workforce is made up of consumers, what are the target market segments you have within your workforce? What are their needs and desires?
- Tailoring your value proposition to those segments. Ensure the talent market you want to be attractive for finds appeal in your value proposition.
- Integrated and continuous communication that enables the organization to manage and nurture the relationship with the employee as a consumer and continuously gather feedback and listen to them to make adjustments to the relationship where required.
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