Since the mid-nineties, HR trends have slowly become employee-centric. Words like “T-Shaped Employees”[i], collaborative culture, continuous learning, internal talent mobility, etc., have set the tone for the current trends of employee experience (EX) and well-being. In fact, The McLean & Company 2022 HR Trends Report shows that, from 2021 to 2022, providing a great employee experience has moved up from 5 to 2 in the list of top 6 priorities in organizations. This parallels what we are observing in what today’s employees’ needs and expectations are when they decide to commit to a company or a brand. A decent salary is desirable, of course, but more important are better working conditions that allow them to juggle between personal and professional life. Above all, they are looking for a purpose that will motivate them to give you their 100%. Competition is fierce. So, how do you adapt your employee value proposition to make sure you can retain the employees you recruit?
Let us take a look at talent education programs to start with. For a long time now, we have been training employees to obtain the skills required to do their day-to-day tasks. We provide all types of learning and development tools like Learning Management Systems and content that help educate our staff according to our company's needs. We do so in a linear process that we can manage, to make sure they are achieving our goals. Doing so, we tend to forget that the way we educate ourselves has changed drastically, and more so since the pandemic. We think that repositioning your L&D strategy should help you to pivot and get with the program, to make sure that your onboarding, skilling, reskilling, and upskilling programs reflect your core values and offer a memorable EX. And the best tool to help you reposition your L&D is your LMS.
Like client experience (CX), where you want your clients to achieve their full potential when using your products or services in order for them to become loyal customers, EX should be designed to help employees develop their full potential, be more engaged and help the company reach its goals. And if the experience is positive, then not only will you be able to retain your employees, but your customer satisfaction will be on the rise, and so will your revenues.
The challenge is to keep your employee’s journey from onboarding to retiring (or leaving, yes it happens), consistent with the evolution of their learning paths. When brainstorming about the types of learnings you want to provide to your employees, you will need to adjust your mindset from the linear training type of program you are used to for a set of specific tasks to perform, to a more organic training program that will take in consideration your employees’ experience, aspirations and skill sets requirements.
You may have to review the T-Shaped Employee theory to try and figure out how you can best train your employees to want to learn new skills and collaborate with other employees and departments, so they have a more holistic approach to the work they do for your company. You might want to throw in some well-being programs, work on making your employees more resilient and prepare your business to continue to thrive should we go through another major disruption.
If you have invested or are thinking of investing in a Learning Management System, you know that you have a powerful tool in your hands that can be personalized to rally and train your personnel. A centralized LMS tool like Captivo could help monitor all the activities at all levels. The HR team can keep updating your employee’s paths and make sure they stay on track with their compliance training. The leadership team can vary their offerings to tailor employees learning experiences according to the job skills they require to become more efficient. They can also outsource some of the training that could help your employees move horizontally or vertically within your organization. Auto-assessment is a powerful tool for managers and employees to start the conversation and reach a consensus on the type of learning needed to reach certain goals.
Integrating with technologies such as Microsoft 365, allows you to provide the employees with a centralized source of knowledge in a seamless environment. Captivo allows this by using applications such as Microsoft Teams to create events and invite registered users for a virtual training. This opens the door to accessing training during their workday, at pre-set scheduled time or at their convenience.
In an earlier blog post, I mentioned an article by Derek Irvine about the 5 human truths where he discusses the fact that it is no longer the employees that need to adapt to their working environment, but the working environment that needs to adapt to the employees. The challenge is how to scale down your workplace EX to a more human level. After all, many studies show that half of US employees are more interested in skilling, reskilling and upskilling programs than extra paid vacations. When you add the challenges of hybrid working environment and employee shortage to the mix, you know that EX is becoming a matter that needs to be dealt with right now and you need to reposition your L&D and LMS in order to pivot quickly.
References:
[i] T-shaped person was originally coined in the mid-eighties where the vertical stroke represents the employee expertise (depth), and the horizontal stroke means the disposition to collaborate within other disciplines (breadth). Read more about this.
Written in collaboration with:
Line Rondeau
Instructional Designer and Training Specialist.