This article explores why and where HR and IT organizations are teaming up to provide the best overall experience for their companies’ number one asset — their people, shares Susan Insley, Vice President of Human Resources at VMware.
Employee experience matters. In a recent global surveyOpens a new window , 73 percent of employees and HR decision-makers agreed “the flexibility of tools I might need to use for work would influence my decision to apply or accept a company’s position.†I want employees everywhere to know, HR and IT hear you.
As the talent market has tightened, candidates are increasingly paying attention to a company’s digital experience. In HR we have noticed, and with this in mind, we’re working alongside our colleagues in IT to improve employee technology, workstyle, and culture.
That’s why we’re paying more attention than ever to employee experience data from engagement surveys and teaming to make changes that improve the digital experience. Everything from recruiting and onboarding to learning development and inclusion is under consideration, so HR and IT can see what employees want and make meaningful data-driven decisions to continuously improve. The goal: to positively impact the overall employee experienceOpens a new window .
As such, we’ve discovered closer collaboration and data-driven decisions have become a bigger factor as our business has grown. Employees want:
- More clarity around processes, systems, and tools
- More efficiency in those processes, systems, and tools
- Better collaboration so they can get things done in a more comprehensive and effective way
It’s up to HR and IT to work together to address these employee needs. Here’s what a stronger HR-IT partnership can do to make employee experience progress in some key areas:
Recruitment
Attracting top talent is about being connected, which is why artificial intelligence and machine learning tools are very popular right now. These tools may help companies not only mine top talent but also discover top diverse talent. Simplified access to new talent pools, in turn, help businesses scale. With IT involved in this automation, recruiters can be more efficient.
At VMware, we have a team focused solely on the candidate experience — bringing together opportunities and talent. Here, HR and IT are becoming inextricably linked, thinking about ways a customer management system could be used for employee engagement and helping HR know exactly who to contact when a certain discipline or expertise is needed. IT expertise is essential in simplifying how candidates apply for roles, how responses are generated, how invitations to interview are issued, and more.
And emerging technology can be used for internal candidates, too. For example, a continuous pipeline for employee relationship building might not prevent high impact talent from leaving, but it would let them explore internal options more easily.
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Onboarding
For some time now, HR has been heavily invested in improving onboarding experiences, and partnership with IT has enabled HR teams to make huge strides in this area over the last 18 months.
In fast-growing companies, scale is a real challenge. Often, recruits have a great experience with a company until they sign on the dotted line. As employees, the experience becomes less robust, which implicates culture. In partnership, HR and IT have the knowledge to know what information, contacts, content, processes, systems, and more should be served up and how before day one – whether that’s welcome videos, simple benefits enrollment, or online registrations for classes.
Partnering with IT really jump-started discussions about how we could integrate new hires more efficiently for the best possible employee experience. And feedback continues to make every process better. Data and survey responses show we are doing a better job at ensuring experiences match our culture of continuous improvement.
It’s increasingly important for organizations to change processes to boost HR and hiring manager efficiencies during the onboarding process. For example, partnering with HR and IT teams can allow businesses to implement tools such as a chatbot to provide real-time, on-demand support for regularly occurring questions, both personalizing assistance, and tools. Â It uses a knowledge base to deliver answers about benefits and other common HR topics. As such, answers can be delivered quickly, anytime, anywhere, to any device.
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Development / Learning
Demand is high among today’s employees for professional development, but organizations have to provide it in a way that’s easily accessible. People are busy, but they will make time for learning if it’s simple to find. That makes improving learning and development ripe for HR-IT collaboration, especially when it comes to improving the accessibility and consumption of development resources.
For example, adding learning platforms that automate the curation and serving of content by individual interest or skill development need is a big win. This can also extend into new micro-learning platforms and smartphone apps that use gamification and online collaboration where you can discuss key learnings and have accountability. Technology nudges in the form of “Have you practiced this today?†pings help ensure people keep moving through the content, making it personally relevant for employees.
Remote Working
Boosting the digital employee experience is also an ideal way to strengthen engagement with remote workers. It removes roadblocks and opens access to talent located anywhere. As HR and IT partner to enhance remote working tools and workspaces, the efficiencies created lead to the one thing effective remote working require — trust that employees working away from the office will deliver on their commitments.
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Strengthening HR-IT Collaboration
Although many groups have a stake in employee experience, HR and IT are the optimal stewards of culture, values, systems, and physical workspaces. And the survey reveals that, in more successful companies, employee trust in HR and IT around digital employee experience is high.
To build on that trust, HR and IT teams should begin (or continue to) connect systems and processes that track employee sentiment and engagement, then rely on the data coming from all of those areas to measure service and operational success. From there, HR and IT can architect experiences that are as close to what employees need in order to understand what’s going on in their organizations — from strategy and business goals to what’s needed to do a particular job or become certified in a new skill.
Like all relationships, there will be bumps. For example, HR’s excitement about the future state and the innovation possible may need to be tempered by IT teams that want to help but understand that there are real-world costs and limited resources for what’s being proposed. That’s helpful because together, HR and IT can work together prioritize to balance what’s possible against timeframe, budget, and impact.
Our most recent HR-IT collaboration led to greater personalization. HR wanted to deliver more content to employees. IT provided identity-managed services using our digital workspace platformOpens a new window that delivers simple, immediate access to all the apps and data employees need for work. It’s a real win-win for our business. We now recognize each employee as he or she logs in.
We also acknowledge that each employee is part of a function with its own goals, objectives, and priorities. Through the power of technology, employees can keep track of their individual goals while surfacing common and shared goals  so as a company, we’re all working toward the same outcomes.
When HR and IT partner, we really can take the employee experience to the next level.
Learn More:Â The Power of 3: Defining the Employee Experience Category in HR TechOpens a new window