(English) The reason why employee experience initiatives fall short

After a decade of growth and historically low unemployment, organizations now find themselves in a much different world. But even as companies are forced to shed jobs and dramatically tighten belts, smart managers must keep their eyes on the horizon: Recessions eventually end, and when this one does, companies in many industries will return to an atmosphere where keeping talent happy is a priority.

That can be a challenge. According to a global study by the research and advisory firm Gartner, in 2019 companies spent an average of $2,420 per person on efforts to enhance the employee experience. Such initiatives typically include flexible work policies, workplace redesigns, and learning and development opportunities, to cite just a few examples. When organizations meet their workers’ experience expectations, the researchers found, they see boosts in effort, productivity, and retention. But the ROI from such initiatives is disappointing: Only 13% of employees in the study reported being fully satisfied with their experience. “Simply investing in these programs is not enough,” says Caroline Walsh, a vice president in Gartner’s human resources practice. “Companies taking that approach only drive up expectations,” creating a vicious cycle in which employee desires and organizational spending fuel each other.

Calibrating expectations

Most companies ask employees what they want from their work experience—but too often they stop there. “Expectations are relative,” Walsh says, pointing out that they are influenced by prior jobs, personal events, peers, and other factors. They may also be incomplete: Research shows that only about a fifth of employees are candid about their wishes. And those may be infeasible or impossible to implement.

Finally, rather than issue top-down, blanket directives about what to expect, managers should engage in one-on-one dialogues to align each employee’s hoped-for experience with the organizational vision. 

Personalizing the day-to-day experience

Employees might fear repercussions from voicing their requests, so leaders need to create a psychologically safe environment for discussions. To keep people from being overwhelmed by possibilities, managers can provide each worker with a set of relevant choices—for instance, personalized suggestions for training opportunities. They can create default options to make it easier to act. And they can connect employees with others in the organization who have insights to share.

Shaping memories—both good and bad

Organizations often focus on responding to negative experiences with all possible speed—but that doesn’t always help, and it can mean engaging in issues that don’t actually matter much to employees or the business. Managers should borrow a leaf from the customer-experience book and take a long view, concentrating on how employees will recall their experience over time and focusing on salient events rather than on incidents, such as technology glitches, that may feel urgent in the moment but quickly fade. 

They can seek to reframe memories of negative experiences by acknowledging that a problem occurred and emphasizing that because of the employee’s feedback, things will go better in the future. 

(Source: https://hbr.org/2020/07/why-employee-experience-initiatives-fall-short)

terra Outsourcing – One of the ways to enhance the working environment for employees

The HR staff becomes overworked, stressed, or even disinterested in their work as a result of improper employee classifications, inaccurate timesheets, inaccurate data, and late payroll processing, among a host of other issues. For this reason, terra Outsourcing – payroll outsourcing service, is being developed by Vina Payroll Outsourcing Co., Ltd (VPO). terra Outsourcing is a service that enables organizations to enhance the HR staff experience via the integration of technology and services. Since the working environment largely determines an employee’s experience, terra Outsourcing provides the following services:

– Management of Employee Information

– Payroll

– Social insurance

– Union

– Business personal income tax

– Salary payment

When businesses use the terra Outsourcing service, all issues and challenges with the HR department will be totally resolved. terra will take up those administrative responsibilities from the human resources department, enhancing their efficiency. After that, the human resources division will have more time to devote to formulating plans to enhance the working conditions for all corporate personnel.

Learn more about terra‘s services here.