A unique employee experience gives organisations a competitive advantage, so why aren’t all companies focusing on it? Paul Gilliam, HR director UK & Ireland at L’Oreal, dispels some commonly-held beliefs
Myth 1. Employee experience is costly
Success is not reliant on spending lots of money and resource. There are plenty of tools out there that can be harnessed at low cost or even for free. As long as you understand your employee segments well, you can deliver great experiences cost-effectively. We do YouTube-style videos in our Ask HR team to explain key elements of policies, such as maternity, where we get asked the same questions many times. It is engaging and in a format that the employee would normally consume outside of work, so gives a better employee experience, as well as some efficiency for the team. You can do this on a mobile phone like a vlogger so there is no cost
Myth 2. Employee experience is about technology
Technology is an enabler, not a solution. Beware: there are many providers selling solutions that focus on making it easier for HR to deliver rather than focusing on the actual employee experience. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the average employee doesn’t care if the company’s HR department is world-leading or best-in-class. Make sure your technology is fit for purpose, enabling experiences that resonate with your employees. What’s vital is that you regularly listen and measure. Data is at the heart of this. For example, we do pulse surveys that take less than five minutes for employees to do and we get the results that day. It is super speedy, easy and not expensive
Myth 3. One size fits all
Employee experience is very situational. What works in some organisations will not work in others. Nor will the same approach necessarily work in other regions or even divisions within an organisation. At L’Oreal, for example, our mothership is in Paris but we have found some of our ideas do not translate well there while some of theirs do not work in the UK. Or take our field sales people. They are different from those that work in retail. Their office is their car and this is the most important thing to them, followed by how they get their expenses. Just moving irritations in these areas improves their experience dramatically
Myth 4. Employee experience is an HR issue
Of course HR is core to delivering a great employee experience but it’s not just about HR. Make friends with your IT department (not always easy to get onside!), the owner of your physical environment and your marketing and digital people. You will need them all. It’s a huge mistake to avoid marketing. You need to learn lessons from the consumer experience and apply them to the employee experience.