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STORY
Employee Experience: Provided or created?
The Hierarchy of Needs explains, we can all have widely different hopes and expectations, and even these change over time By Clinton Wingrove
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reating neologistic words and phrases is a strong skill in the HR profession. And the speed at which we are creating such new names for HR concepts, processes, and tools is accelerating just like advances in technology. Now, we are all concentrating on “Employee Experience” … as if, for decades, how employees have felt has not mattered and we have miraculously discovered this new magic | may 2021
wand that will unleash every individual’s real potential and transform our organization’s performance. Of course, Employee Experience is critically important. It has been for generations. But it is a very complex, not simple, issue. Individuals are just that – individuals, with unique combinations of aspirations, capability, and needs. As even Maslow’s simple model, The Hierarchy of Needs explains, we can all have widely different hopes and expectations, and even these change over time. So, our challenge continues to be to create working environments that can cater not merely for the average or norm but the full range of those hopes and expectations of our employees. Only then will employees have truly positive experiences. Most organizations have a percentage of employees who already have extremely positive experiences – studies have suggested an average of around 12%. But, clearly, the prevailing
culture and working environment has not worked for the other 88%. When focusing on Employee Experience, we may ignore at our peril the critically important and highly sensitive issue of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). Specific incidents, social media, legislation, and general societal pressure have forced this to the top of most organization’s agendas. Our success in each organization at dealing with it will be key to our achievement of a truly widespread positive Employee Experience and raising that 12% figure. Organizations have worked hard to improve their diversity as part of their way of addressing Employee Experience. Many, for example, have gone well beyond addressing the issues of gender, race, and sexual orientation. Neurodiversity is even one of the newer characteristics being looked at. Unfortunately, success at achieving diversity can so
Our challenge continues to be to create working environments that can cater not merely for the average or norm but the full range of those hopes and expectations of our employees
