Alice Chambers |
Business leaders are worried about the widening gap between employer and employee expectations, exemplified by the number of workers planning to quit their job within 12 months having increased by 19 per cent in PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2023.
However, Opal Wagnac, senior vice president of market and product strategy at isolved, asserts that while it may seem like employee expectations – such as views on flexible working hours or remote work opportunities – are spiralling, the reality is quite different.
“It may appear that employee expectations are out of control, but our recent human resources (HR) leaders report showed this isn’t the case,” she says. “We surveyed over 1,000 HR decision makers and 76 per cent say that employee expectations are not out of control because they think employees deserve a good experience at work.”
According to Wagnac, to deliver a good work experience, organisations must focus on improving employee engagement.
“For a long time, people talked about employee engagement as something companies do but they haven’t measured the impact it has on other areas of the business,” she says. “A good work experience shows up in business outcomes like improved profitability, productivity and innovation. However, if people are tired and frustrated, these outcomes will take a hit.”
Wagnac explains that employees now want their work experiences to reflect their personal experiences. “As consumers, we interact with technology all the time outside of work, and we expect to do the same as employees too,” she says. “We live like the Jetsons, but we work like the Flintstones. If you’re used to a world where technology can provide you with answers quickly but you have to find them yourself at work, it’s bound to cause you some unhappiness in your job.”
United Archives GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
isolved’s fourth annual HR Leaders Report, Champions of Change, supports this with 90 per cent of employees saying that the experience they have at work will directly impact how they choose to work. One way organisations can improve employee experience is by encouraging professional development.
“From the onboarding process, employees should be presented with a curriculum of training materials,” says Wagnac. “Our report found that 58 per cent of employees look for a new role within a year, so retaining talent is a top priority for many businesses. Often, people assume that someone wants to be in their manager’s shoes but that’s not always the case. Artificial intelligence-powered tools can help managers to understand employee intent and cultivate the skills they need for their dream roles. We believe AI can turn the corner on embracing employee expectations and creating a space for them to thrive.”
AI can also help to improve communication between employees and their HR teams to create better work experiences.
“Communication is power, and businesses relinquish that power if they’re not able to communicate effectively,” says Wagnac. “AI can help to better engage people. For example, chatbots are able to serve up information to employees or can be programmed to offer personalised HR services. If an employee has a baby, a chatbot could update their tax forms automatically for them after their due date or it could remind them what their maternity leave policy is.”
isolved’s report found that 71 per cent of employees desire these types of self-service capabilities, which empower employees to find the answers that they need to HR-related questions while also reducing the amount of repetitive questions HR leaders receive.
Another way organisations can empower their employees is to invest in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B) strategies.
“The data from predictive analytics is where HR teams can set DEI&B goals,” says Wagnac. “AI can spot if diversity drops off in roles after a certain amount of time and hold departments within a business accountable, especially when it comes to marginalised groups. If we truly want to move forward with DEI&B, we have to seek certain groups of qualified candidates from large volumes of applications. It’s challenging but AI allows HR teams to intentionally pursue hiring goals by tailoring job descriptions, so they are unbiased.”
The recent isolved report indicates that 65 per cent of HR leaders agreed that AI-powered tools helped them to find the right candidates for roles. AI can also assist with many of the tasks inundating HR teams, such as assisting with onboarding and benefits administration.
“Overall, it’s important that everyone has an open mind when it comes to this type of technology,” says Wagnac. “There’s always someone that braces for impact when they hear the letters A and I together but it’s part of our everyday language and the more businesses that understand its benefits for employee engagement, the better the world of work will become.”
This article was originally published in the Summer 2024 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.