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To Harness Human Creativity, HR Transformation Must Start with the “Moments that Matter”

Published Date
Author Mark Neill

As we all know, in today’s business change is the only constant — a concept that has never been more true in the areas of HR and learning development. 

The advantage that many human resources leaders have is that change starts with people — the people inside their organisations. And it is those organisations that seek to deliver transformation without focusing effectively on their employee experience that risk getting it wrong.

These challenges (and opportunities) for HR leaders are now more complex as we work in an era of multi-generational workforces, of political and economic uncertainty, and of expectations driven by consumer-style, mobile-first technology. Nearly three quarters of employees — 71% – say they expect that the same technology experience they’ve become accustomed to in their personal lives will be replicated inside the workplace.

These expectations and demands apply as much to public sector organisations as they do to the private sector. It’s interesting to note, for example, that the UK’s Government Transformation Strategy 2017-2020 acknowledges as much, drawing a connection between employee engagement and environment. “We want to create empowering workspaces,” the report states, “to help public servants be more productive, to model the future of public service delivery and to instill pride and loyalty in public service.”

It continues: “Modern workspaces will also support our efforts at culture change and help us to attract and retain top talent. By loosening the link between a physical building and a department, we can also help create an agile and responsive government.”

These are laudable aims that must be matched by action. When HR and learning processes are embedded into the transformation processes, success will follow. In practice that means doing three things, at least.

First, it means creating solutions for the individual that are personalised, contextual, interactive and intuitive. At the same time, processes must be integrated, responsive, self-learning and self-served. To put it another way, successful reinvention depends on an employer being able to answer “yes” to the following questions an employee is likely to ask (silently if not audibly):

  • Do you know me?
  • Are you listening to me?
  • Are you learning from me?
  • Is the experience you are delivering built around me?

Second, smart organisations must embrace design thinking. Applying this methodology, teams should focus on what defined personas are thinking, doing, feeling and saying. In doing so, organisations will look beyond functionality and towards experiences that meet employee needs.

Third, it means embedding reinvention into the moments that matter. Moments that matter? Those key milestones an employee encounters throughout their working life. By mapping transformation processes onto those landmark events, an organisation is more likely to succeed. Moments that matter include:

  • Recruitment
  • Onboarding
  • Talent planning
  • Performance reviews
  • Promotions
  • Escalation; and
  • Retirement

At Conduent, we deliver advisory, technology and operating solutions that help transform and HR and learning while mapping to the “moments that matter” for an organizations’ employees. From hire to retire, we offer career-focused technology and services such as HR as a Service (HRaaS), On Premise HR Outsourcing, Global Payroll Services, and Global Health Benefit Services. All are designed to improve the employee experience, talent engagement and productivity. We use analytics to improve our understanding of individual behaviours, provide predictive analytics and tailor future employee interactions. To develop talent and harness creativity, we offer an ecosystem of several different learning tools ensuring employees have a digital, on demand, personalised experience.

For organisations to attract and retain the talent they need to succeed, they must embrace new ways of working, reimagine HR service delivery and create tailored engagement strategies. When change is guaranteed, this is not only a sensible approach, it is the only approach.

To find out more about our Human Resources and Learning Services solutions, visit Conduent.co.uk or contact us at commercialbusiness@conduent.com.

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