Employee experience has risen to the top of the agenda for the coming year, with human resources expected to consider all people's needs and demands.

FREMONT, CA: The past few years have placed a separate spotlight on the changing priorities of employees like well-being, flexibility, engagement, and purpose, triggering global labour trends like great resignation and quiet quitting. Tackling the various needs of employees has shown the inapplicability of traditional systems ushering in innovations in the way organisations deal with their staff that is out of the business-as-usual approach and towards a people-centred structure.

Employees, on the other hand, expect organisations to be more systematic and prepared to meet their needs in the future. Human resources specifically are expected to observe every individual’s needs, which was highlighted before as one aspect of the employee experience.

A recent survey revealed that many HR leaders around the world opine that employee experience is their top priority for the coming year. The goal is to offer a positive employee experience, attract talent, and reduce attrition. Moreover, a positive employee experience includes everything from onboarding, salary, and benefits to support, engagement, well-being, flexibility, and more. This indicated that an HR task requires close collaboration with other departments.

As it takes an entire company working together to provide a positive employee experience, HR can lay the foundations for helping firms reach their objectives, and it is concerning that an aspect of people management is ignored to foster open communications.

Developing a Culture of Open Conversations

The principle behind open conversations in the workplace is that both management and employees get to express or voice their needs and sentiments and hear each other. Although this seems like a simple process, it is hard to pull off in an organisational setting. It is more difficult when considering the various studies pointing out the fact that most employees do not trust their HR leaders, viewing them as company people rather than pro-people.

Furthermore, this is where the opportunity lies and the human resources sector can initiate projects that will open various channels for communications depending on the possible exchanges between management and people. For instance, a suggestion box for ideas and concepts from virtually anywhere is an optimal way to involve people in improving products, services, and even processes. Moreover, HR can facilitate an annual meeting to accommodate questions from the employees. They can open a helpline through email, messenger, or other messaging platforms for workers who would like to disclose sensitive matters such as office bullying, harassment, micromanagement, and other possible tough conversations.

A company’s culture and employee experience are linked to its productivity. Therefore, HR should improve the employee experience, ensure their well-being, and help organisations optimise the efforts of their workforce.