A first, critical step in the process of rethinking the employee experience is for leaders to learn what their people truly need. While we all know how important it is to be data driven, according to Slack’s future forum report, 66 percent of executives reported that they’re designing their post-pandemic workforce policies with little to no input from their employees. The result is that many organizations are rolling out “one-size-fits-none” policies and approaches at scale. Such data-less policy decisions are not the result of malice or disinterest but frequently come down to the time and resources required to collect and make sense of employee data. (And no, a quick survey asking how many days a week your employees want to work from home won’t cut it.)
Leaders need tools that allow them to efficiently, effectively, and rigorously learn what their diverse group of employees actually needs so that they can craft policies accordingly. The good news is that organizations have been tackling a similar data-collection and interpretation challenge for years when it comes to understanding the differentiated needs of their clients.
For the past 10 years, in our respective work (Marilyn’s as a consultant and Mark’s as a researcher, scholar, and advisor), we’ve been applying techniques typically used to understand users and customers to the design of employee experiences. By turning these techniques inward, we’ve helped many organizations gain a nuanced understanding of their employees’ needs and preferences in an efficient and cost-effective manner — understanding they’ve used to craft better-fitting and more sustainable employee experiences.
Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.