Creating human centric employee experiences

Human resources departments have always had to balance the twin imperatives of satisfying employees and keeping costs down. It’s never been an easy assignment and many factors make it more difficult now than ever.

To start, today’s employees are more mobile, creating more demands on the physical and digital workplace. They know their skills and talents are sought after, and they’re not afraid to explore their own career development options.  Multiple studies confirm that workers now are far more aware of their opportunities, far less loyal to employers, and far more likely to leave when their on-the-job experiences fail to meet their expectations.

Many of them grew up in the digital age with instantaneous answers and one-click solutions at their fingertips. They expect their work environment to be just as tech enabled as the other areas of their lives.

As a result, we often see serious disconnects between today’s digital-first workers and yesterday’s analog ways. Many HR departments remain process-based; committed to a linear, one-step-at-a-time methodology designed in a previous era. These processes can frustrate workers who must do their own legwork to find information about career advancement, vacation policies, medical leave, relocation, onboarding, etc. They would prefer information simply be served up when relevant.

A win-win-win

Fortunately, the KPMG methodology helps HR organizations design, build and operate around “moments that matter” – the experiences that most affect employees during their careers. This human-centric approach, enabled by the ServiceNow industry-leading enterprise workflow platform, makes it possible for organizations to- create an experience for employees that can raise satisfaction, lower the cost of retention, and increase the efficiency of HR operations at the same time – a win-win-win! And it works with existing systems–no need to ask IT to ‘rip and replace’ anything.

The employee-centric experience resonates emotionally, too. It demonstrates that HR has heard, recognized, and thought through employee concerns. HR not only answers their questions but supports them as people. And the more employees feel recognized and empowered, the stronger the ties between organization and individual.

Based on what we are hearing from clients, what matters most to employees today is the arc of their careers. They’re eager to own their talent profiles, grow their skills and direct their futures. Keenly interested in the paths available to them, they want to know employers will invest in tools and training to help them achieve their goals.

KPMG has developed those tools and training frameworks. Our structured preparatory programs – delivered via videos, podcasts, and other curated packages – are geared to helped clients improve employee satisfaction and lower HR operational costs.

Real world examples

One KPMG client reported revenue and profit growth 300% above peer rates and note an 18% reduction in employee turnover. We have also seen, when organizations pivot their focus to an employee digital experience design and build approach, they have been able to reduce the number of systems by 25%, and trim costs by 11% annually. In another case, this combination of curated content and automated delivery boosted HR efficiency by 25%, cut administrative activities in half, and saved a combined USD23 million. These results have been seen across multiple industries and business models.

As the digital workplace becomes continually more cloud-native and enabled by connected data and AI-powered technologies like ServiceNow, these more efficient solutions also translate into more effective and efficient technology landscape.  They help reduce application redundancy, increate process standardization, and improve wall-to-wall enterprise connectedness.

With a human-centric design framework and supporting technology, organizations can systematize the delivery of curated content and make each employee experience less stressful and more fulfilling.  It creates better connected technologies supporting the workforce in their flow of work, not structure rigid processes in separate systems.  It’s a transformative change, one that can improve employee satisfaction and ultimately strengthen your competitive position.