Managing the Changing Employment Relationship and Reinventing Employee Experience

Managing the Changing Employment Relationship Tracy Keogh Dave Ulrich

Reinventing the employee experience Tectonic shifts are redefining the employment relationship Remote or hybrid work is both scalable and expected Employees of all generations are rethinking values and ambitions Social, emotional, and environmental changes are shaping the workplace AI and changing technology are creating new challenges Labor shortages are shaping new workforce expectations Employer actions (malfeasance, insolvencies, layoffs, instability) have broken trust To attract, develop, and retain top talent, employers must build the capability to deal with these increasingly rapid shifts in the employment experience. 2

Quick Poll - Download Slido app or scan Slido QR code - Poll number is 6943051 On a scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent): How well are you managing the evolving employee experience right now? 3

The war for talent is over - Talent won! Continuous, two-way communications; analyzing data to identify issues Frequent communication, primarily one way Supporting all aspects of an employee s life holistically; programming for the whole family Employee-centric programming Continuously re-recruiting; compelling vision and EVP Recruiting employees once Embracing/supporting employees holistically, including mental, financial, and social wellness Ignoring mental health in the workplace FROM Moving quickly, experimenting, course correcting, pivoting Following overly prescribed methodologies TO Hierarchies flattened with leaders managing uncertainty; trusting employees; transparency and purpose Hierarchies with directive senior leaders; command and control Stable, long-tenured employment Employee churn; semi-permeable organizational membranes Multiple employer relationships Majority of employees on-site; one dominant employee experience Technology as a nice-to-have Criticality of technology in creating employee experience and productivity/AI All powerful employer Employee in the driver s seat; employee as customer 4

Two Dimensions of Personalization Personalize: Care for each person respecting their individual wants and needs Personalize: Tailor work setting to individuals needs (flexibility in who, where, what, how work is done) Employee Experience What employees want and get from their work: be safe, believe, become, belong Engagement Employee sentiment Intrinsic attitudes (well-being, meaning, flourish) that denote employees enthusiasm for their job Commitment Being connected through identity or work systems to job, team, organization Satisfaction Extent to which employee likes job and aspects of the job: affect, attitudes, etc. Motivation/Motives Forces that initiate work-related behavior (expectancy, goals setting, personal traits, job characteristics) 5

What issues are having the greatest impact now? 1) Returning to the office Your leadership team may want employees back, but do employees want to return? 2) Reenergizing employees Is your workforce feeling malaise about work, and how are you reengaging them? 3) Recruiting and retaining top talent Have you updated your EVP since COVID, and does it align with your business? 4) Building the capacity for change How are you preparing yourself, your team, and your org for the changing reality? 5) Communicating effectively How are you staying in touch with your workforce? 6) Measuring organizational health Are you running experiments across your org? 7) Generative AI How are you adapting to generative AI and other developments? 6

5 things you can do right now To improve the employment relationship Build change capacity into your team Communicate effectively to build trust Personalize and scale the employee experience Embrace technology to affect the employee experience Experiment think big, test small, fail fast, learn always 7

Thank you 8