Employee Experience Develop a Happy, Productive and Supported Workforce for Exceptional Individual and Business Performance

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PRAISE FOR EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

‘Ben Whitter has woven the multiple strands of treating employees well into an integrated employee experience agenda. His work is comprehensive, insightful and pragmatic and will help any business or HR leader make real progress.’

Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and Partner, The RBL Group

‘Navigating the complexities of employee experience has become the biggest differentiator of great workplaces. At last, a book that gives us the route map.’

Bruce Daisley, Vice President EMEA, Twitter

‘This book is fascinating! Ben Whitter presents a compelling case for why employee experience should be a top priority for any organization as we look to re-imagine the important role of work – as humans, organizations and society as a whole. The concepts discussed are very pragmatic and the important link to individual and business outcomes is profound.’

Colleen Schuller, Vice President, Head of Employee Experience, GSK

‘Employee experience is a clear business imperative and strategic enabler, and in this book Ben Whitter brings this to life with great passion and clarity.

His HEX framework captures the essentials wonderfully and can be used by all to understand, diagnose, contextualize and strategize their own EX journey. Ben’s excellent case studies make both the model and content real and come to life for all to understand, and the fact that these come from some of the most successful companies across many sectors and geographies shows this work is genuine and demonstrable.’

Andrew Longley, Global Senior Director of Talent, Adidas

‘A must-have blueprint for any CEO or people leader looking to create a long-term sustainable culture leading to positive business outcomes.’

Graham Donoghue, Chief Executive Officer, Sykes Holiday Cottages

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‘Traditional HR is going through a massive disruption – and needs to.

Without a purpose-led employee experience embedded into your culture and across your organization it is more difficult, if not impossible, to create a sustainable business model that will survive the good and the bad times. Ben Whitter’s book provides a practical toolkit for any HR professional who really wants to bring alive what an organization stands for and the part their employees need to play.’

Dale Parmenter, CEO, DRPG

‘Globally, employee experience is really big news, and leading this new workplace agenda is Ben Whitter with his book Employee Experience. A must-read, it will have a positive impact for companies using Ben’s methods, as well as individual executives looking to improve their careers. I highly recommend this read.’

Shaun Rein, Founder and Managing Director, China Market Research Group (CMR), and author, The War for China’s Wallet: Profiting from the new world order

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Employee Experience

Develop a happy, productive and supported workforce for exceptional individual and business performance

Second Edition

Ben Whitter

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First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2019 by Kogan Page Limited Second edition published 2023

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be repro- duced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and li- cences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:

Publisher’s note

Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author.

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The right of Ben Whitter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBNs

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This book is dedicated to the Whitwahs, Harry and Emmie – the most important part of my human experience

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ben Whitter is the CEO of HEX Organization and the Founder of the World Employee Experience Institute (WEEI). His previous book, Employee Experience (2019), was also published by Kogan Page.

Ben was recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the top management thinkers in the world for 2021 for his ‘compelling’ EX research. Ben is best known for pioneering and popularizing the concept of employee experience worldwide. He shares his work and research through popular keynotes, advisory services, executive coaching and the global HEX Practitioner Programme.

His work has reached 18 million people, inspired the first EX conferences, and has been featured in publications and by organizations including The Times, the Telegraph, Forbes, the Financial Times, The Economist, MIT Sloan, Thomson Reuters, People Management and HR publications worldwide. His acclaimed 2015 article, ‘Bye, Bye HR’, introduced employee experience to a global audience of one million. His content online and across publications is respected and recognized throughout the business world.

In 2021, Ben was formally named by HR Magazine as one of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers, and he was also voted onto the list of top 30 global keynote speakers on the topic of organizational culture by Global Gurus.

Ben is a prolific global keynote speaker on human and employee experience topics and has introduced his ideas to audiences in more than 30 countries. His background as a multi-award-winning practitioner has created a strong foundation on which to build his research and ideas. Ben has lived and worked in six countries including the UK, Australia and Japan, and for three years was the Director of Organizational Development at China’s leading international university. As a result, Ben brings a deep global and local perspective to his work, which informs his approach as a frequent adviser, speaker and strategic coach to the world’s top global companies. Ben supports organizations in the development of their holistic, human-centred

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and experience-driven business strategies. In normal times, Ben spends most of his time between England, Wales and China, but the world is his workplace. You can work directly with him through HEX Organization, whose clients include companies such as JP Morgan Chase, Ogilvy, Suntory, GSK, Sanofi, Chubb, Deutsche Telekom, FedEx and many more. Explore partnership services and join the HEX Nation at www.hexorganization.com

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FOREWORD

Why employee experience has become a tornado

The term ‘employee experience’ appeared only a few years ago, and it has now become one of the most important (and least understood) ideas in HR and business. And, as Ben Whitter describes in this book, it has become an imperative for success.

Why has this topic become so important? There are three colliding forces that bring us to where we are.

First, companies are more dependent on their people than ever before. Even though digital business models have invaded every industry, what my research shows is that agility, empathy, service and rapid response to change are now the most important drivers of success. So if your people are confused, overwhelmed, or unproductive, you simply cannot grow.

Second, technology has got ahead of us. Most of the employee experience projects I come across are companies dealing with too many systems, too many messages and a technology experience that is over- whelming to most people. While we all love artificial intelligence (AI) and the new tools we carry around every day, it is now HR’s job to work with IT and make this all simpler and healthier for employers.

Third, we have an enormous need to improve productivity. As I like to put it, every company needs to do a ‘Marie Kondo’ project to create focus and alignment. The old adage, ‘we need to do more with less’ is being replaced with a better idea, ‘we need to do less with less’.

In other words, companies today have too many projects, too many ideas, and this results in employee burnout, lack of alignment and low productivity.

Employee Experience is a great overview of this expanding market and all the issues we face. As you’ll read about here, EX is a problem of better alignment between HR, finance and IT; it is a problem of

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design thinking and empathy; and it is a job of working with business leaders to make sure we know what is important and what is not.

Finally, let me reinforce Ben’s idea of HEX (holistic employee experience). We developed a model we call Simply Irresistible, which shows how all the elements of work fit together to give employees a sense of purpose, growth and excitement. Employee experience is not a project, it’s a never-ending journey – one which can make your company, your team and your people more energized than ever.

Thank you Ben for pushing this space forward; it’s one of the most important investments organizations can make in the years ahead.

Josh Bersin Global Industry Analyst – Corporate HR, Talent Management and Leadership

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I sincerely thank every employee I have ever worked with or supported throughout my career. It is you who has inspired me to write this book. The real value in the economy is created by people. I have never doubted this for a second and this book is a homage to you.

My appreciation goes out to the organizations and colleagues who have co-created with me over the years. It’s been a great journey and I thank you for being part of my experience.

I would like to send a hearty personal thanks to the colleagues who kindly shared their experiences for the book including Mark Levy, Sheena Doyle, Graham Donoghue, Juliet Harbottle, Alison Todd, Katie Banks, Nico Angelo, A. Mallillin, Sasha Watson, Mauricio Estrella, Lorraine Salloum, Dale Parmenter and Monir Azzouzi.

Thanks to the team at Kogan Page for investing in this idea and working with me throughout the commissioning, writing and production process. A special thank you to the commissioning editor, Lucy Carter, for making this book happen, to Stephen Dunnell, for his wise advice and feedback as the manuscript developed, and to the production editor, who helped sharpen the final product. Thanks also to colleagues involved in marketing the book and helping the message of EX reach the world.

Colleagues, past and present, and those I now work with globally through the World Employee Experience Institute (WEEI), I am grate- ful for many wonderful moments in my EX, and it’s all thanks to you.

I am also thankful for the many partners worldwide who were the early adopters of my ideas on EX through conferences, seminars, media and publications.

Thanks to my colleague Josh Bersin for writing an inspiring and impactful Foreword, which serves as an excellent way to begin the journey through the book.

A special mention to Dr Xuan Feng, a long-time collaborator in China who has been consistently supportive of my mission as I shaped my global and holistic vision for EX. Our work together at the

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University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) was the first of its kind as we integrated the EX concept into degree programmes as a key element of the business curriculum. Every journey begins with the first step.

Finally, thank you to my family in the UK, China, and my parents in Australia, for their constant belief and support. Family is not a place, it’s a feeling, and you have helped me make an impact in the world.

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Introduction

As humans, we know that our experiences matter, are meaningful, and can inspire us to do and become things we never thought possible. Every experience counts and over a lifetime we accumulate an incredible collection of moments, memories and feelings that serve as a guide for our life. They affect us deeply and determine the way we think, what we believe and how we go about our business. Our experiences define us, shape us and cultivate the outcomes we seek to achieve.

It’s very much the same for companies too. The moment someone hears about a company, the experience has begun, and every interaction contributes to the core purpose and mission of the business.

Results, both business and human, are powerful indicators along the way that the experience is flowing and offers valuable lessons that provoke action to either correct course or double-down on successful practices and developments. Immersing the five senses, organizations have amazing opportunities every day to connect at a deeper and more meaningful level with people and deliver memorable, business- growing interactions.

What must we do then if we are to provide an exceptional experience for customers? The compelling answer coming back from the world’s leading brands is definitive – we must also take great care in delivering an exceptional employee experience. An experience that nurtures high-quality human-centred interactions that resonate with all that we are as human-beings.

In short, experience is everything.

We are only human, but being human is our greatest gift. The opportunity to feel, to love, to learn, to connect and to create are the hallmarks of human society. To be human in this world is to access our profound ability to emphasize and care about the world around us. It’s not all about profit. It’s about people and purpose. Our values

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and our principles. What we stand for and what we stand against.

The freedom to be unapologetically human. It has taken a very long time for workplaces to embrace the humanity within their walls.

There are exceptions, but it still feels like the world is trying to find its feet in creating companies that bring out the best in us, and enable us to fully embrace the experiences we are having to deliver more and become more.

People inspire and amaze me constantly. Not the icons or celebri- ties, but ordinary people. This is one of the reasons I started a career in business through HR. I certainly find joy when working directly with employees, and continue to do so. I used to run development programmes in my spare time for people in real need and for those who were losing hope or wanted some support. What I witnessed during those programmes was genuinely remarkable. Not because of me, but because of them. Their ability to support, help and connect with each other. The role of the company then, in my mind, is to facilitate a strong sense of belonging and community as a priority. It’s amazing how good, happy and inspired we can feel at work when we know we belong. But we know when we don’t, which can be some of the most challenging times in our lives.

In this sense, it is clear we derive a large part of our identity from what we do, where we do it and why we do it. Our role in life and work. Wise and progressive companies have started to realize that to unleash the potential of the workforce, they need to thoughtfully, and strategically, develop the employee experience (EX). This I define as the intentional design and engineering of a high-value, integrated and end-to-end experience. From pre-hire to retire, using the holistic employee experience as a lens, we can maximize all the interactions an individual has with an employer over the long term to create a deep sense of belonging and co-create high performance and stronger business outcomes. This definition, co-created with colleagues on the front line of EX, captures many of the elements that we think are critically important when thinking about and building experiences that positively impact business and humans. And when I say experience is everything, I mean it.

Exceptional experiences can create highly engaged people and communities with the potential to deliver astounding business results.

Poor-quality experiences prevent high performance from occurring

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and can send businesses into bankruptcy and ruin. EX has recently gained serious traction at all levels of the economy because companies are immediately seeing the benefits of placing humans at the centre of their business strategy, and co-creating well-designed experiences that generate positive feelings, emotions and connections. But where has all this come from and why is EX such a hot concept for companies worldwide?

To truly understand this, we need to understand the progress of humanity, business and society-at-large, and at no time in history have we seen a greater pace of change and transformation within the economy and society. In the first chapter, we will explore some of the reasons why employee experience is being positioned as a primary path to high engagement, performance and productivity outcomes across the economy. HR has a key role to play within EX as do leaders and employee-facing functions within a company. For HR, the next few years will prove to be a defining moment. Indeed, EX is lending great credibility to the thought that HR’s best time is yet to come, and this relentless focus on the ‘experience’ of work for employees is inspiring all generations to rethink what work is and how to get the best personal, professional and business results.

Much of what the best companies and the best individuals out there espouse is automatically claimed to be common sense. This in turn leads to the false perception that it is easy to do and apply. Treat your employees well, and they will treat your customers well. Simple.

Yet, here’s the truth. It’s not easy to do at all. In fact, for many organizations, it is one of the biggest challenges of all. This book then aims to help, guide and support you on your journey with EX and is an outcome of my experience of being immersed in this field for several years across over 15 countries, contexts and cultures. While I am a practitioner at heart, EX has been transformative for me on a personal and professional level – it has fundamentally changed my life. I am now fortunate enough to be able to share my work, ideas and research with audiences all over the world, and advise and support some of the world’s leading organizations as they establish and continue to elevate their own global and local EX strategies.

It is an honour to share this journey with you – welcome, and enjoy the experience.

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Why employee experience is a business

imperative

Customer and employee experience

Companies up until recent years have been guilty of developing EX almost by accident rather than design. The focus on the quality of the experience for employees has unfolded at a much slower rate when compared to the customer experience (CX). We know this, don’t we?

The priority within many organizations has been high-quality experiences for customers, not employees. Indeed, the way in which our organizations have been built has delivered, most frequently, a very poorly connected experience in work supported by fragmented engagement initiatives and massive gaps between employees and the company. Despite an abundance of research pointing to firm conclu- sions that creating an engaged organization delivers superior business performance and profit, why have companies continued to simply go through the motions, or deal with this in such an uncom- mitted way?

One view is that it simply hasn’t mattered much until now.

Operational excellence has been enough. Fast, efficient and quality have been the buzzwords and the backbone of successful value crea- tion. Not part of the corporate lexicon until recent years, the notion of experience has gained some serious admirers. Consumers are de- manding much more when they interact with a brand. Pine and Gilmore (1999) got us thinking about the 4Es (Figure 1.1), which consisted of adding educational, esthetic, escapist and entertainment experiences to our business and brand approach.

01

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Business then is not just about serving, but providing memorable experiences that appeal to our senses and create a long-term connection. This keeps customers coming back by providing real experiences at various touchpoints, or moments of interaction. As Pine and Gilmore suggest, the experience economy has well and truly arrived.

Indeed, a reported three out of four millennials, those born between 1980 and 1996, prefer experiences over things (Eventbrite, 2017) and are backing those preferences with their money and lifestyle choices. This, combined with the growing shared economy, is directly changing society and the world around us.

This understanding and its application in practice has been truly transformative in moving businesses from customer service to customer experience. Delivering high-quality experiences that have been designed with a deep empathy for the customer produces excellent results across the whole customer journey. It was only a matter of time before this level of focus on ‘experience’ was transferred to the workplace. How can you compete on customer experience if you can’t compete on employee experience? Our experiences converge when customers and employees meet. It is the ultimate test of business. Is the system and business model doing what it should? Are people empowered and confident on the front line? Are leaders inspiring and creating the conditions for success? If companies are customer obsessed, is this being reflected in the performance data? Do the values hold firm and true throughout the CX and EX?

Employees are consumers too and they are not failing to notice the incredible experiences that are now happening in their daily lives.

Seamless, quick and integrated experiences. The way we go about our business these days is truly an experience, and employees are right to compare the level of experience they have on the outside with the level of experience they have on the inside of organizations. Fuelled by tech, but led by humans, the experience economy has dramatically Figure 1.1 The 4Es (Pine and Gilmore, 1999)

Esthetic Escapist

Educational Entertainment

--- Brand experiences

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altered every inch of our lives. For companies being disrupted by their experience-focused competitors and customers, there is no choice but to invest in EX and CX.

Technology and employee experience

‘We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike any- thing humankind has experienced before’ (Schwab, 2015). Our colleague, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, makes a valid point, and the implications for employment are clear.

The challenge though is not a simple one. Unemployment, as Bersin pointed out, is at a reported 30-year low in the US and developed markets are reporting high employment rates. Yet, we need to be conscious that our relationship with technology and employees is creating a different set of challenges. Notably, trust issues as technology starts to dominate our lives and workplaces, skills gaps when trying to secure or fill roles, increased stress on companies to be competitive in the labour market and this feeling that employees are becoming overwhelmed with organizational complexity. The other area of major concern is the quality of life associated with jobs that are not keeping up with inflation and rising living costs (Bersin, 2018).

Do the jobs figures globally reflect the quality of the actual work or employment? This is another area that companies are navigating in the way they establish their workforce and related practices with the rising impact of portfolio careers, the gig economy and more flexible ways of shaping careers. These are very competitive and challenging conditions for companies to attract and retain the best talent. If the war for talent is over, and talent won, then this economy is reflecting that. It is getting incredibly noisy and crowded as businesses switch on to the fact that they are now in competition with completely different sectors and companies that they are not used to competing with. Given these conditions, EX is rightly being

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viewed not only as a significant strategic advantage, but also as a primary way of differentiating one brand from another.

In relation to the technological advances that are driving change, The Future of Jobs Report 2018 (World Economic Forum, 2018) presents four specific areas, which are shaping not just the future of jobs, but also large parts of the EX:

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● ubiquitous high-speed mobile internet;

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● artificial intelligence;

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● widespread adoption of big data analytics;

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● cloud technology.

We now have the capacity and capability to provide consumer-level digital experiences in work, sophisticated and intelligent people analytics to inform EX, and organizational development and AI that is being deployed in a range of ways to create efficiency outcomes at scale. These connected add up to major change in how work is con- figured in the modern organization. The integration of technology and humans within how work gets done will be the prominent topic in the next few years.

Inevitably, when we discuss technology, alarm bells sound around the perception that the robots are coming to kill jobs across the economy. I recall being sat in a restaurant in Shanghai surrounded by robot waiters, which was enough to prompt speculation about the ongoing integration of advanced technology into the workplace.

Alibaba, JD.com and Amazon, of course, have already implemented a robotic army of workers to act as pickers within their giant fulfil- ment centres, displacing jobs. Depending on your point of view, this is either an opportunity to eliminate low-skilled jobs across the global economy and replace them with better jobs, better prospects and better conditions for a large section of the population, or it is a danger- ous path, which leads to mass unemployment and unprecedented inequality within society. The role of organizations will inevitably change as a result, and we are seeing this already with consumers challenging brands to stand for something more than profit and to place societal causes within their business strategies. This is a growing concern for EX.

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Ocado, a British online grocery company now valued at upwards of £5.7 billion, has successfully integrated AI technology with air- traffic-control systems to manage 700 robots in its customer fulfill- ment centres. The Economist (2018) reports that their innovative grid system, known as ‘The Hive’ is the most technologically advanced in the world and involves the robots bringing together customer orders, with humans finalizing each order at a picking station.

Humans and AI working together to deliver 65,000 orders per week.

The system has been sold to major US supermarkets and is already being expanded. This really is at the leading edge and we are seeing almost daily examples of new innovations within the workplace that improve productivity levels by reshaping the roles that humans play within an automated system or network.

Colleagues in HR and business functions are now routinely asking questions about how technology can improve core business and human outcomes while developing the skills needed within the workforce for the future. It is never simply just about bringing in new people with the in-demand skills and capabilities, and sometimes that choice is not even an option. AT&T, America’s world-leading media company, had a choice; either buy in talent at high cost or retrain their enormous workforce in digital and future-focused skills. ‘If it succeeds, by 2020 AT&T will have re-educated 100,000 employees for new jobs with cutting-edge skills and, in the process, created the kind of nimble workforce it needs to compete in the 21st century’

(Caminiti, 2018). This massive reskilling of the workforce is indicative on a large scale of what companies are bracing themselves for.

AT&T realized through their early research that many of their workers were in jobs that would cease to exist over the next decade, and the cost of hiring people to fill or replace roles didn’t make much sense to consider.

Companies are entering a new frontier with the digital customer and employee experience. A powerful example of this digital lifestyle comes from China, and the irrepressible WeChat, an app that keeps people connected through an all-in-one mobile app. There are very few things you can’t do within the app. Paying bills, shopping, booking tickets, creating content, sharing videos and moments, taking part in groups, reading the news, giving to charity, ordering food, delivering

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webinars, instant payments and playing games. The list goes on and on. It already has one billion users worldwide and is the closest thing yet to delivering a complete and integrated life experience platform.

The best of Western social media in one app. Yet, on the inside of organizations there is a growing unease about the pace of change as we still need to navigate our way through slow, bureaucratic and clunky time-consuming processes, which can stifle our ability to deliver on our desired outcomes. How can this be, when as consumers we are now able to access the services or information we need at lightning-fast pace? This tension between talent and outdated systems is leading organizations into a rethink and unprecedented enthusiasm to develop consumer-grade digital experiences for staff. This, as I’ve spoken about many times before, starts the journey towards an EX platform – a seamless, connected and intuitive digital experience of work.

This is a key catalyst for significant transformation as companies seek to exploit and maximize their digital potential as part of their business model on the inside and outside. River Island, the iconic re- tail brand in the UK, has adapted its business model in proactive response to challenging market conditions by investing heavily in a new high-tech centre, which is designed to drive growth within the e-commerce side of the business. The gauntlet has been thrown down by e-commerce companies and newcomers, and for many organizations, there is no choice but to try to get back on the front foot by upgrading online capabilities and investing in people.

Indeed, the digital transformation is not just about the customer experience. It’s hugely exciting to witness the explosion of EX tech and the capabilities it brings into EX. It is changing the way we connect, learn and engage within our companies. It is also connecting us holistically in ways that have not been achievable before, and creating opportunities for companies to create seamless and highly per- sonalized experiences for staff. This all serves to connect people with the right tools and information they need, when they need it.

The digital trend is gaining unstoppable momentum. A 2018 survey of chief human resources officers (CHROs) by ServiceNow, which included 500 interviews, found that 77 per cent expect digital transformation to deliver improved employee experiences over the next three years. The study also documented the shifting nature of HR’s

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role in business transformation and performance with CHROs reporting that their roles have moved beyond the traditional HR remit (ServiceNow, 2018). This tallies with my own research; HR is changing significantly and is starting to extend well beyond the usual HR mandate as a result.

From employee engagement to employee experience

For a growing number of colleagues worldwide, a new understanding has emerged that positions employee engagement as an outcome of experience. This is important to note and a big shift in focus.

Engagement is not the focus, experience is, and in fact engagement is only one potential outcome of many within a diverse set of business metrics available, as we’ll discuss in Chapter 4. It is an indicator of impact. Nothing more. It shouldn’t be the focus for the business and it is certainly not the focus for employees. As a result, HR and businesses have been seeking to reshape the way they develop their companies to create tangible, connected and sustainable performance improvements, and leading a holistic employee experience transformation is being viewed as the way to do it.

At conferences and forums, it tends to be the same organizations that are being heralded for their work on producing an engaged workforce, and this creates a false picture that doesn’t really represent the true nature of the progress being made. There is a reason for that. A large chunk of the economy just doesn’t get it. The annual round-up on engagement levels across the global economy makes for stark reading. Stagnant or in decline is generally the conclusion by Gallup et al. It is not worth regurgitating them here. They’re low.

Very low. There’s a job to do to get them on the upward swing. Each year it seems there is yet another crisis with people not opting to engage in their work as much as they could do. This is at a global level, but at local level too we see that employee engagement is often positioned as a top-down process based on the organization launching some form of activity or programme to ‘drive engagement’ within the business.

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The reality is that not every company has the automatic backing to put people first let alone build compelling and connected experiences within the business. Colleagues tend to spend a large portion of their roles trying to secure ‘buy-in’ from leaders to run various projects, which usually consist of a few well-intentioned but disconnected activities that deliver very little value to business or people within it.

The other common misconception is that employee engagement is the sole responsibility of HR, which couldn’t be further from the truth. To add to that, there is also a view within some HR functions that ‘engaging’ the business is the sole remit of one specialized team, and not a collective effort. This confusion about whose job it is to achieve an engaged organization can often undermine good work.

I’ve also noticed that great companies do not readily talk about employee engagement. Employees don’t either for that matter, but both parties talk about experiences, whether individual or collective, or internal or external, and the business outcomes that follow. This makes sense so why label and build things around employee engagement when we can work together and co-create the experience for both employees and customers? Now that is engaging. Employees not having things done to them or created for them. They are positioned as co-producers of the solution.

In differentiating and developing EX, the traditional focus on employee engagement just hasn’t worked. As a concept, engagement has never been viewed as a holistic approach; it has been placed as a functional endeavour with clear dividing lines across support functions, or business silos. Slow-moving, sloppy and disjointed activities that do not contribute to business outcomes. When referring to silos, it is this reality we know to be true that functions, specialisms and departments have failed to meaningfully connect their work, and in doing so, have disen- franchised the very employees they wish to ‘engage’. EX is a business approach and it extends well beyond the HR function, but HR does play a pivotal leadership role in delivering engagement outcomes.

Community, not corporation

Can a corporation really create a deep sense of belonging? As you will see throughout the book, they can, and often do, through sincere

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intentions and conscious actions. The good news is that CEOs are starting to look beyond short-term gain and profit, and take a longer- term and more meaningful view of what can be achieved through our workplaces, and a commitment to deep principles and values throughout the organization.

‘I am the chief executive of a company that gave different benefits to different groups of employees… I had inadvertently created classes of employees — and by doing so, had done my part to contribute to America’s inequality problem’ (Hyman, 2018). This was a bold statement from the CEO of Rent the Runway, Jennifer Hyman, on the announcement that the company would equalize benefits for all workers. A clear message of intent to build a community and very strong evidence that they mean it. Purpose and values converge to radically alter the employee and worker experience, and make a stunning statement to society.

In a letter to CEOs, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investor, set out a new standard for the business world in 2017 when he declared that, ‘to prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society’ (Fink, 2017). This is a major statement and the impact will be felt over the coming years especially within the workplace and surrounding communities. Again, in his 2019 letter to CEOs, this theme continued as Fink made the case that

‘profits are in no way inconsistent with purpose – in fact, profits and purpose are inextricably linked’ (Fink, 2019). What he is suggesting is that purpose is the way to ‘unify’ management, employees and communities. This, as part of a long-term view, steers companies to deliver value and play a more active role in helping to solve issues that are affecting all stakeholders in society.

Is this just common-sense management and good business practice? George Cadbury, and many other pioneers, decided that the connection between humans, community and society mattered greatly within their business models. Thinking about the holistic experience of work and how it impacts the human and business experience is not new, but very few commit to deep and long-lasting values and principles that inform every stage of their growth. It was Cadbury who said: ‘Nearly all my money is invested in businesses in which I believe

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I can truly say the first thought is the welfare of the workpeople em- ployed’ (Visser, 2011). A powerful position to take, and one that is being built on by a new generation of CEOs who really see the connection between people and profitability.

But can a community be built within a company or multiple enti- ties connected to a central brand? Well, it very much depends on the experience that surrounds each member of the workforce and the requisite level of psychological safety, trust and empowerment.

Berkshire Hathaway is a case in point, led by Warren Buffet. This is a company that has built its success on the experience it provides to its key stakeholders, and the results? Well, they are stunning to say the very least. The company has routinely performed better than the S&P 500 Index to the tune of more than 10 per cent annually over the preceding 50 years. What Buffet has done, according to the people who know, the subsidiary CEOs, is to create a common set of expectations across the entire business group. In fact, they ‘uniformly agreed that the company has a common culture based on an ethical code that promotes honesty, integrity, a long-term orientation, and an emphasis on the customer. They strongly believed that this culture is influenced by the tone at the top’ (Larcker and Tayan, 2015).

Communities move forward through the rough and the smooth.

The shift that is occurring now, towards a long-term focus rather than short-term results, is a clear departure from companies being fixated on quarterly results and chasing profits to the detriment of everything else. This has trickled down into how organizations develop themselves and where the emphasis is placed within EX. In fact, it is common to find successful EX organizations playing a different game to others, and rarely is it the short game for quick wins.

Great expectations – the search for meaning

Employees worldwide, especially those with in-demand talent and skills, have played their role in redefining the workplace too. We are now in an age where employees can share more information about the quality of their employee experience than ever before. For good

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and for bad. The Glassdoor effect has taken hold. Glassdoor, a platform that enables employees to share reviews about their company, is a treasure trove of information and data about the quality of the employee experience. Think about the last time you booked a trip.

Did you check TripAdvisor first to check out what others experienced directly? If you are like me, you probably did. The same atten- tion to experience has come to workplaces and CEOs, and companies are finding out the hard way that the voice of the employee just got a whole lot stronger. People expect to be treated fairly and with respect as a bare minimum. In an economy with high employment levels, employers are having to raise their game on the employee experience front. Employees simply expect more and want to see much more of a benefit coming to them from companies making substantial profits.

Is that a fair expectation?

I must admit that early in my career I was fascinated with the concept of a psychological contract. In my work developing organizations, I have always maintained a healthy respect for this unspoken contract between people and employers. Cisco, and a whole host of other organizations, have made a point to connect everything they do within the employee experience to some form of deal. In Cisco’s case,

‘The People Deal’, which helps them position, market and tie together the EX for their global business. This is not revolutionary, but it makes it clear that there are expectations, implicit and explicit, on both sides of the relationship, and they must be clear. And honoured.

But here’s the thing. Expectations have changed and the EX needs to change with them. Internal EX research by the team at Facebook found some enlightening results about what employees really wanted from the Facebook EX. They identified three powerful motivators after studying hundreds of thousands of answers, which are cause, community and career (Goler et al, 2018):

●

● ‘Cause is about purpose: feeling that you make a meaningful impact, identifying with the organization’s mission, and believing that it does some good in the world. It’s a source of pride.

●

● Community is about people: feeling respected, cared about, and recognized by others. It drives our sense of connection and belongingness.

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●

● Career is about work: having a job that provides autonomy, allows you to use your strengths, and promotes your learning and development. It’s at the heart of intrinsic motivation.’

For companies, expectation management has become a real challenge. Individual expectations have changed, are changing, and will continue to change. Our workplaces should be positioned to evolve and develop with these expectations to deliver an aligned and powerful EX. There’s a lot of discussion about millennials and their quest for purpose and meaning in work, and I tested this theory when working with about 200 business students in China. I asked them where they wanted to work. Traditionally, the names of the top con- sulting firms would pop up rather quickly. Not now. The majority indicated their preferences for companies like Baidu, Tencent, Huawei and Alibaba. Why? Because these companies seem to have cornered the market in China for purpose. Trailblazing and history-making experiences where graduates cut their teeth at the leading edge of the human experience. How do you compete with that?

People are attracted to real experiences. We know this from the success of Silicon Valley. Companies starting their lives in garages, dorm rooms or apartments growing to become the most iconic enti- ties in the world. To say you have worked for one of these giants is CV gold, but it is often a short-lived experience as the tenure rates of two years in the Valley suggest.

But the experience of work is not the preserve of one context, company or country. Every employee has an experience in work, good or bad. Designed or by accident. Several of these experiences create national and international headlines with talking points about the quality of the workplace. New generations coming into the workplace will inevitably impact companies worldwide. Millennials make up 30 per cent of the population and by 2025 will represent 75 per cent of the global workforce. Research by Deloitte has tracked a growing mismatch between what employers offer and what millennials expect from their organizations. The latter wanting businesses to be socially responsible, ethical, and committed to making a positive contribution to society (Deloitte, 2018). To secure the best talent and create the conditions for successful outcomes to occur, a company’s EX

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must deliver on these factors as well as the individual factors that mirror them. Individuals expect autonomy, meaningful work, a sense of connection and a supportive growth-focused community around them. While the newer generations entering the workforce may prompt significant change, these are certainly factors that apply across the generations.

Humans, not resources

As an HR professional, can you say that the employees within your business trust the HR function? I asked this question during my keynote speech at the HR Masters Summit in Bucharest and, unfortu- nately, the audience followed a similar theme that we see coming from employees. Quite simply, there is a big trust issue between HR and employees. It is glaringly obvious given that HR often acts as the internal police or management enforcers in the execution of certain tasks within the function. It seems to me, and many others, that HR is set up to fail, and fail it shall in some contexts. The HR operating model continues to be a major talking point and the very term ‘human resources’ continues to divide opinion making the profession an easy target for ridicule and blame. Is the function on the side of management? Is it simply the organization’s internal police and a policy en- forcer? Does the profession really embrace the ‘human’ aspect to it or is it more tilted towards treating people like ‘resources’? Whatever your view, HR is changing and it is finding itself at the centre of an incredible opportunity to genuinely lead the business through EX.

Indeed, McKinsey confirmed the same. A positive EX, through their research, emerged as a top three practice and HR functions that effectively facilitate EX are 1.3 times more likely than other respondents to report organizational outperformance and 2.7 times more likely to report effective talent management. However, the same research found that only 37 per cent of respondents stated that their organizations’ HR functions facilitate a positive employee experience, which is of note (McKinsey, 2018).

Thankfully I’m not alone in thinking HR’s best time is yet to come.

Dave Ulrich, Professor of Business at the Ross School of Business,

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sees a great future ahead for HR to deliver value in the business world: ‘HR has the potential to respond to value-creating opportunities around talent, leadership, and organization, and to become pivotal for business success and employee wellbeing. But HR doesn’t always realize this potential’ (Ulrich, 2018). This is key for HR: realizing potential. There are many professionals who believe that employee-centricity and a focus on the holistic experience that employees have within, and beyond, work is the way to do it.

Ulrich and I discussed his research and his book, Victory Through Organization, and some of the core findings suggest that developing a company at organization level is four times more impactful than focusing on individual talent (Ulrich et al, 2017). I don’t disagree with this one bit, and I propose that EX is a multidimensional and holistic construct that integrates both the human and the organization. It’s kind of like a two for one. We are not just developing new systems to benefit production and the organization, but more so, organizations are co-creating their own systems that create a better performance experience for both sides of the employment relationship.

EX is about individuals, yet it is equally about the community of people who coexist together within the framework of what we call a company. You can’t develop one without the other and the best EX cases I have been directly involved with or studied have developed both the system that supports and underpins EX and the people at the centre of EX – employees, leaders and customers.

In this sense, the role of HR and the role of every other support function changes. HR is not simply a support function within the business. HR, at its very best, is integrated, not separate, from the core of what a company does. But with EX in full flow, other departments with significant influence on EX come into play such as facili- ties, estates, IT, catering, marketing and related functions.

EX is not restricted to the realm of HR, and that’s a great thing as responsibility (and accountability) is finally, and rightfully, shared across the business. It’s about time and it’s probably timely for HR to step up and lead the business in the most progressive of ways. The former CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar, pulls no punches in claiming that HR as we know it will be dead by 2020. Nayar makes the case that employees have no wish to keep HR and nor do CEOs.

He bases this on how much HR work is valued in the labour market,

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and a lack of progress for HR professionals within business. Nayar underlines the point that HR is surrounded by a whole world of disruption centred on a greater understanding and application of human psychology. HR is well placed to lead, but has not developed a fun- damental expertise and conviction in the principles of placing humans at the centre of business models (Nayar, 2017). This view is certainly a valid point and part of the truth. The HR required in the future will look very different from the HR of today.

Nitro made a headline-catching statement about why they trans- formed from ‘(In)human resources’ to employee experience by challenging the very notion of what HR is and what it does. This, alongside the employee experience focus at Airbnb, was an early indicator that organizations were on the cusp of a major overhaul of HR.

Subsequently, one of Nitro’s senior HR team attended one of my seminars and we delved a little deeper into the headline and what it meant in practice, which is discussed in Chapter 6.

HR, inevitably, is a function that is seen to be key when discussing employee experience. There are so many connection points between HR and employees that it is the obvious choice to play a leading role.

From pre-hire to retire, HR is well positioned to have a huge impact on the overall experience of the brand internally. The window to take this newly presented opportunity is time-limited though. EX has brought about an opportunity to closely align all functions that impact or enhance experience of work, which means that the talent pool has just become a lot bigger with a surprising number of these new EX roles going to non-HR people.

The HR world is shifting every day with the pace of change quite staggering with companies having to react (or not) to new market trends, consumer behaviours, and to new disruptive companies that not only challenge and out-innovate around the customer experience, but also outperform their peers in the employee experience stakes. A disruptive company like Airbnb competing directly with an established hotel chain springs to mind. HR is in the very thick of the action, and is uniquely positioned at the centre of the organization. As a function, HR has strong potential to help get the best from the multigenerational and cross-cultural workforces we see today.

After speaking to a lot of people about HR, including many in the function, it becomes obvious that HR is on the cusp of a major tran-

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sition period. While there has never been a better time to work in HR, there is an opportunity here that must be taken to play a greater business leadership role across all aspects of EX.

I spoke to the CEO of a high-growth business that generates

£50 million in revenues per annum with less than 100 staff. What he said to me is indicative of a wider challenge within the profession. His company actively chose not to have an HR function, and resisted any attempts at board level to bring one in. How can this be? This was not some backward business. This was a highly successful, confident company with dozens of awards and an EX that staff are rightly very proud of. Yet, therein is the lesson. They achieved all their success without HR getting in the way. They outsourced the risk and compli- ance aspects, and did all high-value EX work themselves as a community. Now, this is a perception of the value HR brings to the business, and it is often felt by colleagues I meet around the world that HR is a tough sell. The function really does have to work much harder than any other profession to win trust, credibility and respect. Some have found a way to reposition HR as the ‘People’ function, which goes a long way to eliminate the baggage of the past, but the real challenge remains; how people ‘experience’ HR services and colleagues, whatever the title, is the main opportunity (or obstacle) for HR to embrace.

It is less about titles, much more about relationships and impact.

With businesses and employees expecting more of today’s HR function, is this creating a self-belief issue within the profession? This circu- lar discussion about getting a seat at the table has been going on for years. Out of curiosity, I have asked hundreds of HR colleagues globally how they feel about their roles and the results are consistently the same.

HR colleagues express a lack of belief and a perception that they are merely a support function within the business. They are not ‘real’ business leaders and this appears to be the prevailing view inside and outside of the function. Something must be done about this, and now.

We don’t belong

Social isolation is rightly viewed as a major global crisis and companies are becoming very aware of their role in helping society overcome

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it. Why do we need to belong anywhere? Belonging can be linked strongly to psychologist John Bowlby’s work on attachment theory, which has been broadened out as an idea to explore the strength of the emotional attachment we have with people or companies. If people believe that they are supported, have security, and stability, then the foundation is in place for us to really make the most of our experiences and a sense of wellbeing in the workplace is achieved.

Wise companies understand that creating a great employee experience is not about money or how much you spend on it. It’s always about people and the strength of the connection between them. Yet, there is a feeling that employers simply do not care about employees, and in a lot of cases, it is true. Why should employers really be in the business of caring about their staff and actively creating a place where people feel like they belong? In many cases, this cynicism is destruc- tive, and has been built on the back of toxic work environments and broken promises.

Jeffrey Pfeffer, Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has researched the topic of employee health and performance, and found that job stress costs US employers more than $300 billion annually and may cause 120,000 excess deaths each year (Pfeffer, 2018). Some workplaces are literally killing people. Think about that.

Pfeffer talks sense when he says that, ‘instead of trying to get people to engage in healthier individual behaviors, workplace wellbeing initiatives would be more effective if they focused on preventing the stress-inducing aspects of work environments that cause the un- healthy individual behaviors in the first place. Simply put, companies need to build cultures of health – and that begins by creating work environments that help people thrive both physically and psycho- logically’ (Schwabel, 2018).

Limited, fragmented and short-term activities or engagement projects offer little value to anyone, and are a primary reason why the holistic and long-term focus on employee experience is proving to be immensely popular and impactful as a lot of EX work begins by eliminating any pain points currently being experienced by staff.

This is beautiful work and too enjoyable to describe in words here.

The look on people’s faces when you invite them to break established

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processes, systems or policies and rebuild them into high-value experiences is priceless.

But imagine for a moment working for a company that put belonging as a central pillar within their work; creating a workplace where people belong and feel like they do. Would that be a competitive advantage? Airbnb, with its Belong Anywhere purpose, has been at the forefront of evolving this concept of belonging throughout its entire business model, for customers and employees. This has dic- tated everything the company does from HR to workplace design, to internal communications, catering and many other EX practices, which we’ll look at in more depth later in the book. They, like many other companies over recent times, have been fully focused on EX to enable connection, community and belonging. This has helped shift the conversation quite dramatically to experience, and the all-important expectations that people now have about work.

Summary: Why employee experience is a business imperative

Employees and companies are having to adapt to a new world.

Whether this world is exciting, challenging or uncertain depends very much on your point of view. What is becoming clear is that the concept of organization, the role people play within work and society, and the relationship that employees have with their companies is ex- periencing unprecedented change.

●

● While businesses are warming up at different paces when it comes to advanced technology and its use in the workplace, it is essential that we begin to understand how technology is affecting our businesses and the EX inside them.

●

● Companies are radically and fundamentally changing. Community vs corporation is a useful paradigm to consider. In uncertain and volatile times, our EX can help provide clarity, meaning and purpose when people need it most. It can also be a catalyst for high performance as companies put people before profit.

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●

● Expectation management is becoming even more important.

Keeping promises builds deep trust and respect, which is part of the foundation for a positive EX.

●

● Organizations are realizing the power of belonging and its connection with business results. This once invisible concept is delivering a new kind of thoughtful, human-centred business, which focuses on maximizing the potential of every interaction an employee has with the company through employee-centric journeys and human-centred design.

●

● HR is well positioned to play a major leadership role in EX, and the opportunity is there to be taken. Successful HR functions are developing key EX capabilities, skills, and extending well beyond traditional HR functional areas.

●

● Connecting and developing the holistic EX is tangible and high- value work. With business results positioned as the primary outcomes of positive EX, employee engagement is now being viewed as one of many outcomes that a positive EX delivers.

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Fink, L (2019) Larry Fink’s 2019 letter to CEOs: Purpose & profit, BlackRock, https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/

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The experience challenge

The task before us is to proactively position our companies in the best possible circumstances to deliver strong outcomes. In this chapter, we will take a step back to explore the immediate challenges and opportunities that will help effectively position our work on EX to enable us to do this.

Worldwide we are seeing the EX phenomenon turn from a key trend within the workplace to a serious business methodology. Back in 2017, Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends Report indicated as much. In a survey of HR leaders, 88 per cent said the developing EX was important/very important yet only 22 per cent said they had a differentiated EX (Bersin et al, 2017). Herein lies a serious challenge that has been unfolding over recent years – how to stand out and be viewed as something different in crowded talent markets. What makes a company’s EX so unique? Why should people work at this company over another?

EX practitioners consistently frame their work on EX as the most challenging in their careers, but also the most rewarding. If this is the case then we need to prepare ourselves for a period of courage, risk and challenge. While digital and technology are dominating a lot of the conversation around how businesses will evolve to get even closer to serving consumer wants, needs and expectations, the very same is happening with EX as organizations move humans to the centre of their business models. But how do colleagues and companies begin to work with EX in their businesses?

Context, connection and community

Before we start to understand and take actions based on some of the early challenges presented by EX, a framework I use often in my ad-

02

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visory partnerships, workshops and events (Figure 2.1) sets out three areas of focus to help steer early thinking and conversations.