We’ve lived with the concept of the experience economy since 1998. Over goods and services, we are increasingly seeking an experience – and likely an experience we can share via social media channels. We want to sample new cuisines, we want – in perhaps more normal times – to travel to different holiday locations, we want to jump out of planes or jump into mud baths. Apple Stores, for example, exist not necessarily to shift product, but to offer a brand experience.
And we’re becoming increasingly aware of the notion of experience when we’re in job changing mode. Does a recruiting organisation deliver the employer brand promise its attraction marketing claims? How aligned are line managers and talent acquisition? Is the ATS enabling or frustrating? What sort of candidate experience am I encountering?
But all of a sudden, our experience horizon has contracted significantly. We experience little outside our four walls or our mask and gloves. Our default experience setting has quickly evolved from external excitement, discovery and anticipation to an internalised wariness and trepidation.
But what sort of employee experience changes do we anticipate as the great workplace return slowly builds up momentum?
Much of what we have witnessed over the last three or so months has been binary. Organisations have either gone way beyond what we might have expected. Or they have treated their customers and people shoddily. Some occupations have been rushed off their feet, putting in alarming, punishing shifts, while others do little but worry and fret.
It’s through such a binary lens that I’ve tried to anticipate what the employee experience is likely to feel like as we return to work. Which way will it go? Once again, I’ve asked a number of talent industry stakeholders for their own views. I couldn’t be more indebted to them, in particular @Julie Griggs from Greenhill HR and Talent, @Julian Ward from Stickyeyes, @Mark Williams from the University of Nottingham, @Alistair Milnes from Rio Tinto Commercial and @Sonja Stockton from the University of Warwick.
Let’s try to breakdown and identify some key areas of the employee experience which are likely to be impacted by Covid-19 and its repercussions.
The productive workplace?
How will people feel about the workplace they return to? Will they feel enabled and inspired, ready to put months of relative inactivity behind them and put new skills, new ideas, a new sense of initiative to work? How comfortable with risk will they be?
Or will they be cautious and wary, conscious of survivor syndrome and incapable of making decisions? Will they worry that one mistake, one ill-judged call will be all the excuse an economically-challenged employer needs to lighten the pay roll?
“For those who have been subjected to a constant stream of negative news from their employer, or no communications at all, there will certainly be increased levels of trepidation, the outcome of which would likely lead to suboptimal performance.
However, those who have been fortunate enough to work for employers who have maintained a positive stance or indeed performed well during the crisis, will be inclined to feel enabled, energised and ready to make a positive contribution to the future of the organisation”. Julian Ward, Group Head of Talent Attraction, Stickyeyes.
Employee progression?
How will this go? There is a belief that many organisations will have to change and re-adjust to better suit a less face-to-face relationship with, for example, customers. As a result, employees might not be returning to their previous roles, but may be taking on new challenges and responsibilities.
Or will reality be somewhat different? Will people be reluctant to change employers in the current climate, preferring the devil they know? If more employees are staying put, then does this mean there will be fewer opportunities for the people around them to develop, grow and progress? Will internal mobility grind to a halt?
“I think people will be in three camps. Those, whose jobs are at risk, will be actively looking for security elsewhere. Those that are secure but who feel their employer behaved poorly during the crisis and want to move to a perceivedly better employer. And those who are working for a great employer, who will want to stay put”. Mark Williams, Recruitment Specialist, Talent Attraction, University of Nottingham.
Stability and security?
As people return either physically or from a distance to the workplace, the economy – apparently slightly less damaged than anticipated – will start to motor in the right direction. As a result, those people who have not been laid off or furloughed will feel more job security.
Alternatively, unemployment will clearly have increased significantly. Does this mean that employers will be more inclined to be ruthless, on the assumption that their people will be unlikely to leave and if they do, there will be little shortage of the unemployed seeking to join? Which way is it likely to go?
“I’m already seeing some great candidates out on the market. For those organisations who feel enabled to act quickly, they have the opportunity of picking up some fantastic talent”.Mark Williams
“I think there will be a major challenge re-engaging with those employees who have been furloughed. They may be asking why they were chosen and they may have got too used to the furlough process. This has to be handled sensitively”. Julie Griggs, Consultant, Greenhill HR and Talent
“There are some organisations that feel they can take advantage of the employment factors associated with most economic downturns, e.g. people reluctant to change companies (last-in-first-out risk), redundancy anxiety, oversupply of candidates. These organisations may reap some short-term wins, but in the medium to long term will fall further behind more progressively minded organisations”. Alistair Milnes, Strategic Adviser, People and Communications, Rio Tinto Commercial
Employee communications?
The more far-sighted organisations have spent lockdown reaching out to their employee populations, making use of Google Meets or Zoom to ensure that people are kept in the loop. Many, too, have increased the number of pulse surveys to make sure that such people have a voice. Do we think this will continue when such people return to the workplace – with their views and voice more prominent than ever?
Or do we feel that employers will see less need for such communications, and even take such dialogue for granted, given that their people are now back in offices, shops, factories and workshops? That they no longer need to try so hard to keep their people in the loop now that they are back in the workplace?
“This is a very nuanced, complex space. Some people will return to work, others will largely never set foot in the office again, others again will combine elements of both. Organisations have to reach out successfully to what is more a kaleidoscopic range of employment choices than a binary one, in order to deliver effective communications and a great employee experience”. Sonja Stockton, Global Alumni Careers Manager, Warwick Business School.
A more inclusive workplace?
Although Covid-19 would appear to affect the south Asian community to a greater extent than others, lockdown and life under the coronavirus has been a shared experience. The horrendous death of George Floyd and the resurgent Black Lives Matter initiative has received broad-based (if clearly not unanimous) support. Do we feel that such momentum is unstoppable and that tomorrow’s workplace will be cognisant of the unique experience we are all – regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, etc – going through? Will such a workplace be more inclusive, more fair, more equitable?
Or does the binary principle mean that a return to the workforce will be characterised by fear and self-preservation, with people looking over their professional shoulders, intent more on personal survival than all-encompassing inclusion?
“The BLM movement is rightly putting pressure on organisations to be far more inclusive. Some organisations are being very open about past issues and challenges, pledging to do better. Any organisation which doesn’t have diversity and inclusion high on its agenda will suffer”.Mark Williams
“It’s imperative that HR pushes this agenda and acts as the moral compass of their organisation. They need to be comfortable having difficult conversations about the ways things have been done and now should be done”.Julie Griggs.
How long are people’s memories around employer brand?
There’s a clear view been expressed over the last few months that an organisation’s employer brand and reputation will be completely influenced by its employee stance since lockdown. That there will be nowhere to hide for those organisations that behaved poorly to their people. Will those people return to the workforce delighted that they work for an organisation that clearly respects and nurtures? And will those people whose employer did anything but rise to the occasion be seeking pastures new?
Or will we all be so desperate to hang onto paid employment, regardless of the behaviour of our employer, that the engagement sins of the last three months will be quietly forgotten?
“It will be interesting to see how long memories last. I think there will be an immediate need for people to seek work regardless of the employer. As things start to improve, I think how an organisation conducted itself will once again come to the fore”. Julie Griggs.
Collaboration
What will the employee experience be like in terms of collaboration, as people return to the workplace? Many have been isolated and often alone, with their only connection to co-workers coming via sources such as Zoom. Will the post lockdown employee experience be characterised by collaboration and connectivity.
Or will reality be just the opposite? Will the workplace be as socially distanced as the queue to Sainsburys? Will colleague interaction be reluctant, cautious and aloof? Will people be braving public transport only to walk into a workplace with little togetherness or collegiality?
“I’ve got to know my colleagues so much more during lockdown – conversations have been personally focused, rather than entirely tied up with work. I think such relationships will inspire greater trust and greater collaboration moving forward. It could be very exciting”. Mark Williams.
“There is both an opportunity and necessity for HR to forge even closer links to the business, to help shape changing roles, organisational design and the trajectory of their employer”. Julie Griggs.
“If 2020 isn’t the wake-up call that organisations needed around greater connectivity, agility, resilience, digitally progressive mindsets and wellbeing, then there will be plenty used as business school case studies as the ones who did not adapt quickly enough and lost what once made them great”. Alistair Milnes.
A better employee experience?
Both employees and employers appear to want not necessarily to return to normal or more of the same, but to come back to a better way of working. So, will the employee experience be more respecting and respectful, more nurturing, more connected?
Or will employers take the view that, with a damaged economy and lengthening unemployment lines, they really don’t have to try too hard. That any job is a good job in the current climate. That employees will have to put up with their professional lot or take their chances elsewhere?
“I’m fortunate enough to be working for an employer which is focusing on the employee experience – at work and at home. It does contrast with some organisations whose aim is to return to the way things were, as opposed to adapting to a new world”. Mark Williams
Structure or space?
For people who have spent much of the last three months within a very narrow environment, what sort of employee experience are they looking for as they contemplate a return? Is it one that offers more sense of structure and process, that creates a sense of professional infrastructure and discipline?
Or will people rail against such a feeling of boundary and limitation, given their experiences of the last few months? Will they want to retain the sense of freedom, space and licence? What will be the likely implications as far as management styles are concerned? Will the motivation and direction that worked before be as successful post lockdown as it was pre, or do employees require a different approach to inspire them?
“I think that the answer to this will lay in individuals experience during lockdown. While some will have thrived without the usual perceived shackles of structure and process, others will have found their new-found freedom significantly more challenging to deal with. Employers will need to recognise this and bake in appropriate solutions that will satisfy the needs of both parties”. Julian Ward.
Does the workplace leave Covid-19 behind?
How will workplaces process the virus? Will organisations spend time curating employee stories of how their people have come through this period? Will there be a figurative corporate landmark or memorial to the disease? Something never to be forgotten? Will people spend time analysing the learnings of Covid-19?
Or, looking at things through our binary lens, will employers be only too happy to leave the virus behind? To move on. To treat it as a distant memory? To put it as far and as quickly behind them as possible?
“In a way the pandemic has accelerated what was happening anyway – flexible working, the employee experience, etc. It has forced organisations to respond much more quickly than they might normally have. It will be interesting to see if such nimbleness survives a return to work”. Mark Williams
“None of us can be certain what the future holds, whilst we eagerly await a vaccine and further understanding of Covid-19, but those longing for a return to how we used to be (comforting though that might be), may be passing up on the very real opportunity for long needed organisational change”. Alistair Milnes.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 