Organizations around the world and across industries successfully use HCM systems to standardize HR processes and enable entirely new leave, benefits administration, payroll, and other procedures. Technical teams have leveled up on agile configuration and development. Technology risk profiles have been streamlined and managed with effective governance. There have been tons of green check marks on business cases for investing in HCM software and its achievements have been sincerely celebrated.
Then why do your employees not fully engage with the HCM system to learn about the wide range of benefits and rewards available to them? Why do your candidates feel abandoned when they become new joiners or your managers feel isolated and ill-equipped to manage? Why do your employees get frustrated with your HCM system or reluctant to use its case management ticketing system?
While your HCM may be great at transactions and business processes, it might underperform in delivering a great employee experience. Here are five things you can do to fix this.
01
Complement your HCM with a branded, personalized, and accessible digital entrance across all your programs, processes and offerings, to fully leverage everything your HCM has to offer. This is an easy step that doesn’t require further HCM customization and can vastly improve your employee experience. A personalized one-stop-shop serves up information based on each user’s profile, highlighting which plans and provisions offer extra value to them, or which career messaging is particularly relevant.
02
Your HCM or applicant tracking system may be great when it comes to operational elements like workflow, applicant tracking and pre-hire data collection. But it doesn’t automatically tailor the employment value proposition (EVP) for candidates during recruitment and onboarding, which can provide tremendous value for the candidate. Despite the best workflow and HCM digital capabilities, some processes will always need extra coaching and support. Focus your communications around these high-volume and high-pain processes to alleviate frustration and reduce busy work for your people. On the other hand, some high-volume questions require only a relatively simple answer to deflect support requests. Use insights from your service centers and operational logs to identify these processes and develop campaigns and tailored information to orient and educate employees and managers – dropping them right into the HCM or system of choice to execute the transaction.
03
Your HCM or applicant tracking system may be great when it comes to workflow, applicant tracking, pre-hire data collection and more - all of which are important operationally, but it doesn’t automatically tailor the employment value proposition (EVP) for candidates during recruitment and onboarding, which can provide tremendous value (if not more) for the candidate. For some roles, the message may be one of flexible work schedules, for others onsite facilities, and for others, opportunity for future wealth. Personalized communication can raise the bar on career opportunities, climate commitments, a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, and other aspects of the overall EVP and is critical to improving the candidate experience.
04
Many UX experts agree a laundry list of links or restricting an employee’s view of the world to “data that happens to be in my core HCM” has limited value. It’s more useful for an employee to see their account balance in their defined contribution plan than it is to see only the year-to-date employer match. It is more meaningful for an employee to see the value of their stock than it is to be told they could save 5% through the stock purchase plan. It is more valuable to the employee to have their medical broker information in the same place as everything else when they need that information urgently. Work with your partners and vendors to bring together the digital ecosystem through standard integrations and single sign-on connections to give your employees a holistic view of their world over and above core HCM applications.
05
Your HCM system’s features and functionality profess to follow best practices and are built on countless hours of usability testing. Apply this same level of rigor to your communication strategy by listening to business leaders, HR business partners, subject matter experts, and of course your employees. Work to understand where you could raise awareness of plans and opportunities you offer but where awareness seems to be low. Identify populations where perception seems skewed. Gather preferences and attitudes and factor these into your communication strategy to get information to the right people at the right time. Apply the same rigor of user feedback to your communication planning as the technology space.
No matter how significant your HCM investment is or whether your CFO and CIO demand to use your HCM for everything, your HCM can’t do it all when it comes to maximizing the employee experience. WTW can help you get the most out of your HCM system by adding a personalized single point of entry that can be customized and configured to optimize employee engagement. Get in touch with your WTW consultant to start improving your employee experience today.
| Title | File Type | File Size |
|---|---|---|
| Why your employees underuse your human capital management (HCM) system and how to fix it | 1.8 MB |
