Today, whether you’re listening to music on Spotify or watching a series on Netflix, not only do you have an unparalleled selection to choose from, you can also listen or watch anywhere, anytime. Better yet, after listening to a song or watching a film just once, you immediately have recommendations waiting for you based on your recent viewing or listening history.
These algorithms mean that every time you launch one of your music or movie apps, you’re presented with content that resonates with you personally. And that’s the key – the experience is personalized. In fact, when launching an app, no two people will see the same interface with the same recommendations, history, or preferences.
When it comes to building a sustainable workforce, the workplace is no different. Personalizing the employee experience is crucial.
Personalizing the Experience
Today, there are baby boomers, Generation X, millennials, and Generation Z working side-by-side, all under one roof. However, each generation has its own priorities, needs, and preferences depending on where they are in their lives. The most critical factor for building a sustainable workforce is understanding your employees' needs and wants and providing them with an outstanding, unique, and personalized employee experience. This cannot be done through guesswork nor by throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. One reliable way to understand your employees’ wants and, in turn, offer a unique employee experience is through data analysis.
Using Data to Your Advantage
“When HR data is used to improve decisions, make employees happier, and optimize processes, it adds value to the company”, explains Bernard Marr, the author of a Forbes article titled Why Data Is HRs Most Important Asset.
A Euro Workspace blog entitled Should we embrace big data in the workplace shares: “Most of us are familiar with companies collecting data for marketing purposes. The reason being, the more they know about your habits and how you use their services, the better experience they’ll be able to provide to you. That’s the trade-off.”
Using data helps you better understand your employees and create a unique employee experience.
Making Smarter, More Informed Decisions
Today, data can help Human Resources Professionals make more informed decisions around recruitment, employee satisfaction, productivity, and engagement, thus build a more sustainable workforce. Through surveys and data, employers can, for example, discover what tools benefits resonate with their employees, how engaged they are with colleagues, what training programs employees want, and then tailor the experience accordingly.
In Deloitte’s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends, it was revealed that only 22% of HR executives reported that their companies were excellent at building a differentiated employee experience. The risk of not providing an employee experience that resonates? Your employees will simply go elsewhere.
As explained in the Benify e-book The New Employee Experience: How to maximise and optimise every step of the employee journey, it’s imperative for employers to treat employees like customers. A Wired article titled 10 Ways to Use Big Data to Get to Know Your Customers Better shares: “We are in what Forrester Research calls “The Age of the Customer,” where customers, not companies, are driving business decisions”. Employers, just like businesses, must truly understand their customers’ experience and behavior in order to succeed.
Want to learn more about how you can build a sustainable employment strategy and how data can assist you in creating a unique employee experience? Download our whitepaper How to Implement a Sustainable Employment Strategy in a Data-Driven Way.
