On this Day of Giving, consider what you might give your workforce that’s easy for you and means the world to them. A few ideas:

1). ATTENTION | Your workforce is dying for it. We live in a world where we post things on Instagram and Facebook – we live in this concept of an ‘attention economy’ – yet many employers don’t have effective strategies to give their workforces attention. So how do we address?

Let’s first ditch the notion of talent management. No one wants to be “managed,” do they? Employee engagement gets a little closer to the heart of the matter, and the research certainly supports it. High engagement produces statistically significantly higher levels of performance, quality, safety and retention. But what counts as engagement? And, begging the earlier question, do your employees want to be spoon-fed ‘engagement?

What they get is feedback, but employees don’t want feedback, they want attention. So what counts as attention?

• Training that’s relevant, personalized, and timely
• Mentorship and career pathing
• Reskilling me for the job I will do post-automation/RPA/AI
• Tools and solutions to help me work better
• Direct access to HR Services
• Rewards and recognition
• Onboarding – actual onboarding that’s ongoing (and not orientation)
• Every idea is an important one and is counted

2). EXPERIENCE | Your employees have come to expect experiences that are beautiful, easy, seamless, personalized and omnichannel. They expect you to know them, where they spend their time, what they need, and how they work and live. So how?

Get to know your workforce. Truly understand who does what work and in what environment they are optimally effective – that includes physical environment, systems, devices, tools, and workflows that make them hum. But more than that, understand what they really need at the moments that matter to them. What do they need when they have a baby?, become a U.S. citizen, change roles, move?, require employee assistance programs to help address life outside of work? Being present for your employees means supporting the whole employee, giving them the experience they expect at moments that matter.

The biggest value you can provide an employee is to break silos for them. If you really mean it when you say Employee Experience, you treat your employee as your customer. Everything has to do with their satisfaction and the usability of the tools and services you provide them. You wouldn’t make a customer do it, so don’t make employees navigate cross-functional and departmental lines in your organization. They don’t know or care if their question or request falls under Learning or Performance Management or Sales or Training; they just know what they need. Give it to them.

3). VALUE | When is the last time you honed the Employee Value Proposition of your organization? Your EVP matters. People need to understand the value of working in an organization. The only way to deliver that is in a systematic, consistent, playful way that communicates BRAND and AWARENESS of your Employee Value Proposition. How do you do this?

As an HR function, your job includes building brand and awareness on a daily basis – through push communications, through a personalized experience layer that sits on top of your service delivery systems and other HR tools. Every day you don’t do this, you’re becoming irrelevant.

Every day. Every day, people need to understand they matter, you care, and they’re working for an organization where they want to be. Don’t let irrelevancy set in. Awareness, Brand, Awareness, Brand: that’s how you stand behind an EVP that delivers.

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Finally, consider simple THANKS. The best giving possible is to show sincere and genuine GRATITUDE. In this season of thanksgiving and gratitude, show your workforce THEY matter. Their work, yes. The role they play in advancing organizational goals, of course. But more than anything, THEY matter. When you put people first – truly at the center of everything – everything else falls into place.

Happy Day of Giving, and thanks to the people who make Leapgen go ‘round.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason Averbook is a leading analyst, thought leader and consultant in the area of human resources, the future of work and the impact technology has on that future. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Leapgen, a global consultancy helping organizations shape their future workplace by broadening executive mindset to rethink how to better design and deliver employee services that meet the expectations of the workforce and the needs of the business.

ABOUT LEAPGEN
Leapgen is a global digital transformation company shaping the future of work. Highly respected as a visionary partner to organizations looking to design and deliver a digital workforce experience that will produce valued outcomes to the business, Leapgen helps enterprise leaders rethink how to better design and deliver workforce services and architect HR technology solutions that meet the expectations of workers and the needs of the business. Contact us to get started.