All too often, there’s a big gap between what senior management thinks is happening and the reality on the ground as underlined in a recent report from the Capgemini Research Institute (CRI).

Indeed, the report survey “The People Experience Advantage” shows that 70% of individuals said they were not happy at work – but that only 8% of leaders declared their employees were not happy. What’s more, 78% of people said they didn’t find their workload flexible enough to balance personal and family life.

People experience – assumptions vs. reality

The gap between top/line management assumptions and shopfloor or operational offices realities creates increasing challenges for organizations. At worse, this can create disengagement, unwanted attrition, and poor ROI on people initiatives, and at best, a “quiet quitting” that keeps people in place with a bad productivity and efficiency. To narrow this gap and build a lasting employee engagement, senior executives – especially those with an HR exposure – need to start thinking in a new way.

A good start would be to think of employees as customers. Just as businesses want to encourage customers to identify with the brand, so they should aim for an employee experience that provides a sense of purpose to which people can relate. And what you do for your clients isn’t limited to one item only. It’s not solved by putting a CRM solution in place and expecting the best. It requires the clever design and relentless articulation of – to name a few – the brand quality, the offer(s) and their marketing, the go-to-market, the sales incentives, the product/services delivery and the client’s satisfaction monitoring and follow-up.

Delivering on a people promise

Continuing this logic, it means defining the best employer promise for your employees, linked to your branding and reputation, the attraction and onboarding journey, the day-to-day job experience as a newcomer or long-termer, the performance and reward deal, the continuous learning and listening that get truly acted upon, and the talent and cultural drivers that make of your organization a great place to work.

In the end, it’s the entire employee journey that needs to be thought through in an agile and consistent manner. This is where the problems start, as investing in one or two of these levers never solves the challenge. Even the best employer promise will be beaten by delivering a poor experience on a process, a tool, a rule not applied, or even a cumbersome learning module.

In particular, businesses need to ensure not just that the workforce is keeping pace with advances in technology and new ways of working, but that they are able to take advantage of these developments for their own sense of fulfilment as much as for the good of the organization. Enabling your people to become a real competitive advantage to the organization requires you to go beyond providing a mere toolbox – it requires another level of effort and dedication to, not only make it happen but stick.

Failure to act is not an option

Some organizations may be tempted to ask whether things really are as bad as all that, and whether that level of change is necessary.

The CRI’s report answers those questions very directly. It contends that employers who fail to act won’t retain or attract top talent, with 33% of employees likely to leave in the next year. And as we all know, they are often not the people we are happy to see leave.

At the same time, it limits growth and innovation: 72% of employees surveyed stated they don’t have the technologies to do their job. Organizations will also risk becoming unimpactful, with 72% employees not being satisfied, so they won’t care about their job – and if they lack engagement, they will lose focus: the CRI report found that 78% of such people didn’t know what they must deliver!

Finding a new way

What global and international organizations need to address their people agenda is an approach that leverages technology, people, and processes simultaneously to create and sustain an environment in which employees can build engagement, commitment, and involvement through having opportunities to create a future they want. This ensures they are happier in their work life, and become a competitive advantage for the business.

Furthermore, the following items are required to fulfil any people management ambitions, and can help your people improve their own and development and growth:

• Equipping your people with the relevant technology to become an augmented workforce
• Harnessing the data to enhance people management decision-making
• Clarifying your people’s progression options and paths
• Providing them with customized, 24/7 accessible, user-friendly learning.

At Capgemini, we call this holistic approach the People Experience – and the outcomes are positive for both business case ROI and genuine improvement of the employee’s work experience. Our research shows businesses can expect up to 59% reduction in turnover, 41% reduction in absenteeism, and a 17% increase in productivity – all of which can result in improved customer ratings, a 20% increase in sales, and a 21% improvement in productivity. Appealing, isn’t it?

In the next article of this short series, we’ll outline the components of the People Experience, summarize the levers to trigger, and the steps to take to make it happen. In the third and final article, we’ll provide a to-do list for anyone wanting to get started and look at some real-world success stories.

To learn how Capgemini’s People Experience can help you create and sustain an environment in which your people are engaged and can thrive, ensuring they become a real competitive advantage for your business, contact: stephan.paolini@capgemini.com or jon.harriman@capgemini.com