The New Human Capital Must Break Down Functional Silos

Your human capital resources have traditionally taken a subordinate role. Now they have to take your hierarchical structures and break them down irrevocably, and replace them with teams. There is a precedent showing how agile software development works and accelerates delivery. In 2001, 17 IT gurus got together and tabled the Agile Manifesto. While the 4 values and twelve principles relate to software development, they can equally be applied throughout the organization to improve productivity. This is why companies are moving to this new paradigm.

Much, but not all of this change, is geared towards the needs of the Millennial employee. There is a great deal of literature around their expectations, so we will not elaborate on them here, but all organizational design must focus on them, for they are the upcoming workforce and our new leaders. Your human capital team may not have the capacity to design the new workplace, in which case you will need to call in others to assist since this is the most vital step in creating the engaged organization. Let's look at the employee journey, or lifecycle, and where software can bring benefits.

The Employee Journey: From Awareness to Exit and Back Again

Traditionally, when you left a company, it would be regarded as an act of treason. Nowadays, especially in companies that rely on knowledge workers, the mobility of employees is welcomed in the hope that they return with new and valuable experiences.

The Candidate: Awareness and Recruiting

It is very easy for a potential employee to gather information on the future workplace via websites that advertise suitable opportunities. This candidate can also do some internet searches for placements, and what is more, can do their research on the hiring companies individually. If you currently recruit directly, you probably have a recruitment portal or a landing page already. You can make it both responsive and engaging, where the candidate can upload a CV and possibly be pre-qualified via a test, task or challenge that explores their skills. If you use recruitment companies, you may consider insourcing this function again, as sometimes the exact candidate you are looking for has been filtered out before you get to see their CV. Depending on the volume of new employees you hire annually, you may want to invest in talent management software.

Onboarding the New Employee

The induction pack is dead. For those of you who never got that far, this is a relief. What you need today is a portal where new hires can immerse themselves in all they need to know about the company and their place in it. You can even have some training videos and quizzes for new hires that are available for them as soon as the contract has been signed and before they start working. Such induction details should be accessible on all devices, and should be a blend of work-related and social data, such as a personal scorecard, team members’ short biographies and invitations to join groups based on personal interests, such as trail-running. Personalizing training programs is the key to success. 

Assessing Performance

Performance management is typically regarded by employees as a threat rather than an opportunity. If it is integrated with appropriate recognition and feedback, performance monitoring can become an engagement tool. Below-par performance is often a symptom of inadequate onboarding. While contributions to the knowledge base indicates engagement.

Personal Growth

The ability to learn and grow is provided via talent management and learning management systems. They keep records of improvements done or to be done and assist in proper remuneration.

Health and fitness also contribute to motivated work. Internal programs for fitness tracking and scoring can be used by individuals in their daily off-work activities as well, for example, when cycling.

Exiting and Re-entering

As mentioned before, leaving a company is not the final farewell. There should be a portal that encourages ex-employees to keep in touch. If an employee feels at any point that they would like to return, this can be facilitated by refreshing employee’s past information. It’s worth noting though that this may be restricted in some countries as it conflicts with personal information laws.

Engagement Is Complex and Pervasive

The journey described above is generic and does not reflect the nuances and focus areas that arise from a company's unique value proposition, and the journey map should be built to fit vision and values precisely. Just as there should be more than one customer journey map, there should be as many employee journey maps as necessary. The maps will determine what employee engagement software needs to be added to the mix, and how its implementation should be prioritized.