The
Moments
That
Matter
The rise of employee experience
With over 30,000 talented people working across more than 40 countries, at RELX we do amazing things for our customers, for one another and for our communities.
We’re lucky. We have a clearly stated and genuine purpose that I challenge anyone not to find motivational (see opposite). It is with purpose-led work like this, relentless innovation and a recognised track record in ESG that we have an enviable recipe to create unique and fulfilling experiences for our people and an environment for them to thrive.
Yet, like any complex organisation, things can sometimes get in the way. Common opportunities to improve the experience of employees include getting the big moments like onboarding right, helping people navigate our business to find the next career opportunity and helping people through significant life changes. But often the biggest frustrations for people are caused little things that fall through the cracks - those overlooked and unintended impacts from processes and systems that accumulate over time. This is where employee experience comes in.
There’s a tangible buzz about this new discipline in management thinking and in this article I want to show you why it matters more than you might think.
"Our purpose, at RELX, is to benefit society by developing products that help researchers advance scientific knowledge; doctors and nurses improve the lives of patients; lawyers promote the rule of law and achieve justice and fair results for their clients; businesses and governments prevent fraud; consumers access financial services and get fair prices on insurance; and customers learn about markets and complete transactions."
Not just some days,
but every day
It’s an opportunity to connect across disciplines taking the all-important employee view of the organisation to identify pain points and opportunities.
As the head of employee experience at RELX, it’s my belief that each one of us should come to work in conditions in which we can flourish - feeling connected, empowered and able to do our best work - not just some days but every day. To feel not only that our work matters, but that we are valued because of who we are, what we do and how we do it. This is where employee experience can help. It’s our opportunity to bring different stories and perspectives to understand what’s getting in the way or what can be unlocked for each person to bring their best. It’s an opportunity to connect across disciplines taking the all-important employee view of the organisation to identify pain points and opportunities.
I will explore the emergence of employee experience and consider why now, for this new way of thinking. One year into my role at RELX, I hope I can share some of my personal observations and insights. Whether you’re working in a complex organisation or leading a small team, I’ll share the secrets from moments that matter to micro-annoyances.
Making work human
At RELX we have a growing community of employee experience professionals, tasked with challenging the way our organisation engages with and listens to our people. Ultimately, it’s an emerging field that looks at how culture and brand come to life through different interactions from the moment a potential employee thinks about joining an organisation all the way through to the day they leave - and potentially beyond.
Here we can think about big moments like how your interview is conducted; whether onboarding is effective; how your performance is managed; help when you need it in a family emergency; how your manager supports and challenges you and how you are treated when you leave. And we can also think about all the small things in between that help build a place where you love to work.
We call these interactions the moments that matter - a concept that originates from the customer experience ‘moments of truth’. In the customer world these are occasions where a customer's interaction is so important that it alters their perception of the brand, their loyalty and whether they choose to buy or not. These employee moments shape how our people feel about working here and whether they want to continue their careers with us or not.
Across RELX we are trying to identify what these important moments are, to understand the common pain points for our people and create action that drives improvements. We don’t claim to have solved these and in a growing and evolving business our job is likely to never be done. But we are trying to listen and learn about what is important to our people, and looking to bring multiple stakeholders, influencers and partners on a journey to make a difference.
Mounting research is showing organisations that invest in building a human employee experience outperform those that don’t. Organisations that make work human are winning.
And they are doing that in three distinct ways.
Firstly, there is an organisational belief that making work human matters and the psychological contract between employee and employer is paramount to sustained success. Experiences matter because they shape the stories people tell and the stories people tell set the narrative as to whether a company is a good, or not so good place to work.
Secondly, successful organisations invest in listening and understanding - building detailed maps of the employee journey and employee personas or character-based perspectives from day one, informed by data and analytics so they know what matters to their people and when. Of course, they can’t get it right for everyone all the time, but they use data to get it right way more often than not.
And finally, there is a serious and long-term intention from leadership to get it right and put people first. Organisations that invest and build the employee experience into those things they measure are reaping the rewards.
"Mounting research shows organisations that invest in building a human employee experience outperform those that don’t. Organisations that make work human are winning."
Why Now?
"Corporate empathy, at last, has a currency, and a toolkit - and this is embodied in employee experience thinking."
Looking at the employee experience gives us permission to focus on what is innately human and to let go of a legacy of thinking in the corporate world that has oversimplified people and the meaning and importance we find in work.
This people-centric view has taken some time to grow in confidence but the journey is clear for us all to see.
In the dim, dark days of the old corporate world there was an ideology of management being solely about tasks, efficiency and finding the one right way to do something. This Tayloristic view from the early 20th Century dictated that control, structure, process and hierarchy were all that mattered. It was alive and well for decades.
In the last ten years or so, organisations have been facing increasing levels of uncertainty, complexity and change. But the systems, people and structures in many cases struggled to respond. The world of work desperately needed a catalyst to start to put people first, to give humanity a currency at work. The COVID-19 pandemic became that catalyst. We saw a clash between compassion and control at work. And the former won, and in some style.
Add to this the concurrent rise in employee and social activism, and greater transparency through social media and suddenly employees have enjoyed more power.
People performed and delivered working at home during the pandemic. Our intrinsic need to make a difference and be part of something meaningful drove us to perform, even when our managers weren’t around in the same way they used to be. We saw the human side of our once suited and booted colleagues. We met their partners, children and pets and saw them working in their kitchens or bedrooms. The old barriers started to fall away.
And so, the organisational world changed and, in tandem, the fields of psychology, behavioural science and neuroscience also transformed. Positive psychology has shown how feeling good at what we do and feeling connected at work can influence our health, well-being and productivity.
Before this the whole history of psychology was built on a fundamental understanding of psychosis, trauma and disorders. In a way it supported the earlier management philosophies that people needed structure, control and order to perform. How wrong we were.
And, if we ever needed proof that employees have more power, then the great resignation is all we need to consider - an unprecedented movement of people between jobs this year the likes of which we have never seen in our lifetimes.
So now the stars have aligned to create a shift in corporate philosophy - where listening, empathy and compassion have true power. A perfect storm for positive change. Corporate empathy, at last, has a currency, and a toolkit - and this is embodied in employee experience thinking.
A story of micro-annoyances
At this point let me share a story with you. This is about all those little things that can lead to the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Not the big moments we have discussed earlier, but the little frustrations that can chip away at you at work.
I had a friend who resigned from a successful career in construction. When I asked him why, I expected him to say something about work-life balance or a new career direction. But no. He went on to describe the week before he resigned. His team had won a client pitch. He'd delivered a project milestone for a multi-million-dollar transformation project and supported his team through a tough end of year appraisal season, advocating for them and their careers.
Yet he'd spent his Friday night doing a mandatory compliance training which he'd failed multiple times as it seemed there was just no way of getting it right. He then submitted a claim for homeworking equipment expenses in line with new policy. With a chronic health condition his choice of equipment was a little different - and when it came back rejected and out of policy it was the final straw. It was simply time to move on.
This kind of story, I’m sure, will be familiar to many. Different departments making demands, piled up on one another with no real thought to how the requests or systems are experienced by the employee. No understanding of the journey. It is my belief that the cumulative effect of these micro-annoyances can be quite devastating for both the employee and, therefore, their employer.
The learning here is to ask yourself whether you really understand what it’s like to live a day in the life of one of your team members? As a manager of people, I think you should.
"The learning here is to ask yourself whether you really understand what it’s like to live a day in the life of one of your team members? As a manager of people, I think you should."
Making a difference,
one manager at a time
We heard recently from Rose Thomson, Chief Human Resources Officer at RELX, about the rise of the manager as one of the top five trends for 2022 and the critical role they play in organisational success.
At RELX we see our managers in the driving seat of employee experience - they are the talented people who bring to life our culture and support colleagues through this complex world of moments. They're amazing people juggling the complexities and tensions of hybrid working, supporting well-being, removing barriers to performance and advocating for the needs of their people. While delivering excellent client service and business results. When speaking to some of our stand-out managers for research for a recent article where they shared their insights, I was humbled by their passion for what they do.
We want to support our managers to understand the skills and mindsets they need to create excellent moments that matter. Through research, we've identified five key moments where our managers make the most difference.
- A manager's role in hiring the right people through inclusive behaviours
- Supporting onboarding by creating powerful first impressions through the connections they can help make
- How the manager supports personal growth through people-centred goal setting with a mindset that brings the strengths of the employee into the context of the role
- Coaching for growth through ongoing developmental conversations
- The one that surprised us the most - supporting transition or exit conversations. How do you support someone to transition to a new role, or exit gracefully when the time is right? Whether retirement, a career change across our business or moving to another company, your exit from an organisation should be as important as the day you join. After all, when people move on we still want them to be advocates of our business
From empowering managers to deliver those big moments that matter, to catching those micro-annoyances that slip through the cracks, employee experience is bringing a human-centred approach that is transforming organisations.
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