Enhancing the employee experience is crucial in today’s multi-generational workforce. Here’s your handy guide to EX 4.0.
As we continue to adapt and refine our approach to remote work, hybrid workplaces, quiet-quitting, and the four-day workweek, are businesses ready to welcome opportunities for positive change to transform the employee experience for the workplace of the future?
The pulse on employees globally
A 2022 Gallup poll showed that only 21% of employees globally are engaged at work. However, in Southeast Asia, this is marginally higher at 24%. These figures indicate that most employees do not feel engaged at work or may feel a disconnect. While there could be any number of reasons, from workplace stress to a lack of recognition or feeling disillusioned with the leadership team, these factors impact employee morale, motivation, and workplace satisfaction.
Ensuring employees stay engaged and keeping a pulse on the employee experience and workplace culture are some of the best ways to encourage and enhance employee engagement. In addition, using technology, cloud-based collaborative tools and HR management system can help to reduce manual tasks and errors that indirectly affect the quality of work and productivity.
Why a positive employee experience is important
Enhancing the employee experience is crucial in today’s multi-generational workforce. A Gartner report indicated that businesses could maximise their ROI by shaping how the employee experience feels, with 47% of engaged employees more likely to be high performers.
“When a positive employee experience is achieved and increased, companies and their teams can collaborate to create personalised, authentic experiences that build passion and tap into the purpose of strengthening individuals’, teams’, and company performance.”
Creating a positive employee experience requires a well-thought-out strategy, starting with the company’s vision, mission, and values. It encompasses the company’s culture and how its values are communicated and implemented in the workplace, utilizing effective HR management system.
The digital employee experience
In today’s remote working landscape, the digital experience and our employees’ digital interactions at work are vital to employee engagement, communication, and collaboration. The technologies and digital tools our employees have access to enable them and IT to communicate in new, more effective and efficient ways, including within the HR management system.
A PwC survey of over 12,000 employees across Canada, China and Hong Kong, Germany, India, Mexico, the UK, and the US indicates that over half of workers prefer digital transactions for everyday HR tasks such as scheduling vacation time, enrolling for benefits and updating personal information.
In fact, up to 55% prefer updating their personal information primarily digitally. Hence, cloud-based or SaaS-based human capital management (HCM) solutions like BIPO HR Management System allow employees to complete HR transactions anywhere through their mobile phones and other smart devices.
One of the common challenges facing employees today is the repetitive and monotonous tasks handled daily. Such tasks are time-consuming and often result in manual calculations or human errors, highlighting the need for efficient HR management system.
In the case of BIPO, the inclusion of AI and robotics process automation (RPA) into its award-winning HCM solutions support businesses, HR professionals, and employees by eliminating tedious tasks. For example, BIPO’s payroll calculation engine also encompasses built-in compliance components that ensure salary payments adhere to the mandatory MPF and other statutory contributions.
This process eliminates the time needed for payroll teams to pull up multiple data sources and outdated Excel spreadsheets for month-end payroll consolidation. In addition, since employees input their data directly into the BIPO HRMS employee hub, bank details and other essential information are automatically captured during the employee’s onboarding process, ensuring seamless integration among various HR core modules like payroll and overtime, leave management, claims, attendance, and rostering.
Payroll teams can process and complete the entire payroll process with a few simple clicks. As BIPO’s HCM suite is cloud-based, payroll and other HR transactions are performed accurately in full compliance with local statutory regulations, 24/7, from anywhere. Moreover, with the required security protocols and different levels of access rights in place for added safety, these tasks can now be automated and completed in a fraction of the time. Such a novel approach to technology allows employees to focus on more strategic and critical tasks. In addition, employees can add value to the business through their tangible contributions.
Florence Mok, BIPO’s Managing Director, North Asia, based in Hong Kong, shared her insights, having worked with business and HR leaders across the region. “From our experience, business leaders and employees are ready and willing to use new digital tools and technology as they recognise the positive effect these have on the business and employees”.
She added, “Business leaders expect technology to address pain points immediately”. While such expectations are common, Mok cautions that businesses must humanise technology and the digital employee experience. “Often, there may be a disconnect with the digital employee experience because managers expect technology to work wonders”.
“However, without putting in the hard work behind the scenes to guide employees on how to use the tools, gain employee buy-in from the start or demonstrate specific aspects that will benefit them, the digital employee experience can have the opposite effect by becoming the most prominent white elephant in the room.”
Embracing a human-centric approach to design the digital employee experience
For businesses to design a human-centric HR management system, they must first be able to define the holistic employee experience and consider these factors:
- How do your employees feel about the work they do?
- In which ways do they connect with their teams and colleagues?
- How is their work experience impacting their well-being and professional and personal development?
Mok concluded by sharing that the digital employee experience is no longer a “good to have” but a “must have” as businesses compete in a talent-short market. With change being the only constant in today’s volatile business landscape, companies must provide a seamless, unified, cloud-native experience that meets the needs of today’s diverse, multi-generational workforce.
BIPO is the winner of the “Best Employee Experience Platform” (Gold) at the HR Vendors of the Year 2022 Hong Kong. To find out more about BIPO and its award-winning HCM suite of solutions, visit, www.biposervice.com
