Why designing your employee experience journey starts even before hiring?

Business and the way we work have changed significantly during the last decades, including a higher amount of decentralization and increased efficiency and adaptability. The borders between work and private life have gradually been melting down. It’s no longer about how many hours you do, but about impact of your actions.

People (at work we call them: employees) are eager to find a more purposeful job that provides them with a feeling of personal value and fulfilment. As such it has become apparent that many HR practices that served well in yesterday’s world have become obsolete and even counterproductive. The way we identify talent and the entire hiring process is under scrutiny as the long lead times and complex processes can no longer cope with the fast-changing and increasing demand. And in spite of technological progress today’s candidate or future colleague does not perceive much of a positive customer experience along the way.

So if technology has changed the way we live and work, why hasn’t it improved the candidate experience in a similar way? When will we start the design of the employee experience journey from the very start of the relation?

When teaching or consulting, my common pledge is to tap into the collective knowledge of disciplines and work across functions. To build on the variety of mindset, personality and behaviour that keeps us alert. Besides that we should embrace new technologies that improve our daily business experience. Apps that allow us to make better decisions, technology that does not focus on measuring the amount of minutes that we have been present at work, but tools that measure or mental performance, improve our wellbeing at work, and turn the workplace in a purposeful environment wherein personal and professional goals coincide.

I have been working with numerous clients building Employee Value Propositions or designing career plans and I have learned a lot from every single experience. Some projects went really well, but often I had the impression that we were producing policies and paperwork to comply with one or other regulation office and whilst doing so, ignoring the employee requirements of having a purposeful and engaging relation with their job. Often company policies stood in the way of an innovative breakthrough: But what struck me most in these projects is that “improving the employee experience is not a board priority in most organizations”.

However, as a curious optimist I challenged every time and asked why we did what we were doing and why we did not ask for permanent feedback from our internal clients. Counting lessons and blessings, I now realise that not a lack of technological fit, but an abundance of personal fear to let go, an innate resistance to change and reduce our individual job control is the main cause for this status quo.

Let us look at the first and very decisive step of the employee experience journey that is the hiring process. Have you ever experienced a feeling like “yes, I will join this company only because of how they approach me!

Have you ever been applying via an automated service that makes you go through a long - and not necessary inspiring - box filling process to fill in your data. All of which you had written in a personal resume before taking on this challenge? No questions about. “What would you do that turns a customer into an eternal fan?” or “How would you comfort the crying baby?” or even not “What energizes you most”? The questionnaire rather urges you to remember accurately what day you left company X and why. They need to know if you have ever worked in the company or any of our affiliates before. Can they not find that out themselves?! For me, this comes as an insult and the best way to scare away the very talents that companies are so desperately looking for.

I am aware that I am simplifying things a bit and that an automated process adds a lot of value to the hiring process. What I am referring to is that the process should also be designed to maximize the applicant experience and not only for the sake of the employer and the HR-professional. Did anyone talk to candidates before designing the monsters? Is it so hard to develop an automated interface that inspires me to apply for a job and allows me to present myself, express my hopes and fears to the potential employer in a natural, easy-going and best fit.

Check actual job descriptions and go to the list of needs and musts that are required and then match this list with your best actual performers. Is there a 100 % match?

The endless list of successful experiences, obligatory activities, qualifications and degrees that you must bring to the scene outweighs the company’s promise of a happy career full of benefits. We are looking to hire and inspire the best fit talents to our pool but fail to engage with them in a genuine way from step one.

One final thought: In many working environments the writing of a great CV does not have a positive correlation with success on the job. Why? Because there is a high chance that your favourite entertainer at the local coffee shop is more engaged by serving you a unique coffee experience than by writing his own history.

As CV’s are usually facts and figures, tied together through post-rationalising and storytelling we should engage in the global collective exercise of listing all the successes that we get served by those that know how to sell themselves to the workplace.

By no means am I convinced that great resume writers are also the best in serving customers in the everyday workplace. The stars of the shop floor are too engaged with serving and caring, they have an outward mind-set when it comes to customer experience, which implies that they often fail the test of writing their personal recommendation letter. And hence they fail to enter into the labour market and perform the job that is their natural best fit.

When applying for a job we look for environment where we can be the best version of ourselves and act whilst bringing our best skills and personality strengths to the daily game. We look for a job that allows us to build positive energy, exchange great experiences instead of counting hours and “having to wear the office suit” because that is what pays the bills.

Imagine a hiring service that is based on the collective learnings of marketing and communication, HR and technology. An application that allows every talent to show its real face as they are used to show it in real life. Why can’t we just send a true piece of personal experience to potential employers. A picture of who we are instead of a history of our past successes. On top of that with a guaranteed and instant feedback.

My bet is that this service, based on current technology and ready for future improvements could be a first and important step towards an employee experience journey that starts in a positive way where it has to, and that is before day one.