What can Employee Experience practitioners do to deliver superior experiences during and beyond the crisis?

Sophie Müller highlights the top five findings from April’s TI People EX Program Peer Meeting

Our very first virtual EX Program Peer Meeting reflected a new way of working together. Forty EX leaders from across Europe came together for two days to discuss and develop an understanding of how EX practitioners can stay on the path to deliver superior experiences during and beyond the crisis.

Providing a glimpse into TI People’s latest thinking and fostering connections across many prominent brands, our aim was to:

1. Facilitate EX leaders’ exchange on current & pressing challenges due to the crisis, both on a business and a personal level 
2. Allow for ‘big thinking’ on what it really takes to run Employee Experience at scale.

By the end of our Peer Meeting, attendees gained five new perspectives:

1. Covid-19 presents an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to being experience-led

When the Covid-19 crisis has passed, what decision do you want to be most proud of?  

Breaking into small groups, Peer Meeting participants quickly concluded that there is no one-size-fits-all solution; responding to the pandemic in a human-centered way, requires an employee experience engine to design and deliver EX at scale. Many organizations need new ways of thinking and working. 

The group also agreed that, if there is ever a time to take a step on this journey or accelerate it, it is now.

2. A reflection on our EX scope: Employee Experience is a business affair 

Reflecting on the scope of EX, the group considered how an individual’s experiences work in the context of a complex ecosystem (see Figure 1, below). This complexity alone shows we must think beyond HR to deliver superior experiences. Employee experience is a business affair –­ the business creates a lion’s share of the experience, and without their partnership, the impact will always be sub-optimal for the employee. 

Figure 1: The Employee Experience Ecosystem

We also discussed six additional tenets that make up the strategic intent for EX at scale. These tenets are the foundation for which the notion of EX rests, and tell the story of what it means to be experience-led. They also serve as a reminder of the ‘influencer’ role EX leaders have. If EX leaders struggle to bring the strength of their own conviction to the table, then EX progress will stall. Contact us to discover the seven tenets in full.

3. Prioritize employee experience, the same way we do customer experience

The group were presented with two business examples by Robert Bosch’s Amit Kumar and Ingka Services’ Linda Tinnert.

Charting Ingka Services’ EX journey, Linda explained how her work started with an onboarding proof of concept. She emphasized the impact of collaborating with customer experience teams and discussed with the group how companies such as Ikea are linking the way they serve their customers with the way they serve their employees.

Learn more about Apply Employee Experience

4. A new way of working is required to scale EX

Scaling does not mean top-down, but how we enable business to establish a mechanism locally.

Amit shared Bosch’s approach of managing EX – LISTEN • FEEL • ACT – and a live view into the company’s impressive EX Measurement dashboard. “Scaling doesn’t mean top-down,” he noted, “but how we enable the business to establish a mechanism locally.” Amit’s words established the group’s goals for the following day, namely:

1. As an EX leader, what do you facilitate – beyond HR?  
2. What could be the impact on operating and delivery models in the future?

5. Your Role as an EX Leader: Be the best facilitator you can be

The business of experience is never complete, and always complex. People’s expectations and needs change and grow. Their experience is delivered through a complex and diverse system of managers, peers, technology, services, to name a few.  

Thinking about the breadth of EX management and the stakeholders involved, EX leaders need to find a new role as facilitators. They must facilitate the ‘right’ people through iterative cycles of quality design and cohesive and consistent, quality delivery that truly never ends. 

We will be continuing this discussion – and more – in our final EXploration Class and upcoming think tank events in June and July. Email sophie.mueller@ti-people.com to learn more about the EX Program!