You’re probably familiar with HR and corporate terms like change management, talent acquisition, corporate culture or diversity and inclusion. You know how HR and employee videos drive some of these concepts. You’re aware of what CEO, IT and HR stand for. But are you ready for a new acronym? DEX. It stands for digital employee experience. DEX is used to describe how employees work, what tools and technology they use to accomplish their work, and the corporate culture they inhabit. In other words, DEX is the digital interaction between employees and their organizations.
HR technology is rapidly evolving to offer a wide range of new products and services. The digital employee experience is changing with it, becoming more crucial to understanding how to better engage and support employees. Implementing improvements to the DEX can be challenging, but it’s a challenge worth tackling. Addressing the DEX can lead to improved profitability and employee retention.
How can organizations use technology like HR and employee videos to bolster their DEX in the most effective ways?
Employee Experience vs Employee Engagement
“Employee engagement,” as coined by professor William Kahn, focuses on how much an employee is personally involved in making their employer’s business a success. Meanwhile, the “employee experience,” according to Ryan Pendell, looks at an individual’s entire journey with a company. It covers everything from their initial attraction to a position through the final exit interview. Employee engagement is actually part of the employee experience. An engaged employee enjoys coming to work. They feel the work is something they’re good at and that it’s tied into a higher purpose.
HR leaders are always concerned with employee engagement, but the same isn’t necessarily true of the employee experience. Engagement is measurable through things like benefits enrollment numbers, participation in wellness programs, team-building activities in the workplace and productivity. When companies invest in HR and employee videos, they do so with an eye toward seeing employee engagement indicators rise. Employee experience is often an afterthought. But engagement is inextricably part of the employee experience. When an employee’s experience is negative, then their engagement suffers.
Employers are starting to pay attention to the employee’s entire work experience, and it’s about time. In the global and fast-moving business world, talent can pick and choose where to work. Top pay is a concern but hardly the only consideration. Millennials embody the importance of a work/life balance.
If you think about it, what’s happening in the business world today is a shift away from concentrating only on high profitability and toward focusing on people. When workers have what they need (from supplies to feedback) provided, their company will see higher engagement (and higher profits).
HR’s Role for the Future
Human resources, whether provided by one person or a whole department, is perched on the cliff of change. Over 100 years ago, HR’s role was, “largely compliance based and focused on record keeping, workplace safety, wage management and employee grievances.” And with some companies, those tasks remain the sole purpose of an HR department.
But HR’s impact can be much more positive than just ensuring compliance and maintenance of the basics. They’re important duties, but with new technology, like HR and employee videos, the opportunity to improve communication and engagement can’t go ignored. Many organizations are investing in their HR departments, adding technological capabilities and improving the DEX.
Video isn’t just an effective method for conveying information, it’s a learning tool that many employees prefer. Researching how employees learn best and what their preferences are go a long way to making them more comfortable and happier at work. Having confidence in their knowledge and preparedness help their responsibilities feel less daunting.
Digital solutions extend beyond video. They’re about matching the right tools for a task to the person who needs them. Digital communications platforms make it easier to provide resources to different departments and other segments of your workforce. Software and other digital tools can help organize your company and create processes to take out some of the busy work.
At Flimp, our digital postcard campaigns are most often used for benefits communications, in part, because their flexibility allows employees to easily share information with spouses (they also allow for easy inclusion of video-based benefits education). They’re also an excellent way to match and share resources with the departments or demographics that need them, whether those are documents, training videos or links. Decision-support tools like PLANselect® assist workers making difficult choices regarding benefits options.