Role of HRM in Reinventing the employee experience

4 min readJul 1, 2021

This article is my submission for ‘Kathan’ — Annual HR article writing competition organized by dHRuva — HR Club of IIM Udaipur.

It is different from my usual writing, so daily readers can choose to skip it.

Two major changes need a reinvention of employee experience

· Increased WFH

· Incoming Gen-Z Employee

Part 1: Work from Home Revolution

Many Surveys proved that WFH benefits both the employee and employer and it is here to stay. In the survey from Global Workplace Analytics: -

· 68% of all employees say they are very successful working from home

· 70 % of Managers reported the same or better results in work performance post work from home

· 76% of global employees want to continue the WFH model.

Challenges from Work from Home Revolution

Company challenges caused by this new physical distance shaking up their company culture:

· Virtual Onboarding

Employee meets and greets, welcome sessions, equipment handover, and IT support have all gone online. The convenience of doing all this physically has been replaced by the difficulty of video conferencing and IT support calls.

· Reduced in-person interactions and guidance

According to a study by Slack, 85% of remote workers want to feel closer to their colleagues. Employees today are looking beyond office hours. They want to be concerned in their work, passionate and excited regarding the organization they work for, and committed and connected to their fellow workers.

· Inability to ‘leave work at work’

With no real way to differentiate between work and home life. Many people are feeling drained by work. The boundaries of working hours are vanishing

· High Screen Time and Video Fatigue

WFH demands high screen time doing presentations and video calls. This is taking a toll on the eyesight of the employees. The privacy of homes is also breached as there is always a possibility of something personal being visible to wide-eyed co-workers.

Opportunities from Work from Home Revolution

These challenges bring never-before opportunities in HRM for reinventing employee experience. Some of these opportunities are: -

· Personalised Hiring

HR leaders can send custom-made offer letters, documents, and policies, and more for new hires. With the use of technology, everyone can be easily kept in the loop, and HR Leaders can also track and report on the data to stay organized.

· Seamless Onboarding

A typical onboarding process includes sending essential equipment, key documents, and welcome meetings.HR leaders and managers can make sure that they are not missing anything by creating a list for tangibles and intangibles of onboarding and build a digitized process for it.

· Virtual Training and Seminars

Learning and Development should be recurring processes. Organizing regular Virtual Training and Webinars is essential in supporting the development of remote employees.

· Engaging Remotely

We can engage the remote employees through

o Virtual coffee date meetings

o Peer-to-peer feedback sessions

o Online Learning and Training

o Supporting Employees with a home office stipend

· Flexible Work and Digital Well Being

As we all focus on working remotely, flexibility becomes increasingly important. This can include flexibility in terms of time, flexibility in location, and even flexibility in organizing your larger work schedule. Companies should get more comfortable with the idea of employees personalizing their work in the way that suits them best and focus more on the holistic wellbeing of employees and their families.

Part 2: Gen- Z revolution

Gen Z is trying to find a lot of purposeful and visionary work wherever they feel a vicinity of a team that’s making a real impact. firms currently arrange to sustain these reinventions as a part of their semipermanent plans. Founders and company management are operating to adopt these new themes and, in some cases, lead from the front to make this new culture of openness, diversity, and more versatile work culture.

Accenture and the Centre for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) explored how utilities can help reinvent the employee experience for the future. Here are their major findings.