Up until February or March 2020, most of the people from the world of work were focusing on the future of work. But the COVID-19 outbreak took everyone by surprise and quickly shifted their focus on the now of work. The current challenges, ensuring employee safety, maintaining cash flows, working remotely, and so on. In this new reality of work when there is no longer a defined workspace for many, and the future is more uncertain than ever, it is time for HR leaders to rethink employee experience. 

At People Matters EX Virtual Conference 2020, Jason Averbook, CEO & Co-Founder, Leapgen shares how  talent leaders can reshape the employee experience with a digital mindset. 

“If you can’t focus on digital first, then you shouldn’t be in the experience business,” said Averbook. 

Work as we know has changed forever

As the world of work changes rapidly and becomes more dynamic than ever before, talent leaders must stop processes that don’t add value NOW, and instead focus on resetting work that responds more effectively to the challenges of the present. Jason suggests that it is indeed a time when processes should maybe be redefined weekly. How do we do this? We set a vision, a true north star. We set guiding principles, we align and we set measurable targets. 

It’s 2020 outside of work, what year is it inside of work?

As talent leaders focus on redesigning experience for the NOW of work, they must begin with setting a clear vision. “Identify your North Star,” says Averbook. The entire organization must be driven by a common purpose. The importance of this vision has increased as people no longer work from a defined workplace, the need to be aligned and not operate in silo is critical for success now. 

New HR operating model for the now of work

To enable the entire workforce to work in the NOW of work, the old HR systems also need to transform, quickly and swiftly. It is high time that leaders must accept that the new reality of work is more digital. Hence, the new HR operating models also have to focus on digital delivery. Task forces, dedicated groups, functional teams are not effective anymore. The workforce wants the solution on-the-go, easily accessible and real time. 

The entire HR function needs to have a digital layer and every single HR leader has to have a digital first mindset. 

When talent leaders focus on designing  the digital solutions for these workforce to ensure a good experience, they must focus on understanding the audience, the workforce, and their challenges. For a good employee experience, the HR digital solutions must be created to solve the problems of people who execute these solutions, talent leaders, and for the people who ultimately use them, the workforce. 

Moments that matter now

For the next three to six months, and maybe beyond, talent leaders have to focus on enabling communication, experiences, and capabilities that can have the highest impact on organizations. In the ‘NOW’ of work, what is critical? Communicating the work from home policy, listening to the people and knowing how they are feeling, learning about their challenges, and taking actions to solve them. 

To be able to focus on the moments that truly matter now, organizations have to part ways with the ‘once a year processes’. They have to build a more real-time listening, monitoring, and action model. 

“You need to know how people are feeling today, not 6 months ago,” said Averbook. 

Leaders tend to spend hours and tons of money in making the talent management processes that don’t matter to the workforce and definitely don't matter right ‘NOW’. So once again, take a pause, and ask yourself, “It’s 2020 outside of work, what year is it inside of work?”