In recent years, most companies have been confronted with two major changes in consumer habits:
- Customers’ hyper-connectivity
- The need for immediacy and availability.
These trends are now making their way into organizations, embodied by the new expectations of employees. Regularly challenged by these issues, HR is being called upon to rethink itself and offer a new employee experience, so as to encourage the adoption of HR platforms aimed at employees.
A growing culture of immediacy
In the space of two decades, our lifestyles have evolved, punctuated by a new relationship with time centered on the instant and the immediate. New technologies in particular have accelerated this cultural and societal transformation: we derive a kind of satisfaction from getting what we want immediately.
This standardization of access to information, on the other hand, also generates an intolerance to frustration, as soon as we have to wait: we’ve become accustomed to finding instant answers thanks to online tutorials, to booking a medical appointment in a few clicks from an app, to having a digital life on social networks, and so on.
New technologies, and in particular communication tools, tend to reinforce this acceleration, and bring together the physical and digital worlds, in both the private and professional spheres: employees now come to work with their personal experiences and expectations.
Instantaneity in the workplace
The repercussions on the company and its organization are numerous, often motivated or inspired by the search for equivalence with what we experience on a daily basis. The personalization of software interactions and instantaneousness are among the impacts that can easily be observed, while at the same time providing levers for improving the employee experience.
These new paradigms are leading HR teams to rethink and evolve their service offering. In so doing, they are responding to the need for greater adaptability to new professional realities, in a spirit of accessibility and autonomy sought by employees.
Immediacy for the day-to-day HR function
Let’s take training as an example: recent studies show that only one in five people take training in the company, and 40% of them don’t know what content to use, or where to find it… We are also seeing that employees expect shorter training and continuous development media that are better adapted to their lifestyles (podcasts, video…). New opportunities are emerging at skills to offer instant personalized training. This involves, for example, connecting areas for improvement arising from solicited or spontaneous feedback with content accessible at the click of a button!
These trends have of course been accelerated by the recent, forced hybridization of working patterns, often with technological responses. This rapid and necessary digitization has made it possible to bring together the experiences of the personal and professional spheres mentioned above, and thus avoid the risk of frustration or disinterest due to a mismatch between expectations and experience, which is all the greater in remote environments.
Levers for HR software adoption
As a preamble to this section, we recommend a number of useful readings to help you understand the history and projections of what HR Information Systems will look like in the future:
- HRIS: prospects and developments
- AI and Machine Learning in HR: what’s the verdict?
- How to digitalize the HR function?
Self-service
What is Software Self-Service?
Software Self-Service is an approach that enables users to manipulate and exploit data and software resources directly,without the need for constant assistance from technical specialists, thus promoting user autonomy and responsiveness.
This approach began to emerge in 2007, as HR information systems opened up to employees and managers. These new users are behind the generation of data such as their profiles, the self-assessment of their skills or the preparation of their annual appraisal interviews. For the HR function, this change is an opportunity to save time in data collection. It also means a certain loss of control over the platform’s content, and a greater need for governance and reliability .
The UX approach
HR software favors a user-friendly UX and ergonomic design to simplify workflows, offering a personalized, website-like navigation path. Deploying a software suite requires it to be accessible on a variety of devices, as not every employee necessarily has access to a computer. Similarly, its design is iterative in the sense that it evolves according to user feedback. Finally, it requires little training, thanks to its total intuitiveness and, where necessary, efficient user support.
As Coco Chanel said:
You don’t get 2 chances to make a good first impression
During the pre-project phase and design workshops we recommend that you request adaptations for :
- The Graphic Charter
- Choice of terminology
- Home page information
The digital accessibility obligation
What is digital accessibility?
Digital accessibility is governed by the RGAA 4 law, and refers to the provision of digital content that can be used and understood by everyone, including people with disabilities. This way of designing websites or software aims to eliminate barriers that could prevent access to online information and services, offering a fair and inclusive experience for all users. More precisely, this translates into :
- The existence of shortcuts
- Color contrast
- Combining text, color and graphics
An HR solutions provider must not only provide you with customization in the colors of your graphic charter, but also advise you on the colors to use. Each color has a particular cognitive meaning, and their choice can facilitate the transmission of emotions.
Gamification
Gamification involves facilitating the adoption of an HR software platform by applying playful elements to areas that are not intrinsically playful.
Benefits include a more intuitive introduction to the tool and the establishment of sustainable behaviors. All HR stages, from recruitment to training, can benefit from this approach. This takes the form of rewards based on user assiduity: badges or team challenges contribute to more frequent use of the tool.
At Neobrain, we leverage the social dimension of our platform, enhancing user experience and engagement. For example, the most popular training courses are now visible to colleagues in the same field. This feature can be configured according to the needs of the HRIS project team.
Internal sales pitch
Adopting a new talent management solution involves significant changes to the organization and its culture. An explanation of the context, the challenges and the benefits sought will take place during the scoping and deployment phase, but that's not all. To ensure the success of these HR projects, your suppliers need to support you through a variety of training and communication methods.
Here are a few examples of tools included in a launch communication plan:
- Co-organization of webinars with employees to encourage their involvement.
- Creation of Motion Design videos to make it easier for your employees to get on board.
- Set up a guided tour to launch the campaign.
- Pre-designed emails to help you with your reminders and communications.
- Q&A sessions with all employees in the middle of the campaign to answer their questions.
In conclusion, while the return on investment of the chosen software is the responsibility of the project team, your solution provider has a key role to play. That’s why you need to be very demanding when it comes to deployment methodology, workshop schedules and deliverables. This deployment methodology is documented in a Guide produced with the Tempo&Co consultancy firm, and is available here.
