Employee experience: the new human resource management approach
| Pages | 136-141 |
| Published date | 12 June 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-12-2016-0108 |
| Date | 12 June 2017 |
| Author | Josh Plaskoff |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
Employee experience: the new human
resource management approach
Josh Plaskoff
Josh Plaskoff is Director
of Learning and
Experience Design for
Highpoint Global in
Indianapolis, Indiana,
USA. He is also Adjunct
Faculty for the Kelley
School of Business at
Indiana University,
Bloomington, Indiana,
USA.
Abstract
Purpose –Organizations must reframe their approach to how they relate to their employees. The new
multi-generational workplace demands a new way of thinking about human resource management. Putting
the employee’s total experience at the center produces a very different approach, beyond increasing perks
or “funifying” the workplace, to engaging the employee in the workplace. The purpose of this study is to
reframe the traditional approach to human resource management that better fits that modern workplace and
enables the empowerment and engagement that organizations so desperately seek.
Design/methodology/approach –Design thinking is applied to employee experience in an organization.
By viewing employee experience as a set of holistic perceptions of that relationship, human resource
management transforms into a more strategic process for engaging the employee through meaning and
providing value. Six principles for employing this methodology are specified in this paper.
Findings –Perks are not the answer to employee engagement. An organization must understand each
employee more deeply and co-design experiences with them that demonstrate care. It must embrace
expansive and holistic thinking, face the intangible aspects of organizational life and use tools to help
make them tangible, experiment and iterate, building solutions organically, while recognizing that the
process is just as important, if not more important, than the product.
Originality/value –Organizations recognize a need for change and struggle with engaging
employees. Most modern approaches to engagement and retention foundationally stem from old ways
of thinking that will not work in today’s workplace. Design thinking has been applied successfully for
customer experience and user experience; it is just beginning to be recognized as an approach for
employee experience.
Keywords Human resource management, Leadership, Employee engagement, Engagement,
Organization development
Paper type Conceptual paper
The business world is facing an unprecedented situation that companies must
recognize if they wish to survive. For the first time, we have four generations working
together side-by-side – the traditionalists, baby boomers, Generation Xers and
Millennials – each with expectations of the workplace shaped by its own history. With the
shift to a service, knowledge-based industry, the so-called “war for talent” has escalated.
The demands of the marketplace for innovation and rapid change require that employees
engage in different ways with their work and the company. Technology has knocked down
the physical walls of companies, opening up a global marketplace. At the same time,
employers are facing an employee population in which fewer than half are satisfied with
their jobs, though it has been somewhat on the rise (Weber, 2016). For companies to
compete, they must continue to rethink the relationship of the company with its employees.
As Caplan (2014) has indicated, organizations have three major objectives on which they
must focus: retention, engagement and innovation. In an effort to increase waning
employee satisfaction, and ultimately, impact these three objectives, many look at
reformulating the leadership or management processes or examining the reward and
recognition systems in place to incent desired behavior. Thinking that tangible benefits and
PAGE 136 STRATEGIC HR REVIEW VOL. 16 NO. 3 2017, pp. 136-141, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 DOI 10.1108/SHR-12-2016-0108
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