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Onboarding is an employer’s first chance to confirm for new hires that they made the right choice.

A compelling, personalized onboarding process is a critical first step to ensure employees find themselves welcomed, supported and believing they are in a position to succeed. A poor onboarding process can severely impact employee retention and result in significant downstream costs to recruit and train replacements.

Technology is critical to onboarding — especially in an era of remote and hybrid work and widely dispersed workforces. Unfortunately, Brandon Hall Group research shows that most companies are in the early stages of developing high-impact onboarding. Only 9% said they offer a fully integrated set of onboarding resources and technologies.

While focusing on training and culture is important and a primary focus for HR teams, the quality and sophistication of technology can be the difference between onboarding success and failure in a hyper-connected world.

“A lot of pieces must come together for onboarding to be strong,” said Chris Kirkpatrick, Director of Offering Management in the Digital Workplace global practice at Kyndryl. “There can be 15 different things  — or more — that must come together before an employee begins the first day. Digital workplace technologies can make it all seamless, integrate HR and IT workflows, and measure the whole experience from start to finish through Experience Level Agreements (XLAs). This can cut the business processes for a new employee from days down to hours.”

More than ever in a hybrid environment, onboarding should be engaging because it sets a tone. “It’s important for employees to be clear on their roles, how they contribute to the organization, and how to work across their various teams. We must consider that many employees are working from their home. That changes the reality of work culture. Employees need to know where they fit and how they can contribute. Then they need to be supported,” Kirkpatrick said.

Technology with a Human Touch

Even though many onboarding experiences are now virtual and must be digitized, Kirkpatrick focuses heavily on the human touch — and especially personalization.

“We must understand the context of the employee,” he said. “The big thing is timeliness. The business needs employees functional as soon as possible, and there can be a tendency to overload them with too much information.”

“We should consider, ‘How can we avoid doing that?’ ‘How can we explain to employees what is to come so they understand where they are in the onboarding process and what they will experience the first week, the second week, etc.?’ We want to make sure the onboarding experience is personalized to the role and intuitive, and considers how the employee will balance work with onboarding,” Kirkpatrick said.

After that, HR leaders must ensure new employees feel connected and supported; effective use and deployment of digital tools help, but the foundation is sensitivity to human needs.

“Remote working, with the right tools, can actually drive a more inclusive and diverse culture,” Kirkpatrick said. “But remote work can lead to increased isolation for some types of personalities. Hybrid work gives businesses access to a bigger pool of talent, but you also have to address isolation considerations. But culturally, if done right, it can drive sustainability.”

By that, Kirkpatrick means sustainability as a human issue. He points to ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance), a framework to evaluate companies on how they manage their impact on the world. Kirkpatrick prefers using the acronym SEE, standing for Social, Economic and Environment. “We believe that organizations must focus on the social element first to drive the sustainability and impact on communities and of human life. This approach then naturally feeds into wellness, which also impacts engagement and employee experience in their day-to-day lives.

“Sustainability is huge for Kyndryl because we were spun off as a company (from IBM),” Kirkpatrick continued. “Sustainability was born into our company’s purpose and our mission. What I love about my job is being able to talk to customers every day about elevating sustainability and improving work culture through our solutions and about how that drives employee experience and makes the business sustainable by design.”

Technology, sustainability and employee experience must operate in balance and organizations need to realize the benefits of focusing on these areas. Kyndryl uses XLAs to measure that. Digital tools, including AI-driven solutions and data and analytics, enable automation of processes, reducing manual intervention and adding speed and reliability. XLAs deliver insights to help improve the employee experience — during onboarding and throughout the employee lifecycle.

“Ultimately, You can’t fix what you can’t see,” Kirkpatrick said. “HR leaders must be able to see the current employee experience and pain points. You can use journey mapping, but you need to be able to gather data and analyze it to deepen the understanding of the experience and quantify where the friction is. Some of it is technical design, but then you have to put yourself in the shoes of employees and make human-centric decisions.”

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Most employers — 87% according to the Brandon Hall Group HCM Outlook 2023 study — have adopted a hybrid work model that enables employers to work away from a central office location at least some of the time. Two-thirds of respondents to that same study said this model was effective or very effective.

But in some industries — including financial services — executives continue to believe that employees must work full-time in an office to foster culture and collaboration. Leaders of some large global banks believe that face-to-face interactions with clients and colleagues are critical to drive business even as hybrid work is overwhelmingly popular among financial services employees.

That thinking among financial services leaders could backfire. A survey of 300 managers and staffers at large financial services companies around the world by Kyndryl, the world’s largest provider of IT infrastructure services, shows that:

• 86% of respondents said it is important or extremely important to work remotely at least some of the time.
• 75% said they would at least consider looking for other jobs if they were not able to work remotely some of the time.
• 72% prefer to have the option of working remotely at least three days a week.

Understanding the Gap

At a time when talent retention and employee experience are among the most critical business issues, financial services companies pushing to get people back to the office full-time are swimming against a strong current.

“When you look at the talent in the financial services industry, they are saying they want to be in a hybrid environment,” said Ivan Dopplé, Global Practice Leader of Kyndryl Digital Workplace Services. “They feel strongly about workplace flexibility. They want a meaningful mix of in-office and remote work. So, providing employees with flexibility is important for talent retention. A hybrid work model can also help banks find and attract the very best talent.”

Brandon Hall Group research also shows that on-site work at many companies does not look much different than remote work. This frustrates employees, who don’t understand why they have to commute and lose flexibility when they could do the same work at their home or remote offices. Hybrid work should be more than working in different locations; it should offer different experiences at each location.

“Most financial services employees prefer to work away from the office when doing high-focus, individual-oriented tasks such as status updates, data analysis and training or learning activities,” Dopplé said. “Networking and team-building activities were most often preferred to be done in an office environment.”

Key Research Takeaways

The Kyndryl research also found that hybrid work models:

• Fuel productivity. More than 80% of respondents said hybrid work enables them to get more work done and makes it easier to meet deadlines. Dopplé added that 76% of respondents said having a hybrid work schedule enables them to deliver a higher quality of work.
• Increase collaboration.
  • 64% of respondents agree or strongly agree that hybrid work models enable their teams to be more collaborative.
  • 61% agree or strongly agree they are more likely to seek input on work from teammates when working remotely.
  • 78% agree or strongly agree that having a hybrid work schedule makes them more engaged on days working in the office with their teams.

“Most of the respondents indicated videoconferencing tools, messaging systems such as Slack or Teams and access to an IT help desk are critical. No real surprises there, but without reliable access to these tools and support, hybrid work cannot be successful,” Dopplé said.

• May enhance diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
  • 67% of respondents said virtual meetings are an easier environment than in-person meetings to contribute ideas.
  • 64% said they were more likely to contribute ideas in a virtual meeting.
  • 78% agree or strongly agree with the statement, “I am just as empowered to advance my career when working in a hybrid setting as I was working in the office full time.

“When shaping the research,” Dopplé said, “we were curious to learn perceptions about unintended inequities that may be created or exacerbated by hybrid work models. But participants suggested the contrary.”

• Improve work culture.
  • 85% of respondents agree or strongly agree that working in a hybrid environment makes a positive impact on their company’s work culture.
  • 87% agree or strongly agree that having a flexible work arrangement has a positive impact on their daily employee experience.
  • 91% agree or strongly agree with the statement, “My manager trusts me to get my work done remotely.”

However, Dopplé said, more than half of respondents said that while managers trust employees to get their work done remotely, the managers would prefer that their team members work in the office most or all of the time

Recommended Action Steps for Financial Services Leaders

Prioritize Employee Autonomy and Flexibility Over Control

Many financial services companies lauded their employees’ ability to be productive and innovative while working from remote locations during the pandemic.

Now many institutions want to return to “normal,” failing to understand that the work world has changed forever. Employees had an opportunity to reassess their relationship with work and have decided that the old way no longer works for them.

If employees could be productive away from the office during the pandemic, they can get the same results now. If adjustments to the hybrid work experience are needed, focus on the best ways to improve it rather than trying to force workers back into a system they don’t want and that could drive them from the company.

Clearly Differentiate Between On-Site and Remote Work Experiences

Hybrid work should be more than working in different places. It should be about working in different ways and having a mix of experiences that complement each other. Financial services companies should engage their employees to understand what the optimal hybrid experience looks like and take steps to reach it.

While some financial services workers who work directly with customers probably do need to be on-site all or most of the time, management should work to provide them with some level of flexibility. For employees who don’t usually work with customers, companies should find ways to make coming into an office a valuable experience that employees can embrace and benefit from.

Give Employees the Tools Needed to Succeed in Hybrid Work

The success of hybrid work depends heavily on technology — mobile apps, wearables, instant messaging, video conferencing, assistive technology, real-time data and analytics, and much more. Financial services must select tools that fit their business needs and the needs of employees. One example: There are tools that help employees filter through the various types of messages they get every day. This enables employees to focus on getting meaningful work done while working off-site and having time for team meetings and collaboration while on-site.

However, many companies — after investing heavily in digital workplace technologies during the pandemic — have failed to fine-tune their use and functionality in the new hybrid world. Only 41% of organizations have the right technology for workplace navigation and only half have tools to help employees adopt technologies, according to Brandon Hall Group research, Is Your Employee Experience What You Intended?

That should change. Just having access to these tools is not enough. They must be adapted for specific use cases within banks and financial services offices. Workers also need resources to help them adopt the new technologies into their daily workflows.

Nurture Collaboration

As was demonstrated during the pandemic, high-quality collaboration can occur virtually or in-person. But it doesn’t happen by itself. Organizations must make a habit of soliciting input from colleagues who work in the same office and virtually from colleagues across time zones. Kyndryl’s research suggests that leaders who enable this kind of agility realize improved collaboration, productivity, organizational culture and employee satisfaction. Here are a few ideas:

• Use collaboration technology effectively. Take advantage of tools like video conferencing, screen sharing, whiteboards, etc. Make sure everyone is comfortable using them. Provide tech support if needed.
• Be flexible and accommodating. Accommodate different time zones and schedules. Record meetings and make notes available. Offer flexibility in working hours.
• Encourage overcommunication. Don’t assume remote workers have the same context. Loop them in on relevant messages/announcements and update them on decisions regularly.
• Role-model desired behaviors. Leaders should actively participate in collaboration, demonstrate transparency, communicate frequently and set the tone for openness.
• Gather feedback and improve. Check-in regularly on how collaboration is working. Encourage suggestions for improvement and make adjustments based on feedback.

Promote Cultural Engagement

Even though most financial services employees surveyed expressed a strong preference for hybrid work, physical separation inherent to hybrid work can complicate the kind of engagement that fuels innovation and advances business initiatives.

Financial services organizations that embrace hybrid work should be intentional in cultivating cultural engagement. Kyndryl, for example, found passionate employees willing to be cultural ambassadors. They developed local activities and championed company culture-related events. Other ideas include:

• Create or support employee resource groups (ERGs) focused on specific identities, cultures or interests.
• Have leaders and managers regularly communicate company values, mission, and goals.
• Spotlight employees who exemplify your culture via newsletters or the intranet.
• Create mentoring and buddy systems to onboard new hires to the culture.
• Recognize and reward employees who promote and uphold the culture.
• Share stories and examples that reflect your organization’s values and culture.

The post How Financial Services Companies Can Embrace and Facilitate Hybrid Work appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll and workforce management solutions, made a strong move this week with the introduction of generative AI-powered conversational experiences for its UKG Pro and UKG Ready HCM suites.

“We’re reshaping how people will access information, analyze insights and complete important processes at work,” said Hugo Sarrazin, chief product and technology officer at UKG.

Generative AI has the potential to transform work, but new Brandon Hall Group research shows that many employers are taking a cautious approach. Only 38% of HR organizations are actively involved in shaping the GenAI strategy for their organizations and only 33% say GenAI has a potentially positive impact.

That gives HR suite providers like UKG an opportunity to show these companies — their customers — the value of GenAI and how it can be implemented responsibly and ethically in the service of people. This can build deeper provider-customer connections.

Here are just a few examples of how GenAI can be leveraged for HR:

• Rather than navigating complex menus and forms, employees can have conversations with a virtual assistant to complete tasks like requesting time off, enrolling in benefits or updating personal information.
• Unlike traditional chatbots, GenAI can understand and interpret context and nuance, and has the potential to provide personalized responses based on a person’s role and situation.
• An AI assistant can ask clarifying questions and guide the user through processes in a more intuitive way. An employee could simply say, “I need to take next Monday off” and the AI could confirm the date, check available vacation time and submit the request seamlessly, without the user needing to locate the right forms or remember policy details.
• For new employee onboarding, an AI assistant could proactively reach out and have friendly dialogues to collect paperwork, introduce company resources and training programs and answer common questions in a personalized way. This takes a task that employees often find tedious and overwhelming and makes it more approachable and helpful.

UKG will showcase its generative AI enhancements at its annual conference, UKG Aspire 2023, Nov. 6-9 in Las Vegas.

This is just the latest move in UKG’s ongoing effort to build a culture around GenAI, which has been used in some form since 2015. For example, UKG has now hosted three hackathons, each involving more than 1,000 employees, experimenting with all types of innovation around AI with a thematic focus on “building great workplace experiences.” UKG then took specific use cases and tried them out on customers.

UKG understands that the natural language processing and conversational capabilities of AI can humanize and personalize HR technology. We look forward to hearing and seeing the details of their plans at UKG Aspire 2023.

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Retention of top talent is a top-of-mind topic for all high-performing organizations. According to research by Brandon Hall Group, 92% of organizations surveyed agreed that the top talent in their organization is at risk of leaving in the next year. Losing an exceptional employee is not just a disruption, it is also a costly setback. Expenses may include lost productivity, replacement costs and decreased morale.

Complexities

Despite the clear benefits of retaining top talent, many organizations struggle to do so. The competitive landscape, increasing demands from employees for more fulfilling work experiences and ongoing shifts in workplace dynamics have further complicated the matter. The result of these ongoing challenges is that organizations are divided in knowing where to invest time and energy to best impact retention. Knowing which aspects of the employee experience or company culture to focus on seems to vary somewhat based on the size of the organization.

Consequences

Our research shows that many organizations will make two cultural attributes their top priority over the next year:

Critical Questions

1. How can you identify the hidden superpowers of your team members?
2. What are some ways to create connection between employees and a meaningful sense of belonging in a digitized world?
3. Are you clearly communicating information up and down the organization on a continuous basis?

BRANDON HALL GROUP POV

Consider these three high-level strategies to address increasing retention of your workforce.

1. Get to Know Those Hidden Superpowers — Organizations that prioritize respect, integrity and open communication tend to have lower turnover rates. One way of demonstrating this is by fostering a strong connection between leaders and their team members. As a leader, carve out a few short pockets of time to check in with your team members. Notice what surrounds them in their workspace. I once learned that a team member practiced calligraphy as a hobby by noticing all the beautiful notes on her desk. Now we put that to great use, helping us make the office look bright and beautiful. It’s not about the handwriting. It’s about the connection and recognition for contributing something seemingly non-work-related to help her team that made her feel seen, heard and appreciated in a new way.
2. Build a Sense of Belonging to the Organization — Providing the space and time for team members, and their leaders, to get to know each other and learn about each others’ skills and strengths. When team members have a chance to get to know each other, they thrive. They are delighted and a bit more connected after learning something new about each other. On the surface, it may not be something directly work related, but those capabilities can be filed away and brought up when the need arises. Ask curiosity questions that might seem to be irrelevant, but actually serve as a catalyst for valuable interaction.
3. Ongoing Communication: Up, Down and Every Which Way — It’s been said that the role of chief executive officer should actually be called chief repetition officer. And for that matter, leaders at all levels. Crafting a meaningful and relevant message for the workforce and then repeating it, consistently over and over, to multiple groups is a powerful tactic that all leaders should use. Messaging should also be used as a chance to convey the company’s mission, vision and values. It may feel uncomfortable, being so repetitive. Remember, the employees are hearing the message for the first time, or maybe even the second. Cognitively, people cannot absorb the entire message on the first or even second go around. Be prepared to convey the message with continued enthusiasm repeatedly.

— Marie Barnes, Principal Analyst, Brandon Hall Group

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“Employee listening” is a familiar phrase in HR-related marketing these days — and for good reason. It’s important to get feedback and ideas from employees as you try to improve talent retention and engagement.

But too much emphasis is placed on the frequency of listening rather than effectiveness. Asking employees to answer survey questions too often can lead to fatigue and hurt participation and engagement.

That’s why we partnered with Explorance, a Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice® Platinum Preferred Provider, for an insightful webinar, Reigniting Employee Motivation to Drive Innovation in Your Workforce. It features Explorance Founder and CEO Samer Saab, who believes employee listening is a means to an end. You listen to gain insights that drive actions to improve your organization. Without actions that lead to widespread improvements, listening to employees is just another exercise you put your employees through with little benefit to the organization.

“Our approach looks beyond simple employee experience management to people insights solutions,” Saab said. “We seek to encourage organizations to look at where their employees’ experience converges with their effectiveness to create a workforce that is empowered and engaged.”

Saab talks in compelling detail about the need to leverage technology to pull critical insights from data sources that already exist rather than constantly pushing to ask employees new questions. “The real reason why HR leaders struggle with engagement surveys is they do not act fast enough on results. So, how does increasing the frequency of asking questions fix that problem?”

To listen to the full webinar, click here. You will learn how to:

• Gain deeper understanding of your workforce
• Uncover skill gaps so you can rebuild workforce capability as quickly as possible.
• Use machine learning to get deeper insights from various sources of data so you can move quickly to address challenges.

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