The way companies match candidates to jobs is long overdue for a revolution. For decades, hiring has relied primarily on resumes, interviews and gut feelings to make important people decisions. But as the world of work rapidly evolves, this approach is no longer sufficient.

Brandon Hall Group Chief Strategy Officer and Principal Analyst Michael Rochelle and I had a thorough analyst briefing with Caitlin McGregor, Plum’s Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, and Michelle Meehan, VP of Marketing at Plum, the innovative Canadian start-up paving the way in next-generation psychometric assessment. Founded by experienced entrepreneurs who are passionate about helping employers make informed decisions about job candidates, Plum is leveraging recent technological advancements to create an efficient, comprehensive solution that takes candidate selection into the future.

“I created Plum to democratize access to psychometric data so that no one would have to rely on luck for someone to realize their superpower,” McGregor states on the company’s website. “Everyone deserves the same opportunity to do great things, and that’s exactly what Plum gives them.”

Through modern machine learning algorithms, Plum helps employers provide detailed data-driven insights into each potential hire, with key indicators including cognitive abilities, personality attributes and technical skills — allowing companies to find their ideal match faster than ever before.

Plum then uses this data to power its matching algorithms. Through an automated 8-minute job analysis, the platform understands the behavioral indicators required for success in any given role. It can then evaluate millions of profiles to identify top matches between people and opportunities.

Plum measures personality, problem-solving skills and social intelligence in every applicant with one 25-minute online assessment, allowing organizations to quantify job fit by comparing individual profiles against the needs of the job.

Early adopters like Manulife, Citibank and Whirlpool are already seeing significant benefits. Plum consistently delivers a 90% quality-of-hire rating from managers and increases retention by up to 77%. HR shouldn’t be a cost center — and Plum can prove it.

Plum also improves diversity hiring by screening overlooked candidates. Plum Talents encapsulate the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that drive candidates. These Talents help uncover what drives — and drains — them and where they’ll find the most success in their careers. Plum realizes that talents live on a spectrum and being high or low in a talent is not a measure of good versus bad. Instead, Plum Talents surface what innate behaviors energize you and which ones deplete you. Understanding the difference means you can advocate for your needs at work and focus on growth over survival.

Perhaps most impressively, Plum has managed to achieve this at scale. Where traditional assessments can take over 100 hours per role, Plum streamlines the process while maintaining a predictive accuracy that is 4x better than resume screening alone. That’s why it’s used in 144 countries and across 20 languages.

As the future of work brings more change and uncertainty, having the right talent in place will be critical for business success. Plum is paving the way for a new paradigm — one where companies can truly understand and optimize their human capital. It’s a revolution that can’t come soon enough.

The post Using Psychometrics and AI to Revolutionize</ br> Talent Assessment appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

 By J S Manoj Koundinya

Senior Vice President — Talent Management, Organization Development, Culture & Wellbeing at DBS India

and Matt Pittman

Principal Analyst, Brandon Hall Group

As an employee, it’s easy to think of company culture as something that’s entirely out of your control. After all, it’s the leaders and managers who set the tone, right? While it’s true that leadership plays a significant role in shaping organizational culture, it’s not entirely up to them.

Recent empirical analysis suggests that substantive, enduring cultural evolution often germinates from grassroots micro-behaviors. Herein lies the potency of individual agency. The confluence of individual agency and organizational ethos is a crucible where the very spirit of a company is forged.

Organizational culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, attitudes and practices that shape how work gets done within a company. Every employee, from the most junior team member to the most senior executive, has a role to play in building and nurturing a healthy organizational culture.

Recent Brandon Hall Group research confirms this. In the 2023 study, Culture Eats Strategy: Is Your Employee Experience What You Intended?, 82% of respondents indicated that a collaborative and supportive culture was “Important” or “Very Important” to the employee experience. Interestingly, 48% of respondents indicated that there is room for improvement in understanding what employees want from their employment experience.

That is why these five salient habits that any employee, irrespective of position or tenure, can cultivate to amplify and scale their company’s cultural tapestry are so important.

1. Radical Candor: The Dual Prong of Care and Directness

Coined by Kim Scott, the concept of “Radical Candor” is what happens when you show someone that you care personally while you challenge directly, without being aggressive or insincere.

When employees imbue their interactions with a blend of genuine care and unambiguous directness, they actively foster an environment where transparency is celebrated, and feedback becomes a constructive tool rather than a source of apprehension. This reinforces those feedback loops, both formal and informal, not just between colleagues but also between the workforce and the leadership of the organization, a key ingredient to a healthy culture.

In fact, Brandon Hall Group’s Retaining Talent 2023 survey revealed this as a “Very Important” step in increasing company understanding. Instead of fostering silos of politeness or zones of blunt, unfeeling criticism, a culture steeped in Radical Candor encourages its members to communicate openly, with the intention of collective growth at its core. When individuals habitually demonstrate this approach, it paves the way for an organizational culture that is both supportive and candid, propelling not just individual but institutional evolution.

2. Cultivating Intellectual Curiosity: The Odyssey of Continuous Learning

“Cultivating intellectual curiosity” stands as a beacon for progressive organizational cultures, signaling a commitment to endless exploration and the ceaseless quest for understanding. Within the organizational microcosm, when employees habitually demonstrate a thirst for knowledge, it germinates a culture that values questions as much as answers. This habit of intellectual pursuit — whether through continuous reading, attending seminars, seeking mentorship, or simply challenging the status quo with a “why” or a “what if” — transforms the workplace into a vibrant hub of ideas and innovation.

When intellectual curiosity becomes ingrained in an employee’s daily ethos, it not only enriches their individual capacity but also radiates outward, encouraging peers to embark on their own journeys of discovery. In a culture where employees ardently champion curiosity and inherently foster adaptability and resilience with forward momentum, they lay the foundation for an organization that is adaptable, forward-thinking and perpetually evolving in its pursuit of excellence.

3. Solution-Oriented Mindset: Transcending the Problem Space

In the intricate dance of organizational dynamics, adopting a “solution-oriented mindset” emerges as a transformative habit that employees can embrace to fortify and elevate the collective culture. Creative problem-solving is the third-most added new skill to current jobs, according to the Hiring for New Skills and New Roles survey conducted by Brandon Hall Group.

This mindset is not merely about troubleshooting; it is a deliberate pivot from the often-stagnating realm of problems to the expansive horizon of possibilities and solutions. Employees who habitually approach challenges by asking “How might we overcome this?” rather than lingering on the impediments, infuse a proactive and optimistic energy into the workplace. When embedded in daily interactions and strategic discussions, this habit shifts the organizational narrative from one of hurdles to one of opportunities. It engenders a culture of resilience and creativity, where obstacles are not endpoints but catalysts that spur innovation and collaborative endeavors. Such a cultural paradigm ensures that the organization remains agile, adaptive and ever-evolving, consistently transcending the immediate problem space in pursuit of broader horizons and greater achievements.

4. Empathetic Engagement: Beyond Transactional Interactions

Empathy, though often relegated to the periphery of soft skills, emerges as a linchpin in contemporary organizational culture. It is the fourth-most added new skill, just behind creative problem-solving from Hiring for New Skills and New Roles survey. Empathetic engagement encapsulates a profound shift in the way employees can approach and enrich organizational culture.

At its essence, this ethos underscores the transformative power of seeing beyond mere tasks and transactions and delving into the human narrative intertwined in every professional exchange. Employees who cultivate a habit of engaging with colleagues, stakeholders or clients with genuine empathy foster a culture where interactions are not just about immediate outcomes but about understanding, connection and mutual growth. This moves from transactional to relational exchanges and creates an environment where individuals feel seen, heard and valued — not just for their professional contributions but for their holistic selves.

By consistently demonstrating this depth of engagement, employees lay the groundwork for a culture of trust, collaboration and meaningful relationships, where the organization’s success is interwoven with the well-being and fulfillment of its members. Such a culture not only enhances productivity and innovation but also anchors the organization in a profound sense of purpose and interconnectedness.

5. Championing Inclusivity: Celebrating Diversity in Thought and Deed

In the multifaceted ecosystem of organizational culture, the “inclusivity” mantra beckons a paradigm shift that transcends mere policy or rhetoric. When employees consistently demonstrate a habit of valuing diverse perspectives, actively seeking out underrepresented voices and creating spaces where differences are not just tolerated but celebrated, they seed an environment that thrives on varied experiences and insights.

This is not just about ethnic, gender, or age diversity; it encompasses the full spectrum of human experience, including cognitive diversity, educational backgrounds, life experiences and more. Employees who take it upon themselves to ensure that discussions are inclusive, that decisions account for varied perspectives and that the organizational narrative is one of collective authorship, sculpt a culture where innovation flourishes and barriers diminish. Through such intentional and consistent actions, an organization is propelled toward a future where its strength is derived and where inclusivity is not an initiative, but an intrinsic value.

As global HR leaders architect and recalibrate organizational strategies, recognizing the pivotal role of employees in building culture is non-negotiable — and company culture isn’t the exclusive purview of the C-Suite or designated HR professionals. As insights show, it’s the cumulative effect of individual habits that foment cultural evolution. A healthy, positive organizational culture helps to create a positive working experience. That positive working experience is directly linked to an individual’s willingness to contribute at the highest level and thus impacting overall business performance. By imbibing and championing habits like radical candor, intellectual curiosity, a solution-oriented mindset, empathetic engagement and inclusivity, any employee can become a pivotal catalyst in the transcendent journey of cultural evolution.

J S Manoj Koundinya is a Senior Vice President — Talent Management, Organization Development, Culture & Wellbeing at DBS India. Manoj is a HR leader with 18+ years of diverse experience across industries globally in Learning, Talent & Organization Development. He is passionate about delivering business strategy through people practices by strengthening leadership, driving performance and institutionalizing culture. He has driven large-scale transformation through M&As, Ramp-Up, Restructure and Leadership Transition. He is a certified practitioner of psychometric assessments, PROSCI Change Management and Executive Coaching. 

Matt Pittman is Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall Group. Matt brings nearly 30 years of experience developing people and teams in a variety of settings and organizations. As an HR Practitioner, he has sat in nearly every HR seat. A significant part of those roles involved building out functions in organizations and driving large-scale change efforts. As a Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, Matt leverages this in-depth experience and expertise to provide clients and providers with breakthrough insights and ideas to drive their business forward.

The post Five Habits Any Employee Can Develop to Scale Company Culture: An Exploration of Micro-Behaviors with Macro Impact appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

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.”

The post Kyndryl Shows Digital Onboarding Can Be Personal, Sustainable appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

The age of the experience economy has driven many changes in how companies do business with customers, how employers treat employees and how workers engage with learning opportunities.

Simply put, how an individual experiences any aspect of your organization drives their perception and loyalty. For employers, crafting and maintaining a positive employee experience has become a business imperative.

Brandon Hall Group’s 2023 study, Culture Eats Strategy: Is Your Employee Experience What You Intended?, probed deeply into employer and employee perceptions of the employee experience. The study revealed that most (67%) respondents are likely to refer someone to work for their organization. Almost that same percentage (68%) report that they are either Satisfied or Very Satisfied with the current employee experience provided by their company. Interestingly, that number shifts dramatically outside of North America with just under half (47%) responding that they are Satisfied or Very Satisfied.

Not surprisingly, technology is a critical dimension of the employee experience, easily elevating it to great heights or disrupting it with far-reaching consequences. Organizations need engaged, motivated employees to drive innovation and business results. The workforce needs support to continue to grow and develop along with the changes in how work is being done. Because of this convergence, we know that one of the most impactful ways companies can empower a positive employee experience is through learning technology.

Effective learning technology provides on-demand development opportunities that employees can easily access. This allows workers to take control of their own learning and development to the extent possible while still maintaining company and regulatory requirements. In fact, investment in employee training and development programs to enhance skills and knowledge is the highest-rated initiative globally to improve the employee experience, outpacing the second-highest item by 11 percentage points overall. That margin jumps to 18% outside of North America. Providing easy access to learning technology shows employees that the organization values their growth.

With quality learning technology, employees can upskill quickly on topics relevant to their roles and interests. Curated content, personalized recommendations and intuitive platforms allow for self-directed learning. Employees might learn a new skill to increase productivity or take a course on management tactics before transitioning to a leadership position. The ability to quickly build capabilities empowers employees to take on new challenges and progress in their careers.

Learning technology also enables social and collaborative learning through features like discussion boards, peer coaching and mentor matching. This connects employees, allowing them to share knowledge and learn from each other. Collaborative learning fosters teamwork, relationships and a sense of community. It also reduces organizational silos. Employees feel valued when organizations provide opportunities for peer knowledge sharing and relationship building.

Data and analytics embedded in learning technology provide insights into skill gaps across the employee base. Leadership can use this data to develop training programs that target key competency gaps. Focused development empowers employees to gain the most relevant skills to advance their careers and deliver impact in their roles. Data also helps assess the effectiveness of learning programs to ensure optimal resource utilization.

Where and how work gets done has shifted. Between deskless workers in more hands-on environments to the ever-growing remote and hybrid workforce, learning technology brings development opportunities to employees wherever they are. Online learning platforms allow access to courses, videos, virtual instructor-led sessions and more. This provides flexibility for employees to learn in the flow of work. Adaptability and self-service learning resources empower employees to develop skills how and when they want.

Learning technology also enables consistent onboarding and training for new hires. Multimedia learning content engages learners and allows new employees to ramp up quickly. Onboarding learning tracks prepare employees for success in their new roles. Ongoing training empowers continued growth and development. Consistent learning opportunities lead to greater employee competencies across the organization.

To truly empower employees, organizations need learning technology platforms that are intuitive and easy to use. Complex platforms with a steep learning curve lead to frustration. User-friendly interfaces with personalized dashboards allow employees to easily navigate learning. Technology that freely allows users to search courses and content promotes utilization. Seamless mobile functionality empowers employees to learn on the go.

Technology is at once the great enabler and the great disrupter. When looking at strategies to improve your employee experience, consider all dimensions of that experience and your approach to it. Start by asking yourself the following questions.

• Does our culture encourage collaboration and provide support for growth?
• How frequently are we surveying our team members for their feedback and perspective?
• How can we better leverage our existing technology to ensure ease of use and therefore, promote utilization among our workforce?
• How can we better leverage emerging data technologies to gain greater insights into our employment experience using our existing employee data?
• Are we treating our employee experience like a key business outcome or a “nice to have” initiative?

Brandon Hall Group Bronze Smartchoice® Preferred Provider Totara Learning brings all these dimensions together with their Talent Experience Platform. Combining the core of enterprise learning management with a truly collaborative learning experience and linked to advanced performance management, Totara’s Talent Experience Platform (TXP) provides the configurability, integration capability and power needed by the business while delivering a seamless experience for the learner.

When your development technology is effective, it also supports a collaborative and supportive culture. This single element consistently ranks highest among attributes that contribute to a positive employee experience. Ensuring a culture remains collaborative and supportive requires intention on the part of all involved. It begins with clearly defining organizational expectations around a collaborative work environment — what it looks like in the specific context of your company and how it plays out in daily work.

Once you set those expectations, holding leaders accountable to behave in alignment to those expectations becomes critical. This does not necessarily need to be punitive in nature, but empowering leaders to point out in real-time when someone is acting contrary to expectations. Over time, this helps reinforce the intended culture. It might look like simply saying, “Hey — when you ask questions of the team but don’t wait from them to respond, that tends to shut down collaboration — and that’s not how we want to lead here.”

Culture change of this nature is not a 0 – 60, one-and-done proposition. It takes simple, clear intention and repetition over time. Be in it for the long haul to reap the true benefits.

Always remember that the employee experience is ultimately an outcome of many different factors. As such, it should be a filter on every decision being made in the business. “How does/will this affect our employees?” is a question leaders should be including standard in any decision-making effort.

Creating an employee experience/employee value proposition scorecard and reviewing it periodically throughout the year can help keep your leadership team honest and focused on these considerations. It is important to consider because positive employee experience is directly related to positive employee engagement, which has a documented impact on discretionary effort and subsequent business performance.

Implementing the right learning technology shows employees that their development matters. This empowers engagement, improves retention and enables a positive work experience. But technology alone is not enough — organizations should promote a continuous learning culture through manager support, learning incentives and an emphasis on development in core values. Paired with the right culture, learning technology gives employees development autonomy. This leads to an empowered, agile workforce that can drive innovation and thrive amidst ongoing change.

The post Empowering Your Employee Experience through Learning Technology appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

Frontline workers — who account for approximately 80% of the workforce — use on average about 1% of their organization’s technology budget, according to various estimates.

Let that sink in.

Frontline workers — variously identified as “deskless,” “offline” or “essential” — regularly interact with customers, make sales, provide services and handle day-to-day operations. They are the face of the business and directly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty. But they have fewer tools and less voice than their more integrated and connected corporate peers.

“I was at an airplane manufacturing company recently and they’re still building planes using paper instructions and doing QA (quality assurance) using paper instructions,” said Ron Xavier, Technical Business Development Executive, Microsoft Global Center of Competency for Kyndryl Digital Workplace Services.

As incredible as that sounds, the situation at that airplane manufacturer is not unusual. Manufacturers struggle more than retail and hospitality, for example. But many frontline workers across all industries are stuck using outdated systems and processes that hamper productivity and negatively impact their employee experience.

In the 2023 Employee Experience Study by Brandon Hall Group, only 40% of employers said they have the right technology for their frontline workers to successfully navigate the workplace. Only half said they have tools to help employees adopt all the various technologies that are used in the workplace.

However, more employers are recognizing they must do better. Almost three-quarters (73%) of respondents to our study said it is important to use innovative technologies to support employee productivity and efficiency.

Changing the Status Quo

Frontline workers are often mobile or work out of multiple locations where it can be difficult to access devices and internet connectivity. Their jobs require specialized software and applications to access customer data, check inventory, submit orders, manage projects and more. They deal with customers face-to-face and need technologies that enable quick access to information to resolve issues on the spot.

Kyndryl, the world’s largest provider of IT infrastructure services, and Microsoft have a strategic alliance to deliver state-of-the-art solutions to help customers accelerate hybrid cloud adoption, modernize applications and processes, support mission-critical workloads and enable modern work experiences.

Kyndryl’s Xavier and Noel Pennington, Director of Partner Strategy for Microsoft Cloud for Retail, are evangelists in this space. They are passionate about the need for employers to invest in technology that empowers frontline workers to increase their connection to the business and improve their engagement, productivity and efficiency.

“I am a retail guy,” Pennington said. “Retail wants to spend $6 on technology per user per year. They don’t see the value of technology to drive all their initiatives and goals. Companies are missing the boat on the minimum tech spend they need to move the needle.”

A Microsoft Work Trend Index special report on frontline workers and technology, published last year, found that frontline workers are at an inflection point. No one felt the burden of the disruption from the pandemic more than the two billion frontline workers around the globe. They’ve kept grocery stores stocked, ensured the power grid stayed up and running, provided essential healthcare services, and made and distributed the products the world depends on — all while weathering personal risk and ongoing disruption.

The Microsoft report found that frontline workers will consider a job change for better pay and benefits, work-life balance, and flexibility. Technology plays a big role in enabling all that. Plus, 63% of frontline workers are excited about the job opportunities that technology creates and technology ranks third on the list of factors that workers say could help reduce workplace stress, the Microsoft report shows.

“I think tools like Microsoft Teams and Viva allow companies to onboard employees quickly and integrate workers very quickly,” Pennington said. “If you don’t have tools and technologies that help you do your job – whether you work at McDonald’s or Home Depot, or installing windows or whatever, it’s difficult for workers to feel connected.”

Digital Tools Have High Impact

Technology options abound — mobile apps, wearables, instant messaging, video conferencing, assistive technology, real-time data and analytics, and much more. The key is selecting the right tools for the right environment.

When frontline employees are equipped with user-friendly, mobile-enabled technologies tailored to their specific environment, roles and workflows, there are many benefits:

• Improves productivity and efficiency. Digital tools provide quick access to information and automate manual processes so workers can accomplish more in less time.
• Increases engagement and job satisfaction. Workers feel more empowered and appreciated when given modern tools that make their jobs easier.
• Enhances customer service. Workers can access customer data instantly to resolve issues faster and deliver more personalized service.
• Boosts collaboration. Digital communication and file-sharing tools keep frontline teams connected and working together.
• Provides real-time performance insights. Data and analytics give frontline workers feedback to improve their work.
• Enables omnichannel support. Workers can seamlessly move between assisting customers via phone, email, chat, in-person and more.
• Improves training. Digital learning platforms allow quick onboarding and ongoing skills development.

The Devil’s in the Details

The challenge is giving frontline workers the right tools and connectivity and providing the training and support they need to adopt the technology and use it in the way it is intended.

Kyndryl looks at digital tools through three different lenses:

• This is having the right tools in the right place, such as the cloud-powered Microsoft 365 productivity platform, device management tools such as Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Teams for collaboration, which is especially important in frontline worker environments. And it all needs to run through a strong network, supported by Kyndryl services for 5G-enabled edge networks.

“This allows you to have people walking around a factory, a warehouse or wherever else people need to be, with necessary connectivity to communicate, get the data and information they need and receive and provide real-time answers with coworkers,” Xavier said.                                                                

• Visibility. This means having an all-in-one analytics solution, like Microsoft Fabric, that can handle everything from data movement to data science, real-time analytics and business intelligence.
• Connecting legacy systems with the right type of modern devices, such as portable small mobile computers, is critical so frontline workers can access what they need when and where they need it.

“That’s going to give them the capabilities that they need to interface with a core system so they can do time tracking, request services, access reports or do whatever they need,” Xavier said. “If we want a collaboration platform, like Teams, to be the front-end system for frontline workers, we need to be able to integrate with the organization’s core technologies that they use to run the business, but it needs to be available within your collaboration platform.”

Company-Issued Device vs. BYOD

The debate about whether employers should supply devices or employees should bring their own has been raging for years. There is no easy answer.

“I think it depends on industry,” Xavier said. “Retail, for example, is very different than manufacturing or healthcare. A big furniture retailer has their people on the floor using hand-held computers, but they don’t allow employees to bring their own devices. They want computers they control because they give them more insight into the custom capabilities of the manufacturer and [the ability] to see the health of the device. You can’t monitor as closely if someone brings their own Android device.”

Work complexity is also an issue. “If it is fairly simplistic work and the employees don’t mind using their own devices, that works for everybody. But if the work is more complex where more data can be exposed and the monitoring of the devices and the data must be more granular, then the company is much more likely to purchase specialized devices suited for that environment,” Xavier said.

Solving the User Adoption Problem

No matter how devices are supplied, the key to success is properly training frontline workers to optimally use the software.

Too often, companies favor a lot of information over context and application. It’s important not only to show workers how to use the technology but why they should use it. The adoption strategy also can’t be one-size-fits-all. It should be tailored to the demographics and work environment of the organization.

“The most effective thing I’ve ever seen done with adoption is through a day-in-the-life approach,” Xavier said. “Microsoft provides day-in-the-life presentations on using various tools in your job and the impact these tools can have on how you perform your job functions.”

“Let’s say I am an older person and I am using Teams and I need to ask someone a question and I have to walk down the hallway and go up the stairs to find someone in another room to get the answer. Or I could use the push-to-talk feature on the device and simply reach out to that person to get a quick answer, or if more detail is needed, I can ask someone to come down and show me what is needed.

“This illustrative approach puts everything in perspective so the employee understands the value of using the technology,” Xavier said. “Showing people the actions they would take during a day at their job really resonates with employees for all different generations in the workforce.”

Key Takeaways

Frontline employees are a company’s most valuable asset but often are overlooked when it comes to providing digital workplace tools. By prioritizing technology investments that target the unique needs of frontline workers, companies can significantly improve productivity, employee engagement and customer satisfaction. Future business success depends on creating a positive employee experience where the frontline workforce has the digital tools needed to do their best work each day.

Here are some strategies for HR leaders to keep in mind:

• Involve frontline workers in selection. Include input from workers on which tools would deliver the most value in their day-to-day work.
• Highlight benefits. Communicate how the technology will make specific aspects of their jobs easier to build enthusiasm.
• Conduct contextualized training. Understand how your employees learn and deliver training in ways that are likely to engage them. Depending on the situation, hands-on demos, day-in-the-life scenarios, videos and in-person sessions can all be effective. Avoid long, written documents that lack context.
• Appoint ambassadors. Identify tech-savvy frontline workers who can answer peer questions and promote adoption.
• Offer ongoing support. Have help desk staff available to troubleshoot issues and provide guidance on new features.
• Track adoption metrics. Gather data on technology usage rates and challenges impacting adoption.
• Solicit feedback. Survey frontline workers or hold focus groups to collect input on their technology experience and desired improvements.

Need a Digital Workplace Expert? Schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation today.

The post Providing Frontline Workers with the Digital Tools</ br>They Need to Thrive appeared first on BrandonHallGroup.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing, as seen by the explosion of chatbots developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and others. While AI delivers enormous productivity gains, it lacks human emotional intelligence — the ability to understand, empathize and connect on an emotional level.

As automation proliferates, emotional intelligence becomes even more critical across the workforce. A new Brandon Hall Group research brief, commissioned by EI Powered by MPS, explores the growing importance of emotional intelligence in the age of AI.

The report reveals that emotional intelligence enables collaboration, effective leadership, adaptability, better customer service and ethical decision-making. It provides solutions to potential issues arising from AI, such as job displacement and dehumanization.

With AI in the process of taking over more routine and analytical tasks, the ‘softer’ skills of emotional intelligence — empathy, communication, motivation — are crucial for managers and employees alike. Leadership training is already reflecting this shift, with 58% of organizations targeting emotional intelligence and 55% focusing on empathy, according to Brandon Hall Group research.

The research brief provides examples of how AI can improve learning, through personalized recommendations and adaptive learning platforms. However, it cautions the reader that AI lacks human creativity, emotional support and cultural awareness. This is where learning professionals must step in to address these gaps. Instructional designers and L&D leaders need heightened expertise to contextualize and humanize AI-generated learning content. Curriculum must be designed around emotional intelligence in order to fully engage today’s diverse learners.

EI Powered by MPS, a Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice® Preferred Provider, recognizes these challenges. With over 30 years of learning design experience, EI integrates emotional intelligence and AI through frameworks like their Learning and Performance Ecosystem and the LITMUS Framework. These holistic approaches ensure that learning initiatives achieve desired outcomes for individuals and businesses.

Human-centered emotional intelligence combined with the scale of AI creates a powerful learning formula. But most organizations lack the in-house resources or capabilities to execute this combination effectively. That’s where trusted partners like EI Powered by MPS come in.

Want the full picture on emotional intelligence in the age of AI? Access the exclusive research brief from Brandon Hall Group and EI Powered by MPS. Discover why emotional intelligence is moving from ‘nice-to-have’ to business necessity as AI transforms our workplaces. Get actionable insights to foster emotionally intelligent learning in your organization.

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Brandon Hall Group research shows that the top priorities in improving performance management over the next two years include:

• Frequency and quality of manager-employee check-ins
• Linking competencies and skills to the performance management process
• Goal setting
• Building a performance culture that extends beyond individuals to all types of teams

Traditional Performance Assessments

Traditional performance assessments are often based on just a few milestones or specific projects that are not necessarily reflective of overall performance or potential. An employee’s performance is dynamic. There are highs and lows, and strengths and development areas that must be addressed regularly during check-ins, feedback and coaching sessions. Performance management technology can facilitate many aspects of performance management, but only 34% of organizations see it as helpful or very helpful, according to our research. This means their technology needs an upgrade or they are not fully using the capabilities.

To transform performance management into a process with real business impact, organizations should consider:

• How can we better link performance management with team objectives, business goals, employee career growth, succession planning and learning opportunities?
• How can we reduce the bias inherent in performance evaluations, so accuracy and value improve?
• How can technology be better leveraged to improve the business value of performance management and development?

Betterworks as the Answer

Performance management has been a drain on organizations for decades. There have been countless theories and strategies to transform it, but the real problem has always been that managers have been asked to do too much with too little. Betterworks has many strengths, but its biggest differentiator is giving managers the tools they need to collaborate with employees in ways that drive performance, engagement and business results.

The key to Betterworks’ success is understanding that managers must be effective before they can help their team members be more effective. The platform provides managers with scalable, contextual support and guidance through tips, templates and metrics to enhance coaching, build high-performing teams, identify biases, integrate learning and empower managers to excel in developing talent and driving performance.

Use of AI

Betterworks understands — better than most employers do — that managers often are overwhelmed. Many oversee teams of 10 or more employees, making it hard to give them meaningful feedback and coaching. Betterworks works with fast-growing companies, with managers being hired and promoted at a rapid pace, usually without the training and support they need. Therefore, a good portion of Betterworks’ considerable investment in AI has focused on how to help managers do better.

The company is finalizing the launch of generative AI tools to help managers save time and write more actionable and less biased feedback. The tools, which can be automatically promoted on screen, will help managers ask the right questions, set the right goals and much more. There is a detailed GenAI roadmap that is focused on specific design principles and ample beta testing. Many more innovations will be coming in the months ahead.

Performance Enablement in the Flow of Work

Another big differentiator: Customers can leverage the performance enablement functionality within their daily workflow through solutions such as Gmail, Slack and Teams. This is critical. Performance enablement can become part of the daily routine, rather than a separate process that is often seen as pulling managers and employees away from their work. This drives frequent use of the solution and the interactions feed into Betterworks’ analytics and AI functions.

The analytics have been greatly enhanced by Betterworks’ partnership with leading people analytics provider Visier. The company’s analytics engine unlocks insights from the great data Betterworks generates around goals, conversations, feedback, calibrations and reviews, enabling a new offering called Betterworks Advanced Analytics.

While Betterworks featured pretty good operational metrics before, it now can answer more strategic questions — the kind the C-Suite needs. For example: Do we have the best performers working on our most important initiatives? Are there correlations between the frequency of performance conversations or goal revisions and performance?

Exceeding Capabilities of HCM Suites

We also like Betterworks’ approach to the market. They primarily target progressive, rapidly expanding companies seeking a more advanced and agile performance enablement solution. Many of these enterprises initially explore the capability of their HCM suite to handle performance management needs. However, they often encounter limitations such as subpar user experiences, low adoption rates and challenges in customizing the platform to align with their unique performance management processes Several of Betterworks’ new customers are actually taking performance data from Betterworks and feeding it into their big suite to fuel their compensation management.

Not to be overlooked among all the other innovations is the integration with Udemy and LinkedIn Learning, which allows goals and coaching conversations to be linked to specific learning opportunities.

The bottom line: Betterworks enables progressive organizations to transform a fundamentally flawed process into a strategic asset within the flow of work. If you truly want to enable and develop performance, give this solution serious consideration.

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 By J S Manoj Koundinya

Senior Vice President — Talent Management, Organization Development, Culture & Wellbeing at DBS India

and Matt Pittman

Principal Analyst, Brandon Hall Group

In a dynamic global economy, traditional job roles often do not fully cater to the multifaceted strengths and aspirations of today’s workforce. Job crafting, a term first introduced by Wrzesniewski & Dutton (2001), refers to the proactive adjustments employees make to their job tasks, relationships, and perceptions to better fit their skills and passions. As employees and organizations recognize the value of flexibility, job crafting emerges as an essential tool for career development and satisfaction. Job crafting involves employees redefining and reimagining their tasks, interactions and overall responsibilities to better align with their skills, values and aspirations. We delve into data-driven strategies for employees to effectively engage in job crafting, thereby taking charge of their professional journey.

1. Understand the Foundations:

Job crafting is not a spontaneous process; it is rooted in self-awareness and comprehension of one’s strengths and weaknesses. Analyze your skill set, identify areas of expertise and acknowledge weaknesses that could be mitigated through training. This introspective assessment sets the stage for job-crafting strategies that enhance your career. According to a survey conducted by Gallup, employees who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job. This underscores the significance of aligning your role with your strengths.

As you begin to consider how to approach crafting your own role, it is important to maintain open and honest communication with your direct supervisor. Considering that your accountability in your work is to your manager, involving them in your assessment and preferences will help minimize any resistance that may come. This can easily be accomplished in the course of regular, ongoing 1-1 discussions as you gain insights and begin to consider adjustments.

The Three Dimensions of Job Crafting

• Task Crafting: Refers to altering the number, type or nature of tasks. Employees might choose to expand their roles, take on additional projects or drop certain tasks to better match their strengths. A study published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior found that when employees were given the autonomy to choose tasks within their roles, their job satisfaction increased by over 20%. The essence of job crafting lies in shaping your tasks and responsibilities to capitalize on your strengths while nurturing your passions. Identify elements within your current role that resonate with your skills and explore ways to amplify these components.
• Relational Crafting: Involves modifying the nature and extent of interactions with others. An employee might, for example, seek mentorship or establish cross-functional teams to diversify their work relationships. Job crafting extends beyond individual tasks; it involves reshaping relationships to create a more conducive work environment. Cultivate relationships with colleagues, mentors and supervisors who align with your career aspirations. Research by Harvard Business Review suggests that employees who actively build networks are more likely to receive promotions and opportunities for skill development.
• Cognitive Crafting: Focuses on changing perceptions about the job itself. Here, employees might reframe the purpose of their roles, helping them find greater meaning in what they do. A study in the Academy of Management Journal found that employees who participated in goal-setting with their supervisors reported higher job satisfaction and a stronger sense of ownership in their roles. Engaging in job crafting necessitates a dialogue with supervisors about redefining performance metrics to encompass your tailored role. Align your performance goals with the responsibilities you have reshaped to ensure that your contributions are accurately evaluated.

2. Embrace a Learning Mindset:

Job crafting is synonymous with continuous growth. Embrace opportunities to learn new skills that complement your role. Seek out training programs, workshops and certifications that enhance your capabilities.

LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report revealed that employees who spend time learning are 47% less likely to be stressed and 39% more likely to feel productive and successful.

This has tangible benefits to your employer as well. Companies who enable and support this level of personalized learning find that to a very high degree (92%) learning of this type improves employee engagement. Employee engagement is proven to improve employee retention.

3. Enhance Work-Life Integration:

A survey conducted by FlexJobs in 2022 found that 84% of respondents believed that flexible working options made them a happier person. Job crafting isn’t confined to the office; it extends to work-life balance. Negotiate flexible work arrangements that align with your crafted role, allowing for better integration of personal and professional commitments.

Brandon Hall Group research reinforces that flexible work arrangements are a key driver of employee retention. More than 50% of responding companies indicated that the introduction of remote work options has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on their ability to retain top talent. Companies that highlight the strength of their flexible work arrangements policies see a corresponding reduction in unwanted turnover.

4. Monitor and Evaluate:

Job crafting is an ongoing process. Continuously monitor your crafted strategies and evaluate their impact on your career trajectory. Stay receptive to feedback from peers and supervisors to refine your approach. Research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology indicates that employees who regularly review and adjust their goals have a greater sense of accomplishment and job satisfaction.

According to Brandon Hall Group research, truly mature and effective career development empowers individuals to take ownership of their own career paths, but most organizations are not doing it well. In fact, only 36% of companies indicate that employees are enabled to have heavy participation in career development processes. Job crafting done well offers a path to improving this outcome.

As the nature of work continues to change, job crafting serves as a potent tool for employees to proactively define their career trajectories. By recognizing the value in allowing employees to tailor their job roles, organizations can foster environments that promote engagement, satisfaction and overall performance. As for individuals, job crafting presents an opportunity to forge fulfilling careers by aligning their tasks, relationships and perceptions with personal strengths and aspirations.

J S Manoj Koundinya is a Senior Vice President — Talent Management, Organization Development, Culture & Wellbeing at DBS India. Manoj is a HR leader with 18+ years of diverse experience across industries globally in Learning, Talent & Organization Development. He is passionate about delivering business strategy through people practices by strengthening leadership, driving performance and institutionalizing culture. He has driven large-scale transformation through M&As, Ramp-Up, Restructure and Leadership Transition. He is a certified practitioner of psychometric assessments, PROSCI Change Management and Executive Coaching. 

Matt Pittman is Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall Group. Matt brings nearly 30 years of experience developing people and teams in a variety of settings and organizations. As an HR Practitioner, he has sat in nearly every HR seat. A significant part of those roles involved building out functions in organizations and driving large-scale change efforts. As a Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, Matt leverages this in-depth experience and expertise to provide clients and providers with breakthrough insights and ideas to drive their business forward.

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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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Of highest priority for nearly all organizations today is keeping their most vital talent in-house. The departure of high-performing employees in an organization can be disruptive, at best, and crippling at worst. In such times of rapidly changing economics, technology, and even the nature of work itself, organizations must prioritize retention strategies to stay viable and competitive. According to the Brandon Hall Group Study, Retaining Talent 2023, a vast majority of organizations believe they are successful at retaining their talent (87%), which is substantially higher than previously (31% in 2022).

Complexities

When HR and the business units are out of sync, the entire organization suffers. Creating and adhering to a cohesive retention strategy demonstrates unity of leadership and fosters collaboration. Even at a time when talented team members have numerous options, creating a unique sense of belonging in a workplace seems to be rare.

Underlying the disconnect between these two entities is typically a scarcity of resources — time, money, people, etc., or competing perspectives seen through two lenses, one as boots on the ground in the field and the other from inside a corporate headquarters site. Whereas teams work feverishly toward accomplishing objectives, competing priorities can impede progress. Without consensus of executive leadership and unification of efforts, meeting business needs and objectives will be hindered.

Consequences

A retention strategy must be aligned with the organization’s business goals and longer-term strategic goals. A lack of alignment will result in competing priorities that divide efforts and resources unnecessarily. Uncertainty already pervades our reality and misaligned priorities only create more confusion and disruption. Organizations need to be positioned and ready to address flight risks and ongoing growth needs.

Without unifying leadership and command of the business, effort from team members will decrease and they will likely feel caught in the crosshairs of battles between the “higher-ups.” Unless top leadership establishes a cultural norm of “when one of us fails, we all fail” teams will spend their time and energy surviving the churn of turf wars and political battles.

Critical Questions

• What’s the nature of the relationship between HR and the business units? How can you better align the talent management efforts between these two teams?
• How seamless is the connection for a new hire throughout the processes of interviewing, onboarding and working on the job?
• Do all stakeholders know what the goals and expectations are for retention?
• Have you promoted hybrid or remote work to the greatest extent possible?

Brandon Hall Group POV

Your Retention Strategy: Be Proactive and Plan

Developing an effective retention strategy includes comprehensive planning, diligent implementation and precise tracking.

The only way to know where you’re going is to have a plan. A strategic plan includes the steps needed and the stakeholders who are responsible for taking action. Laying out what needs to be accomplished, by whom, and in what timeframe, is essential for an organization to move toward realizing its vision.

Identify what retention strategies may be needed by asking these questions

• Do employees have access to career opportunities and see themselves growing within the company over time?
• Are leaders retaining your talent? Employees need to feel heard and appreciated. Cultivating a leadership style that promotes open communication, regular feedback and recognition can greatly enhance retention.
• Is the compensation structure competitive within your industry? Are non-monetary benefits such as flexible hours, health benefits and vacation policies available and realistic for your employees?
• Have new hires developed a sense of inclusion and belonging during their onboarding experience? Conducting stay interviews during a new hire’s first 90 days can provide a rare opportunity to identify gaps that would otherwise go unnoticed. I remember being asked by my new Director if the new job was what I was expecting or not and why. Just the fact that she asked mattered to me. I was candid with her and we worked together to close some gaps. This definitely made me stick around rather than go back into job-search mode.

Put It into Practice

Highlight success stories, for example, talk to new hires who have had a positive onboarding experience and have them share the meaningfulness of that on their feeling of belonging and engagement. A seemingly small gesture can go a long way for onboarding. In one organization, the business unit’s hiring manager would meet the newly hired leader for lunch on Day One. Years later, that new hire was still recounting the story of her first day of work.

Create positive and ongoing efforts that emphasize the importance of retaining talent. New leaders especially tend to underestimate their influence on retention. Starting a regular practice of one-on-one meetings with direct reports can be highly effective. Recognition from a boss for hard work and excellent outcomes during a particularly challenging project provides a sense of purpose and meaning. Leaders who take feedback, through surveys or anecdotally, to heart and follow through earn credibility and loyalty, which translates to retention.

Consistency is Key

Track progress otherwise you won’t see the needle move. Identify relevant and meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) so you can pinpoint sources of success and provide the feedback and recognition to those who are driving the change. For example, look at both voluntary and involuntary turnover separately to better understand your results.

To foster synergy and collaboration, encourage interdependency instead of accepting the cultural “norm” of staying in your lane. Both HR and business units must understand and appreciate each other’s roles, goals and challenges. Regular, transparent dialogue can foster this understanding, creating a common language and shared objectives.

When interviewing for a potential opportunity, I typically ask, “How does the HR strategy help drive the success of the organization and feed into the overall strategy of the business?” I can’t tell you how many times I got blank stares from HR leaders in response to that question. Let’s change that! Beginning with the CHRO and the CEO, who can join forces and align strategic priorities, essentially working in tandem to forge a clearer understanding between HR and the overall organization.

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