Creating a People Experience Function: How to Improve Employee Engagement and Drive Business Success

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A lot of clients I am talking to are thinking of creating a people experience function… but what is it? And should you consider one for yourself?

People Experience (PX), is the sum of all interactions that employees have with an organisation. It encompasses everything from the recruiting process to onboarding, training and development, performance management, and offboarding. A positive PX can lead to higher employee engagement, better retention, and increased productivity.

The different between People Experience (or Employee Experience) and Engagement, is that engagement is what can typically be measured as an outcome of the experience people have had within an organisation.

Here we dive in to the potential benefits of creating a PX team and explore some of the companies that have done this successfully.

The Business Case for Creating a People Experience Function:

A strong people experience function can help the company attract and retain top talent, improve customer satisfaction, and increase overall productivity. By investing in the employee experience, the company can create a positive culture that attracts and retains high-performing employees.

Overview:

In today’s competitive business environment, companies need to focus on creating a positive and engaging employee experience to attract and retain top talent. By creating a PX function, your company can really focus on improving employee engagement, increase retention rates, and drive overall business success.

Objectives:

  • Improve employee engagement and satisfaction
  • Increase retention rates
  • Enhance the overall quality of the employee experience
  • Drive business success through increased productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction

Potential problems

If your company is currently experiencing high turnover rates and low employee engagement scores. This is negatively impacting productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction.

Additionally, in order to remain competitive and to drive business success, your company needs to focus on creating a positive and engaging employee experience.

Proposed Solution:

By creating a dedicated People Experience (PX) function, your company can focus on designing and delivering an engaging experience for employees across the entire employee lifecycle.

The PX function will be responsible for a range of activities, including onboarding, training, ongoing support, and community building. Further more, the function will also leverage data and feedback from employees to continuously improve and refine the employee experience.

Expected Benefits:

  • Improved employee engagement and satisfaction: By creating a more engaging and positive employee experience, your company can improve employee engagement and satisfaction, which will lead to higher productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
  • Increased retention rates: By creating a more engaging and positive employee experience, your company can increase retention rates and reduce turnover costs.
  • Enhanced overall quality of the employee experience: By focusing on the employee experience, your company can create a more positive and supportive work environment, which will enhance the overall quality of the employee experience.
  • Drive business success: By improving employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention rates, your company can drive business success through increased productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
Time for a Change of Leadership?

Costs:

The costs of creating a PX function will depend on the size and scope of the function. Key cost considerations include:

  • Hiring and training PX team members
  • Developing and implementing PX initiatives and programs
  • Investing in technology and tools to support PX initiatives

Return on Investment:

The return on investment (ROI) of creating a PX function will depend on the specific goals and objectives of your company. Some potential ROI metrics include:

  • Increased employee engagement and satisfaction scores
  • Reduced turnover rates and costs
  • Increased productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction
  • Improved overall business performance and profitability

Examples of businesses that have done this successfully:

  • Sony Music Entertainment: in 2022 Sony Music announced they were moving to a PX Model “we are reimagining the role Human Resources has served and will play in our business. Sony Music Entertainment is there for every step of our artists’ creative journey—and our People Experience teams do the same thing for our employees at work”
  • Cisco: Cisco has a PX function that is focused on delivering a positive experience for employees across the entire employee lifecycle. The team uses a range of tools and techniques, including design thinking and user research, to identify areas for improvement and develop solutions that meet the needs of employees. Through its PX initiatives, Cisco has been able to improve employee engagement, reduce turnover rates, and enhance the overall quality of the employee experience.
  • HubSpot: HubSpot has a dedicated Employee Experience team that focuses on creating a positive experience for employees and customers alike. The team is responsible for a range of activities, including onboarding, training, and ongoing support. Through its PX initiatives, HubSpot has been able to increase employee engagement, improve customer satisfaction, and drive overall business success.

How might I approach creating a PX product?

  • Define the problem and objectives: The first step in creating a PX product is to clearly define the problem that you are trying to solve and the objectives that you hope to achieve. This might involve conducting research and gathering data on employee engagement, turnover rates, and other key metrics. You should also identify any pain points or challenges that employees are facing in their day-to-day work.
  • Conduct user research: To create a successful PX product, you need to understand the needs, preferences, and behaviours of your target audience. This might involve conducting focus groups, surveys, or interviews with employees to gather feedback and insights.
  • Develop a prototype: Once you have a clear understanding of the problem and user needs, you can begin to develop a prototype of your PX product. This might involve creating wireframes, mock-ups, or a minimum viable product (MVP) that you can test with a small group of users.
  • Test and iterate: After developing your prototype, you should test it with a group of users to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement. Use this feedback to iterate on your product and refine it until it meets the needs of your target audience.
  • Launch and measure success: Once you have a final version of your PX product, you can launch it to a wider audience and measure its success using key metrics such as engagement, retention, and productivity. Use this data to continuously improve and refine your PX product over time.
  • Monitor and adapt: The final step in creating a successful PX product is to continuously monitor and adapt to changing user needs and preferences. Keep gathering feedback and data, and use this information to make ongoing improvements to your product to ensure that it remains relevant and effective.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, we believe that by creating a dedicated PX function, you can improve employee engagement, increase retention rates, and drive overall business success. While there are costs associated with this, the potential benefits and ROI make it a worthwhile investment.

Our focus on long-term partnerships

At re:find Executive Search we believe that recruitment is not a one-off transaction but rather a long-term partnership. By building long-term relationships with our clients, we help them to find and retain the best talent for their organisation.

Every organisation is unique and we feel that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to recruitment. re:find offer bespoke recruitment solutions, that are tailored to meet the specific needs of each client. Whether you need help with a single hire or a full recruitment campaign, we can help.

We commit to providing our clients with the highest quality service. We take the time to understand your organisation’s culture and values, as well as the specific skills needed for each campaign.

For more information please get in contact with our Managing Director, James Cumming.

Putting People First: How Renaming HR Is Improving Company Culture

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If you’re a Chief People Officer or just someone interested in HR, you may have noticed a trend of companies using the term “People” instead of “HR” to describe their HR department. But is this just a trendy new name, or is there something deeper going on here? Let’s dive into the pros and cons of calling HR “People”.

The human resources department is an essential part of any organisation, responsible for managing the workforce and ensuring that employees are satisfied and productive. However, the terminology used to describe this department has been a matter of debate for some time.

Background

The term “human resources” has been in use for several decades and has become widely accepted as a way of describing the department responsible for managing a companies workforce. However, some have argued that the term can be dehumanising and reduces employees to the status of a resource or commodity.

In contrast, the term “People” is seen as more inclusive and humanising, acknowledging the unique needs and aspirations of the individual employees.

Arguments for “HR”

One of the primary arguments in favour of using “HR” is that it is a well-established term that is widely recognised in the business world.

According to data from Google Trends, searches for the term “HR” have been consistently higher than searches for “People” over the past five years, indicating that the term is more commonly used and understood.

Another argument for “HR” is that it accurately reflects the department’s role in managing the workforce as a resource. This can be especially important in industries such as retail, manufacturing or construction, where labour is a critical input and needs to be managed efficiently to ensure productivity.

According to a survey of HR professionals conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 62% of respondents felt that the term “HR” accurately reflected their department’s role in managing human capital.

Finally, a number of people argue that “HR” is a more professional-sounding term that may help to establish the department’s credibility and authority within the organisation. This can be important when dealing with senior management or other stakeholders who may be sceptical of the department’s role or importance.

According to a survey of HR professionals conducted by the HR Certification Institute (HRCI), 82% of respondents felt that the term “HR” conveyed a sense of professionalism and expertise.

Arguments for “People”

One of the main arguments in favour of using “People” is that it is a more inclusive term that acknowledges the individuality of employees.

According to a survey conducted by the software company BambooHR, 70% of employees felt that the term “People” was more humanising than “HR.”

Another argument for “People” is that it is less objectifying than “HR” and may help to create a more collaborative and cooperative relationship between the department and employees.

According to a survey conducted by the consulting firm Deloitte, 73% of employees felt that the term “People” conveyed a sense of partnership and collaboration.

By the same token, a final argument for “People” is that it reflects the changing nature of work and the role of employees in the organisation. As more companies embrace flexible work arrangements and remote work, the role of the HR department is evolving to focus more on supporting the needs and aspirations of individual employees.

According to a survey conducted by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, 67% of employees felt that the term “People” was more aligned with their own values and priorities than “HR.”

Our opinion

Based on the data presented and out own personal experiences, we recommend using the term “People” to describe the HR department.

While “HR” may be more well-established and specific, we believe that “People” better reflects the changing nature of work and the importance of creating a supportive and inclusive culture.

Our focus on long-term partnerships

At re:find Executive Search we believe that recruitment is not a one-off transaction but rather a long-term partnership. By building long-term relationships with our clients, we help them to find and retain the best talent for their organisation.

Every organisation is unique. We feel that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to recruitment.

re:find offer bespoke recruitment solutions, that are tailored to meet the specific needs of each client. Whether you need help with a single hire or a full recruitment campaign, we can help.

We commit to providing our clients with the highest quality service. We take the time to understand your organisation’s culture and values, as well as the specific skills needed for each campaign.

For more information please get in contact with our Managing Director, James Cumming.

Preparing for the future of retail: getting to know your people

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Preparing for the future of retail

HR professionals gathered recently to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by HR reporting and analysis in retail. 
 

Starting point 

The starting point to more effectively understand your people, is to first decide on the data you want to collect, and how the data will be used and analysed. Simply collecting as much data as possible and then attempting to make sense of it is typically a much less successful approach. 

At Travelex, one of the main focuses was on staff retention and the team wanted to better understand how to retain staff. 

Managers were given access to the people data through the Workday system, and Travelex is now seeing changes in behaviours based on a better understanding of that data. If the data highlights an employee is potentially at risk of leaving, managers can now intervene earlier to find out why and potentially take actions to prevent this from happening. 

Implementing new HR technology 

One of the challenges that Travelex faced during implementation was changing the culture across its business in the UK and internationally to adapt to a self-service HR system. To overcome this, the HR team worked closely with the IT department and regional managers to implement the changes. 

The company also focused on local needs, adapting its strategy based on regional and cultural differences internationally. There were also challenges around how the HR system was viewed by employees, and the HR team worked to show employees the value of using the system. 

During the implementation process, it was useful for Travelex to focus on collecting and understanding only a selected set of data points that could be easily analysed and understood, rather than attempting to understand a huge amount of data. The selected data points were easy for managers to dissect and understand in monthly review meetings with their teams. 

The right tools for self-service 

The discussion then moved to giving staff the tools to use the self-service systems in store, and one of the challenges that came up was around connectivity. 

In-store Wi-Fi is as useful for staff to carry out self-service HR functions as it is for consumers to enhance their experience, and definitely something worth investing in for retailers. 

Workday provides extensive self-service capabilities that Travelex staff use on their own mobile devices regardless of their location. 

Valued and effective 

For HR systems to be useful and adopted by employees, they need to be easy to use and not require much training. One of the greatest challenges faced by several retailers in the room was the outdated and difficult-to-use HR systems in place in their businesses. 

Pulling data together manually, having to create reports from scratch and dealing with dissatisfied staff who find the old HR system confusing or difficult to use were common complaints. Aside from changing systems, though, most retailers acknowledged they often needed to do the best they could with what they had available to them. 

Retailers also debate how they can measure the pound value of HR functions for board members, and agreed this is one area where data can help. If people KPIs are agreed at the outset, then showing how those improved and what this means for the business is one way to prove HR’s pound value. It also helps the HR team if they can articulate how using the HR systems will make the life of employees themselves easier – it’s not just about making life easier for HR. 

Looking to the future 

Looking to the future of more effective HCM systems that help HR, employees and managers, the discussion turned again to data and how to use it most effectively. 

Performance reviews online are difficult to get right, as it’s hard to replicate the richness of one-to-one conversations. On a system these conversations become very black and white. It ends up just being a score on a screen. 

Some advice for all retail HR professionals who want to use data to better understand their people: decide what data you’re going to collect and then what you want to understand from that. Unless you’re clear on that, you won’t be able to make better decisions for your employees. 

 
 
Click here to read the original article from Retail Week. 

To discuss this article further, you can email me on danny@refind.co.uk. 

re:find help businesses find the talent they need to deliver transformational change.  Clients call us when they need change to happen quickly and effectively. We are Executive Search and Interim Search specialists. 

Click here to read about what we do specifically in the retail sector.