The expectations of today's workforce have evolved greatly in comparison to expectations from just a few years ago, and your human resources team or efforts are essential in managing them.
While different expectations may be addressed with different actions, one thing remains consistent: your HR communication strategies and processes are crucial in doing so. Think of HR communication as the engine that drives whatever the solution is.
Expectations of Modern Human Resources
Analysts and industry observers agree that HR technology solutions and HR communication strategies need to be oriented around engaging and leading the entire workforce. This goes for hourly and salaried employees alike.
Specifically, there are five trending expectations from today's workforce that can be easily met with the right HR communication strategy and HR solution. These are:
- Empowerment - the ability for the people closest to business issues to feel they have the
knowledge and authority to make decisions that positively impact the organization. - Fairness - trust and confidence that every employee in the organization is given a fair and equal chance to grow and succeed.
- Transparency - visibility into the business and its processes, so employees understand the why, not just the what and how.
- Growth and Development - a path forward for growth in the organization and a way for employees to see themselves in roles beyond their current job or skill sets.
- Flexibility - a workplace culture with supporting tools and policies that allow for win-win schedules that benefit employer and employee alike.
When organizations can create these types of experiences and meet these expectations, they can drive greater employee engagement and retain the talent required to remain competitive. Typically, the responsibility of doing so falls to those in charge of human resources. That could be an HR manager, an HR team, or a small business owner.
Meeting Expectations Through HR Communication
In order to effectively meet the above expectations, organizations and those responsible for HR communication and strategy need to back up their holistic HCM strategies with technology that addresses the experience of the entire workforce. Specifically, employees and frontline management.
By implementing HR technology in the following four areas, you'll have the tools in place to deliver positive HR communication.
Core HR
Onboarding and benefits enrollment are the most common touch points for employees and core HR systems. The traditional approach to handling these experiences has been a manual, paper-based process. I-9, benefits, and custom employer forms add up, and it can be easy to lose track of what you signed and when.
Today, core HR systems can empower employees to manage this information completely online, ensuring they have more control of their personal information and benefits selection.
For employees, automation of core HR functions encourages them to engage on their own terms. For busy managers and HR professionals, reducing the paper burden is an easy way to streamline tedious HR administrative tasks, so everyone can focus on what’s most important: coaching and developing their people.
Expectations Managed: Empowerment, Transparency
Talent Management
Making employees feel valued while still meeting the needs of the business is a serious challenge. A critical step is adopting systems oriented toward a workforce that won’t always be in front of a computer, if they even have one at all.
A talent management system that helps all employees grow and develop can drive sustainable employee engagement, regardless of role or pay grade. A good system should allow employees to give and receive continuous, ongoing feedback and have meaningful performance conversations with their managers.
When employees know how they’re doing and have a voice in the work experience, they’re far more likely to feel engaged and believe they have a fair chance to grow in the organization.
Some key types of technology that can help HR with talent management and talent communication include:
Expectations Managed: Growth and Development, Empowerment, Flexibility
Workforce Management
Time-and-attendance systems can give organizations visibility into employee trends and patterns, equipping managers with tools and resources to drive proactive conversations.
For example, if a group of employees is consistently arriving late to work, maybe that segment needs to shift hours to accommodate local traffic patterns or child care demands.
Increased visibility into time and attendance can also help ensure that organizations are creating fair and flexible work schedules for all employees. For example, employees could be offered extra shifts through a scheduling app on their mobile device, enabling them to respond at any time, from anywhere, for greater autonomy and control.
This type of technology can not only help HR meet expectations but also alleviate some of the burden on HR when it comes to communicating with employees.
Expectations Managed: Transparency, Flexibility, Fairness
HR Communication Strategies
An HR communication strategy plan or process for delivering clear, consistent, and engaging information about HR-related matters to the workforce. These matters include things such as time off, HR policies, employee benefits, learning and development, performance reviews, and more.
A good HR communication strategy, backed with the right human capital management tools, can help meet the expectations of today's workforce as mentioned above.
Here are four additional, more basic strategies for effective HR communication:
Stay Transparent and Honest
It's important to be transparent and honest with your workforce. This means that HR, or those responsible for HR, should be communicating both successes, challenges, and areas of improvement both on an individual and organizational level.
Consider the Demographics of Your Workforce
When it comes to communication, different generations of workers will respond better to certain strategies and methods than others. Depending on the makeup and demographics of your workforce, it's important to consider what communication strategies and channels will work best.
You'll also want to consider "what" is being communicated, as different generations of workers may have different priorities on what they'd like to be kept in the loop on, and how often. For instance, younger workers may need more detailed and instructive communication on things such as benefits and taxes, while an older worker may want to keep a close eye on their 401(k).
Maintain a Communication Schedule
While a literal schedule for communication isn't a must, the basic strategy is to communicate consistently. The last thing an organization needs is its employees being left wondering if there is some important piece of information they are missing out on. Sometimes, simply letting workers know that there aren't any updates is an important update.
Consider implementing things like town hall meetings to keep a consistent channel of communication.
Take Advantage of Workforce Feedback
It's crucial that HR teams, or those responsible for HR, maintain two-way communication channels. This helps build trust, as well as identify areas of improvement for your current HR technology stack and HR communication processes.
Modernize Your HR Processes and Communication Strategies
To learn more about how you can improve your HR communication, keep employees engaged and performing at a high level, and overall modernize your HR processes, consider reaching out to a modern HR company.
To learn more about how GNSA has helped countless businesses modernize their human resources, contact us today. Or, check out this recorded demo of PeoplePro HR.
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