All is said and done but one question came to my mind: As a people manager, what do we do while employees are in quarantine? When money is going low, what do we tell them? “Have faith, help will come”? Or maybe tell them with optimism to wait for the government’s assistance to come? Or just appease them with the line, “Stay well, stay safe, and stay home,” like everybody else say? This is an abrupt change in people’s lives, and it can be utterly distressing.
It is said that you will know the true character of a person with the way one reacts to difficult and challenging times. We are in such a situation. In the eyes of employees, they will know the true character of its company with the way it reacts and the kind of experience it gives them during the crisis. This COVID-19 pandemic could be the one of the lowest periods of everyone’s life. I believe that this is the best time, more than ever, to demonstrate the true character of the organization—to be virtually present in the lives of the employees. It is in this period that companies, through their people managers should make their presence felt. To convincingly make them feel that more than just the paycheck and financial assistance, the company is looking after their welfare. Extending efforts to strengthen their sense of connectedness and belonging to a company with a character and culture to be proud of. Let me present to you the tenets of what I call, Virtual Employee Experience Management.
THE VIRTUAL EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT (EXM) AND ITS MECHANICS
The VEXM or simply EXM is a concept of leading and managing the employee experience through a holistic perspective aimed at integrating the employees into the mainstream of the company’s organizational culture. It seeks to harness the physical, intrapersonal, spiritual, cognitive, creative, interpersonal, emotional and behavioral streams of their being. By methodically laying down a variety of employee engagement activities throughout the year or a specific period, those streams are “touched” building in them a sense of organizational citizenship. It is the same sense that inspires employees to strengthen the desired organizational culture and which kindles the spirit to drive the company towards peak performance.
The typical employee experience comes with direct face-to-face encounters and mass gatherings. But today, in the context of the “new normal” characterized by the physical distancing, telecommuting, and other influences of the digital technology, the employee experience in the virtual platform takes the spotlight.
The mechanics of the Virtual EXM is simple: determine the suitable culture-building programs and integrate those using functional technology in the management of employee experience. There are five (5) fundamental things to consider, easily remembered as K.U.D.O.S.:
1. Know the desired organizational culture
2. Understand the prevailing organizational culture
3. Determine the level of experience and specific programs
4. Open the appropriate social media platform to use
5. Select the appropriate digital platform or apps
1. KNOW THE DESIRED ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
The desired organizational culture is embodied in the rich history and heritage of the organization and is articulated in the company’s vision, purpose and core values. It can be deduced further from the pronouncements and directives of its leaders especially the President and Chief Executive Officer. In some organizations with formal quality systems, they even explicitly express that in their quality policy. The people manager should have a deep appreciation of these foundational principles that the company upholds.
2. UNDERSTAND THE PREVAILING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
The people manager should have a clear assessment of the level of mentality and way of life that employees have in the workplace. One must know how the company tips in the barometer and identify the gaps. Not too many companies have integrated cultures. Most of the time, they have fragmented cultures with each department molding and claiming a culture of their own. The people manager must know the common ground, the norm as well as the deviations. If one has not implemented an employee climate survey and has no reliable data, could you trust your gut feel? Most likely, you will need the more seasoned employees of the company to consult before passing any conclusion and implementing your programs.
3. DETERMINE THE LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE AND SPECIFIC PROGRAMS
The level of experience and specific programs to adopt in the virtual platform depend largely on which of those that the company had implemented worked very well, which of those does the company would like to innovate or enhance, and what new endeavors is the company ready and willing to adopt to bridge the gaps between the prevailing culture versus the desired one. It will also matter if the people manager could know the capabilities, maturity level and preferences of the employees. A male-dominated engineering firm may not necessarily be receptive to a virtual Zumba class but may appreciate more the showcasing of their visual arts or calligraphic talent. The people manager must customize. For guidance, the levels of experience and examples of specific programs are described in the later section.
4. OPEN THE APPROPRIATE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM TO USE
The company should be able to open the social media platform appropriate for this purpose. The channel to use is where people can know the company better, know their colleagues better, interact with them better and foster the viral effect to adapt the ways, norms, and values that the company desires, supports and rewards. The most widely used is Facebook. The company may create a closed group page for its bona fide employees. Entirely different from the company’s public page used for recruitment and marketing purposes, this page is intended to be an exclusive channel for the employees to interact through a regulated environment where designated administrators can screen, evaluate and select the materials to post in the page. Since it is an official company page focused on nurturing the employee
experience, it also would like to protect the company and its employees from any unwanted intrusions, bullying, and any forms of misconduct or misdeeds.
In contrast to public social media, this page is a forum to promote the organizational culture and engage the employees through various activities under the principles of civility and dignity for all. Thus, the virtual employee experience platform created should be governed by the company policies, rules and regulations and other applicable laws in the country. In this platform, respect is a universal paramount law.
5. SELECT THE SUITABLE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY OR APPS
The virtual experience through the social media also requires a certain type of digital technology compatible with the social media platform and other posts that may be uploaded in the page. While most digital technology or apps are widely used and compatible to most platforms, it is still best to use the technology that can cater to any type of devices. For what is the sense of uploading a material that cannot be read, opened or accessed by the page members? Technology should be a solution, not a problem.
