Attracting and motivating employees is one of HR’s major challenges. Although it is certainly not an easy challenge, this approach can help you succeed: people-centric human management. Let me share why you need to create people-centric experiences and how to do it with a real case study.
A few days ago, a Human Resources VP told me that his organization was not “ready” yet to develop Employee Experience plans. I understood the many variables playing in his response; one was the perception of a huge gap between his current organization and what we were envisioning.
Although I understand what he meant, it made me think a lot about the great dilemma many organizations face today: regardless of the size, maturity, or context of an organization, the collaborator is already living an experience – and this is critical.
If the experience has not been intentionally designed and structured around strategic objectives, you are letting an essential business success factor to chance.
What is a People-Centric organization?
A people-centric organization considers people, people. With needs, motivations, pain points, and expectations. This type of organization sees the person as a whole, not only as workers.
In this perspective, creating a good employee experience is not just a human issue. Also, it is a crucial component of achieving the strategy and growing the business.
“100% of customers are people. 100% of the employees are people. If you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business” – Simon Sinek.
Characteristics of a People-Centric organization:
A people-centric organization knows that:
- the commitment of your employees is at stake in all their interactions
- the employee journey happens before, during, and after their work in the organization
- the connection with employees is not merely functional because work and personal life are not separate spheres
- not all employees have the same motivations, ambitions, pain points, and needs
In an interesting analogy, Bryan Walker explains that just as in regenerative agriculture, crops leave more nutrients in the soil than they extract; in a people-centric organization, employees will feel that they are receiving more than what is extracted from them.
Related: The HR Challenge: Transforming organizations as we transform ourselves
