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Be it meaningful work, a robust support system, or flexibility, employee expectations go beyond salary and traditional benefits.
This article is brought to you by Dayforce.
In today’s world of work, employee experience is still a significant driver of talent attraction and retention. Employees no longer want to work in a space that feels like an office; they seek a workplace where they can be creative, and a part of something bigger. When leaders look at the employee experience, it’s not about simply creating jobs, rather, it’s about creating opportunities for employees to grow and thrive – and leaders who understand this hold a competitive talent advantage.
This was one of the highlights of a panel discussion at Dayforce’s inaugural event, Dayforce Daybreak Singapore, attended by HRO, on the topic of how leaders can enrich employee experiences even in a complex world.
Having taken place on 13 September 2024, Daybreak Singapore saw more than 70 HR and business leaders come together to explore a new approach to managing organisations – one that’s not just about productivity, but also about making work life better for everyone.
This report delves into key takeaways from some of the sessions.
Unleashing the impact of employee experience
Setting the scene, one panelist established: “Employee expectations are not the same as before.” This implies that, be it meaningful work, a robust support system, or flexibility, expectations have gone beyond salary and traditional benefits. This naturally plays a significant role in talent acquisition and retention.
As the list grows longer, where do leaders begin to tackle evolving employee expectations?
A good place to start is to ensure that the organisation’s culture ties into its value system, with support from leadership at the top, what they called “having the right intent.”
As such, employers who have the intention to build the employee experience (EX) should continuously reassess and invest in top-tier interventions and fine-tune their EX portfolio based on the workforce’s response.
What are some of the most impactful opportunities to drive EX? One of the most agreed-on approaches was to be innovative with data. On the planning side, for instance, digging into the right data can provide a clearer picture and breakdown of the demographics that make up the workforce, therefore allowing you to tailor or target your practices according to what may work best for each segment.
Secondly, conducting surveys, such as those for employee engagement, continues to be a reliable way to marry data with the results, which may reveal certain key patterns and trends for your workforce planning.
The above discussion was moderated by Katerina Hanna, VP Customer Success APJ, Dayforce, and featured the following speakers: Pankaj Mohan Gupta, Head of Operations, Google, and Susan Vaughn, an experienced global HR leader.
Understanding and managing workforce complexity
Another insightful session at the conference saw Rob Squires, VP and Head of Sales, Asia and Japan at Dayforce, take the stage for a presentation on conquering the frontline manager complexity crisis.
Citing a recent survey, that indicated approximately 75% to 80% of today’s workers are no longer working at a desk, he characterised today’s boundless workforce as “fluid, always on, and borderless”.
However, this workforce shift has brought on complexities for organisations. While senior leaders worry about the impact of a boundless workforce on business continuity and productivity, managers are having to deal with day-to-day inefficiencies while serving as the balancing act between workers and their leaders. On the other hand, employees face pressure to do more at work.
To understand this trend better, Dayforce’s recent research examined the dynamics of executives, managers, and workers within organisations that have a high number of deskless workers. Several significant themes emerged — particularly, while managers were often closely aligned in their perceptions of employee experience, there is a significant gap between their perceptions and that of senior executives.
This, Squires noted, was the crux of the frontline manager’s dilemma.
Further, five areas of opportunity were identified for senior executives to better support frontline managers to close this gap: workforce planning, pay, labour shortages and skills gaps, compliance, and culture and connection, as Squires went on to offer context into each one.
Workforce planning
Frontline and deskless workers are often shift workers. As such, proper planning and scheduling is crucial to the workforce and can result in mass turnover if not done right, cautioned Squires. In fact, 72% of managers and workers would consider leaving their current job for a better schedule.
Interestingly, there seems to be a disconnect within organisations — executives are 12% more likely to say they are appropriately staffed as opposed to managers and workers.
What’s common to both managers and executives in their scheduling challenges is that 66% they lack people data to support staffing decisions, an obvious area of opportunity to have better visibility and take control of workforce workloads better.
Pay
Pay has long been a powerful motivator, but today amongst persistent inflation and rising cost-of-living, it has an outsized impact on turnover.
Per the survey, respondents surveyed at all levels in an organisation agree about financial stress, even though executives and managers are more likely to say workers are paid fairly, in their view.
This issue of ensuring fair pay goes back to data — 38% of managers and executives are not sure they have the data to make competitive compensation decisions.
Labour shortage and skills gap
Having the right skills, at the right place and at the right time is a challenge. As evidenced in the survey, 65% of executives experienced labour shortages over the past 12 months.
One of the key approaches to solving this shortage, Squires said, would be organisational agility. Apart from the importance of upskilling and reskilling, he emphasised on frontline managers being urged to provide opportunities for internal mobility.
Compliance
A whopping 98% of executives indicated that their organisation faces compliance challenges. The top three challenges identified were: variable pay, fair scheduling, and increased volume of data to manage.
In solving compliance issues, 94% of executives and managers want their organisation to invest in technology to manage compliance. In turn, technology allows them to focus less on compliance, and more on people.
Culture and connection
While 94% of employees do feel appreciated by their employers, executives are 18% more likely to say so compared to managers or workers.
Squires reiterated the importance of communication for employers to make headway in communicating appreciation. Further, he encouraged HR leaders to not only empower frontline managers better, but to also advocate for a data-driven decision-making approach. Another one of his mantras for leaders to stay relevant: “Deliver quantifiable value.”
What does it mean to be a high performer?
In the final session of the day, Carolyn Chin-Parry, Digital Innovation Leader at PwC Singapore, talked about how leaders can drive high-performing teams through innovation and learning agility.
She started out by asking: How do you define high performance? The answer, she said, varies on different levels.
On an organisational level
PwC’s Global CEO Survey found that winning companies are 1.7 times more likely to be faster to market, be it in releasing new services or goods. They are also generally 1.2 times more likely to be more flexible and agile, and 2.3 times more likely to have high levels of innovation.
On a leadership level
High-performing leaders are worth their weight in value, and likely to bring significant returns to the organisation, the speaker shared. Top performers also recognise and respond to transformative threats and opportunities across a broad business landscape.
On an employee level
Employees nowadays are more value-based in their work, and likely to take into account the organisation’s vision and mission.
Keeping the above in mind when putting together a high-performance team, Chin-Parry said there is often an element of technology involved.
Notably, AI penetration is accelerating. Drawing from PwC’s AI Jobs Barometer, the speaker highlighted that Singapore has the highest proportion of AI-related job vacancies, increasing to 4.8% in 2023. Against this backdrop, how do we bridge the gap between individuals with little to no AI skills and those who are proficient in it?
It all comes down to not fearing itand learning how to figure it out, she told the crowd.
Reminding organisations to foster workforce agility to drive high-performing teams, Chin-Parry outlined key action areas for leaders:
- Embrace experimentation and pioneer new uses of AI and technology.
- Build a climate of confidence and trust in using AI.
- Use AI to complement people.
- Hire on the basis of skills.
- Upskill workers to make the most of AI.
- Use AI responsibly.
Conclusion
Set against the growing list of demands in the new world of work, the insights shared at Dayforce Daybreak underscored the need for organisations to remain agile and responsive. In allowing employees to thrive, it is not just about managing complexities in the workplace; it is about transforming them into opportunities for growth and innovation.
The event also brought home the importance of data-driven decision-making for understanding employee needs and tailoring strategies to enhance the EX. By analysing data from surveys, performance metrics, and other sources, leaders can make better decisions about workforce planning, compensation, and development initiatives.
With this, employers can create a thriving workplace and demonstrate a competitive talent edge.
Lead image / Provided
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