Is HUMAN CENTRICITY a new formula for company attractiveness?
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What does it mean to be a HUMAN-CENTRIC organization?
"HUMAN-CENTRIC organizations demonstrate the ability to integrate human traits such as empathy, reciprocity, kindness and compassion in the design of the overall employees and candidates experience on the one hand, and the business strategy design on the other."
HR professionals and leaders who want to adopt the HUMAN-CENTRIC mindset always ask themselves the following:
- What can our employees achieve if we have created a positive work experience for them?
- How do the decisions we make affect our employees?
- How can we create a positive work experience for our employees in our company?
HUMAN-CENTRIC leaders put at the forefront the importance of employees for achieving business results and strive to balance between the business and the business model requirements with employees’ needs.
How to make the organization a HUMAN-CENTRIC?
Keyword: Empathy
The first step in creating a HUMAN-CENTRIC organization is to understand first the path taken by the candidates on their way to getting a job, and then the path employees go while working in the company. By mapping all the steps, we come to HR and leaders in the organization better understanding the needs of employees and candidates and thus creating systems and practices that suit their needs.
Next, we need to understand how employees and candidates interact with the company. If we look at the life cycle of an employee in any company, one of the most important events during the year is the moment when the wage increases.
What does a typical process look like in some companies?
HR sends a wage overview table to each of the managers, after which the manager gives a proposal to increase wage for his associates, and then HR makes an annex to the contract, which the manager then hands to the employee, with the stated wage increase and explanation.
The results of research carried out in our labor market show that one of the strongest drivers of company attractiveness is precisely a fair and transparent reward system.
What should we do to create the HUMAN-CENTRIC wage increase process?
In the first step, we should understand how our employees feel during the process of increasing wages. We can do this by asking a group of our employees a set of the following questions:
- How do you feel in the period when you know the amount of your earnings is being decided on?
- What thoughts pop into your head during this period?
- What do you do during this period?
- What are your positive and what are your negative experiences?
Using these questions, we will discover the actual impact of our process on the overall experience we create for our employees.
In the second step, we should understand what the process of increasing earnings should look like, and create the best possible positive experience. To achieve this, we need to apply the principles of HUMAN-CENTRIC design and to view the process of increasing earnings as a designing problem that should create the best solution for its users. The solution design process should go through the following steps, created by IDEO:
INSPIRATION - The goal of this phase is to better understand employees and their needs. You will observe their lives, listen to their hopes and desires, and find a way to better overcome your design challenge.
IDEATION - The goal of this phase is to give meaning to everything you have heard, generate a ton of ideas, identify design options and test and redefine your solution.
IMPLEMENTATION - At this stage you should breathe life into your solution.
Finally, you should check whether the new solution has created a positive experience for your employees.
Keyword: Reciprocity
I often have difficulty explaining to people why we should do all of the above. My favorite author, Adam Grant, wrote the book "Give & Take" which talks about why people are more successful and happier if they put the answer to the question "What can I do for others?" at the forefront, without expecting the same in return.
The question I keep asking myself is: Will the company be more successful if it puts value creation for its employees first? Will that positive experience contribute to achieving business results and making employees at least a little happier in my organization.
