The impact of emotion in experience: How to make your team thrive during the pandemic and beyond

One thing I have learnt over the years operating in the HR space is humans aren’t complex creatures. No matter where you are in the world, who you are or what you do, human need is the common force that drives us and impacts our emotions, experiences and the effectiveness of our teams.

As we continue to deal with the fallout of the pandemic, agile leaders will need to pivot and start to invest in human experience if they want to rebuild their teams and keep their best Talent.

In fact, many studies have shown that companies who invest in employee experience see higher levels of enthusiasm, engagement and involvement. Most importantly these studies show that organisations who invest in ‘experience’ outperform those who don’t.

To deliver the right experiences, we need to be cognisant that our employees have core human needs that impact the decisions they make. There are day-to-day tactics that your HR team and leadership team can implement within the workplace to fulfil these needs.

It is also important to support your experience with the right technology solutions so you can engage more effectively with your team. Platforms such as LiveHire focus on the entire employee lifecycle, so you have greater visibility and engagement with your entire workforce from recruitment of permanent and contingent staff, to internal mobility, to outplacement and alumni networks.

The key is to understand what drives humans and help them meet those needs in your employee experience. The four most important core human needs are: Certainty, Variety, Significance and Connection.

Certainty is the first core human need; it is about humans feeling secure and in control.

Consider this when reflecting on your candidate experience and the candidate’s first interaction with your organisation. When that candidate applies for a role, they want certainty you received their application and ongoing communication about that application. Platforms such as LiveHire provide instant two-way SMS engagement, allowing candidates to feel confident and certain that they are always able to communicate with the organisation and vice versa for recruitment teams.

Certainty shouldn’t just apply at the beginning of the employee’s journey. During the pandemic, for example, we have seen a lot of organisations forced to make redundancies. Even in these deeply uncertain times, you can provide a level of certainty to employees by providing them with outplacement services and smart job matching solutions.

As we are all navigating our way through this pandemic, certainty becomes even more important. Yet, so many organisations aren’t satisfying this basic need. In fact, a survey from Great Place to Work showed that 18 percent of people surveyed felt worried about the impact of the pandemic on their role.

Variety is the second core need – it is the idea of constantly striving for change. Employees need variety in their role; whether this be the work environment, the opportunity to be creative or the ability to work with different departments in the organisation.

At the moment, with the majority of the workforce working from home, it is more important than ever that organisations get creative when giving variety to their teams. Leaders need to work together to find ways to meet this basic human need. We may see this through giving employees the opportunity to work on different projects or weekly all-team calls showcasing different departments.

Significance as a core human need is about feeling unique and valued, so this is about showing candidates that they are important and special to you. This aligns with the fourth human need of Connection, which shows the employee that your organisation really knows them and they are a key member of the team.

Delivering on these core human needs requires a high degree of Talent visibility, so you have an accurate view of employee competencies and aspirations. Humanistic leaders who recognise the value of their employees and focus on these core human needs will drive future success and growth. By implementing processes and platforms that focus on the entire employee lifecycle, and working with your leadership team to implement a more humanistic approach, organisations can return to business as usual even stronger than before.

Lastly, the right technology can play a key role in bringing this to life. Platforms like LiveHire allow you to communicate with humans in a simple yet connected way that brings your experience to life.

Remember this, people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel.

Want to learn more about how your business can provide a better employee experience by humanising your workplace? Visit Connected Experience here.

Or to learn more about a platform that focuses on the entire employee lifecycle, visit LiveHire here.

Cover image: Shutterstock

This article is contributed by LiveHire.

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