An Ecosystem for DEXD to thrive change in HR.
Digital Employee Experience Design (DEXD) is often executed by a network of HR engagors and relatively new HR Technology providers who are working together within informal relationships. Because of the early stage of the DEXD-concept, company owners are not yet convinced of its benefits. More conservative HR thought leaders even question the need for Consumerization of HR in favor of the Millennial-generation. These challenges are tightening the network of DEXD-players, which organically grows into an ecosystem. With HR Tech Valley, a first platform for ideation, providing services and sharing knowledge about The Future of Work and how to put the “H” back in HR was born in 2017.
Millennials and digital change
First I have to get something of my chest. There is discussion about the differences between generations on the workfloor; one study contradicts what another study reveals about the characteristics of Millennials and “experts” are using whatever suites their cause.
From my humble opinion there is one huge difference between Millennials and previous generations: Social Education.
- Millennials were born and raised with an “online” attitude, a consumer mindset and actions as customer reviews (and jobreviews i.e. Glassdoor), which are now almost common for every generation.
- This “customer awareness” is a part of their adulthood, feeds the expectations on the workfloor and thus towards the HR. The Employee of Tomorrow is a Career Owner who is very aware of his/her job.
When an organisation wants to live up to this “customer” mindset, it might want to take a closer look at the marketing department for inspiration and handle an Employee-centric approach.
Consumerization of HR
In my previous article the Consumerization of HR is announced because of the variety of factors at play. In short:
Quantity:
- By 2020 over 50% of the workforce will be Millennial or even post-Millennial.
- By 2020 there will be a shortage of 10% in highly skilled profiles in the workforce according to McKinsey.
- Today there is a $400 Billion dollar HR Tech market blooming and flourishing with new start-and scaleups handling new HR issues.
Quality:
- The current workforce shows poor retention and engagement ratings.
- By winning time by Automating HR in the flow of work, the time that is gained can be invested in investigating new solutions and tackling the current workforce challenges – putting the “H” back in HR:
- Talent attraction: attract the right talent, the right way
- Talent development: develop a future proof workforce
- Talent retention: engage your workforce
Read full article: “So many HR Technology. Isn’t HR about people?”
DEXD-players
Digital Employee Experience Design is about tackling the challenges from above, but who are the stakeholders of the concept and execution?
Often an all-in-one package deal is offered by the big HR-suppliers, but is that what will do the trick and will it contain the latest developments of HR Tech or implementation methods? Will it even work? It is not easy to try something new and descisionmakers are a bit suspicious. Spending a lot of money on something that might work is sometimes just not good enough.
Innovative organisations who are believers and are daring to experiment are body shopping idea’s, methods and new solutions - which are mostly provided by a network of entrepreneurs (HR-engagors and -serviceproviders) and start- or scale-ups (HR Tech). These networks are being formed to create a local proof of concept (and revenue). Yet change goes slow and often it outlasts the funding and/or the revenue of a good solution.
As the market keeps coming up with new issues to handle and knowledge to gain, these DEXD-stakeholders are growing towards an ecosystem that covers the complexity as a whole, so they their focus can remain on their core-expertise.
HR Tech Valley
When an ecosystem is aware of its existence, it can be of great value to each of its members. HR Tech Valley vzw started out small in 2017 with a handful of founding fathers, building a community of HR-engagors and HR Tech providers by stimulating peer-to-peer conversations, sharing knowledge and expertise, increasing visibility, organising events and joint projects, contributing to public relations and marketing.
Today this community counts over 50 members and HR Tech Valley is a trusted advisor when the topic hits HR Technology. They started small in Belgium, but have a European ambition which is already starting to show with the inclusion of foreign members.
From the perspective of DEXD and my own company www.HRToolz.online there is no question that working together only enforces the acceleration of a Digital Employee Experience Design towards more “H” in HR.
More information? Check: www.hrtechvalley.org
