1. Voice of Employee (VoE)
How do best-practice organizations ensure employee engagement in customer-centric culture?
Opinion Paper
What comes to mind when you think about the Human Resources Department (HR) in your organization? Many people think simply of employment, job descriptions and compliance to policies. Rarely is the HR thought of as an ally. Today's world of digital disruption requires more from organizations to remain relevant, promote growth, and increase employee retention. Employees must be engaged in the organization's mission, and one way of accomplishing this is by creating depth to the employee's experience with the enterprise. HR can serve as more than merely employee administration; it can become a strategic partner by leveraging its resources in a way that focuses on Employee Engagement and Experience (EEx).
However, EEx is not a one-way street. The relationship the organization employs with associates, though incredibly complex at a macro level, is much like any other we as individuals participate and it requires communication and adaptation both ways. Many cases will require an evolution of how the organization and HR views and interacts with associates.
Organizations often forget that employees are the first line of customers, advocates, and representatives of how attractive the organization's products or services are for their clients. Their level of engagement is communicated directly to the organization’s customers through their interactions.
The relationship between customer experience and employee experience is enabled, organizationally, by leveraging the Voice of the Employee. Employee engagement contributes directly to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and the overall client experience (Chaudhary, 2014). Listening and responding to the Voice of the Employee allows for targeted activities resulting in highly performing teams that drive growth, innovation, productivity and bottom-line performance (Serrano & Reichard, 2011). HR is well positioned to measure this Voice and implement environmental changes that demonstrate the organization’s commitment to its associates.
Research into how organizations work and drive engagement clearly shows the effects of listening to the Voice of the Employee. However, that leaves the question of, how is the HR function employed to influence this outcome? **********************************************************
About Insight OCM, LLC (IOCM) People & Change Consulting
Insight OCM, LLC (IOCM) Business Consulting Practice provides transformation solutions around People & Change. Our vision is to be the leading provider of superior Performance, Collaboration and Change Adaptability™ Solutions while our mission is to translate HCM business strategy into sustainable capabilities and actions that drive innovation, simplicity, agility and growth. We provide clients with a systematic change implementation path from change strategy execution to capability-building to benefits realization.
HR, like any other department of the organization, is held and responds to the policies, expectations, and review criteria. These must align to the goal of promoting and adapting to the Voice. The HR department may need new skills and resources. It may necessitate a shift in the internal culture for it to develop the culture, policies, and social environment where the employee's Voice can not only be heard but is encouraged to drive the conversation (Aguirre et Al., 2014). And that may be the most important piece of the equation.
HR must become part of the business, take part in the conversations, and learn about how the organization functions and ultimately thrives. The business has concerns that cannot be ignored and those concerns will temper the solutions that HR can present.
Figure 1: Voice of Employee Cycle
References:
 Aguirre, D., Alpern, M., Hull, K., & Post, Von, R. (2014). Use Culture to Pave the Way for Change. Chief Learning Officer, 44–46.
 Chaudhary, R. (2014). A multilevel investigation of the factors influencing work engagement. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 17(2), 128–158.
 Serrano, S. A., & Reichard, R. J. (2011). Leadership strategies for an engaged workforce. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 63(3), 176–189.
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About the Authors
Ted Kanellopoulos is founder of InsightOCM™ Change Management Toolkit on Cloud and serves as member of the board of Insight OCM, LLC (IOCM). Ted has years of consulting and corporate experience in Strategy and Transformation consulting, Enterprise Change, Finance/ Accounting and HCM advisory, and Organizational Performance.
Ted is a Certified Management Consultant and holds an M.B.A in International Management and Finance from The University of Dallas, Texas and a B.A. in Economics and Business Administration from Gordon College, Mass.
John Hubbard II is advisor at Insight OCM, LLC (IOCM) and focuses on providing thought leadership, and developing new products and solutions for enterprises to improve performance, retention of talent and promotion of organizational effectiveness.
John is completing his PhD degree in organizational psychology and holds an MBA in learning and knowledge management from Walden University. John earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from King University.
To leverage the Voice, HR must understand the language which the employees are speaking. It needs to bring the Insights (Voice), align the People and Performance Strategy with the Organizational Strategy, Design and then Implement the Employee Experience, and finally Realize/ Sustain (Figure 1).
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