What Is Your Employee Pulse?

What Is Your Employee Pulse?

Reading time: 2 mins

By Brianna Shipley, Senior Editor, SAPinsider

Two things make British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s (BCLC) story an interesting case to study: its blended workforce and its emphasis on community. The crown corporation includes office employees, corporate staff, casino field workers, and lottery retailers who support their retailers and sell their tickets.  Prior to business closures in Canada as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, BCLC was working with Deloitte to set up employee experience surveys related to their onboarding process using Qualtrics. In an ironic turn of events, work-from-home recommendations issued by the Canadian government in March created a scenario ripe for the employee engagement solution that BCLC had already begun to build.

“We quickly pivoted away from the work that we were doing around employee surveys for onboarding to focus instead on building out customized surveys for the BCLC workforce to take a pulse and see how people were adjusting to working remotely and other essential issues, such as how they were coping with the changes, their levels of satisfaction with current communication efforts, sentiments on the support they were receiving, and what they needed to effectively work from home,” says Michelle Cochrane, Experience Designer at Deloitte Canada.

Hear Michelle, joined by BCLC’s People Insights Analyst, Andrea Earle, tell the full story in an on-demand session that aired live on October 15, 2020, during the SAP Public Sector 2020 Canada virtual event. Here, Michelle answers some questions about the importance of considering employee experience and how companies can improve their own processes.

Q: The pandemic has revealed the importance of checking in with employees at all times—not just during a crisis. Why is learning about your employees’ experiences so important and what are some questions that organizations can ask to receive an accurate picture?

A: I agree that the pandemic has demonstrated the importance of employee sensing, gathering experience data, and analyzing that information to understand its impacts on business outcomes. It’s really about treating your employees like customers and taking action on the information that employee pulse surveys provide. You can ask questions like how are you working and is that working for you? What barriers exist and how can the company alleviate those? What kind of support do you need and how can leadership make sure the right information is available to guide you?

Companies should provide a personalized experience for employees that meets their needs and treats them with care.

Q: What makes BCLC’s story so powerful?

A: BCLC’s story is a great example of turning employee engagement insight into action. BCLC is an interesting organization itself because of its blended workforce, what they deliver, and how COVID impacted the company. It is powerful to be able to not only develop a survey for employees that contains meaningful questions in a short period of time, but have employees actually respond with honest feedback. Seventy percent of BCLC’S employees responded to their employee pulse survey, allowing the company to take action quickly, and this case study shows how other companies can achieve a similar outcome.

Q: Why is employee experience an important component for leadership to be aware of?

A: Having a realistic view into employee sentiments can equip leadership to make decisions and address issues within the organization that may be preventing the business from operating at its full potential. Leaders can better respond to situations and really make a difference when they have the full picture and when employees feel empowered to provide honest feedback.

View the full agenda here!

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