HR for Fast Growing Fintechs: Investing in a People Strategy for Success

The rise of the FinTech sector in Scotland continues at an impressive rate despite the challenges of this year, with a number of innovative new start-ups contributing to this exciting growth.

Setting up any new business is challenging but especially so in technology where getting access to and retaining the best talent is crucial to success. HR strategies and framework must address this reality in order to build a strong team and culture for sustained growth and competitive advantage. Setting up the company’s values and mission early on lays the foundations for a strong and successful workplace culture ”“ ultimately the driving force of HR.

Supporting Scottish FinTech

As HR specialists with a niche focus in the technology sector, we have supported Scottish Fintech Exizent since early 2020.

An innovative, Glasgow-based technology firm, Exizent have a strong purpose – to improve the bereavement experience for everyone involved.

The Founders had launched the company, both having previous experience of building successful businesses. They had plans to scale rapidly and knew the value of early investment in strong HR practice. Having secured funding to support their ambitious growth plans, they needed to build a strong team and culture and implement HR framework and infrastructure.

Establishing HR & people strategy

Having engaged us to support their growth journey, we conducted a full review of Exizent’s existing HR setup and processes, held scoping 1:1’s with the Founders and conducted a needs analysis, planning and prioritisation session aligned to their business and growth plans. This allowed us to gain a real understanding of the company’s ambitions, culture, people plans and future HR support needs.

We then identified the key short and medium term strategic and operational HR requirements which would enable the business to achieve its aims linked to rapid expansions and rollout, as well as being able to support the company values and culture.

Key requirements included contracts and documentation, onboarding processes, compliance, a HR management system, an employee handbook and the ongoing development of strong organisational culture.

The outcome was a tailored and prioritised HR plan with indicative timeline to support the business to scale rapidly over a 24-month period.

Our approach was designed to provide an effective and fit for purpose HR strategy, putting in place solid foundations to allow Exizent to grow and scale sustainably from a people management perspective.

A regular bank’ of HR support time was agreed, allowing Exizent a full hands-on HR service and access to expert HR support when needed to help them develop, implement and maintain their people strategy. This would also ensure that ongoing guidance and manager support was available to their team from a very early stage in their organisational development.

Exizent now have in place robust, fit for purpose, effective and compliant HR and people management systems and documentation, optimising their organisational effectiveness by aligning strategy, people, resources and processes. Team development sessions led by Purpose HR support effective business relationships, collaborative working practices across the organisation, and a strong and positive culture.

Exizent continues to grow rapidly, confident in the knowledge that they have a trusted and flexible HR partner embedded in their business.

“We engaged Purpose HR for their recognised expertise with growing technology-led businesses. They are a trusted extension of our management team and we value their depth of knowledge and professionalism.  Purpose HR are very well aligned with our business, share our values and are a great cultural fit. Their flexible support is responsive, cost-effective and saves us valuable time. I would highly recommend Purpose HR for their cutting-edge, hands-on and people-centric approach – perfect for scaling businesses.” 

Aleks Tomczyk, Founder & COO

The importance of investing in HR

It can be easy to overlook HR in a startup business and it is an area of expertise which many technical startups lack.Many entrepreneurs get their businesses off to a flying start, charging forward at speed, but struggle with people management further down the line. As a business grows, leaders often find there just isn’t time to deal with day-to-day people management and recruitment, and the focus on people can easily get lost. This is a costly mistake and can affect employee engagement, culture and long-term success.

Investing early in strong HR practice at the beginning, as Exizent have done, is critical for sustained growth. For startups, outsourcing this to a HR partner who understands the market, the company’s values, culture and strategic aims, and who adds value to the business is an investment in the future success of the organisation.

Lisa Thomson is the Managing Director of Purpose HR and is experienced in establishing HR functions and people management and development frameworks within growing businesses and is a trusted advisor at board level.

Purpose HR are a trusted HR partner to some of the most exciting, investor backed, high growth businesses in the Technology, Engineering and Life Science sectors in Scotland and offer hands-on flexible support to enable scale and growth through attraction, retention and development of key talent.

If you’d like to find out more about cost-effective and tailored HR support for fast growing, technology-led startups and scaleups, contact Lisa Thomson at lisa@purposehr.co.uk

Ambition Can Attract the Right Talent

A few months ago, Mark Logan produced his long-awaited, government-commissioned report on the Scottish tech ecosystem, of which FinTech is now a key component.”¯ 

There were many positives. We have established a thriving, well-connected community. However, Mark was quite clear; things need to change.”¯ 

We need to think bigger; we need to push boundaries and reach further than many think is possible, capitalising on the global opportunities that will take us beyond the tipping point. 

One of the pillars at the heart of Mark’s vision for a larger, more robust Scottish Tech ecosystem was, of course, people.”¯ 

But how do we attract this critical talent?”¯ 

Growing our own talent, working with schools and universities to prepare future captains of industry is vital. Making sure the technical skills taught are combined with commercial acumen is critical. However, this is a generation away.”¯ 

To realise some more immediate returns and to capitalise on the global opportunities, tech companies in Scotland need to attract the sort of investment required to be an international player and employ the talent with the experience and knowledge to succeed. 

Embrace Your Ambition 

With COVID19 banishing most traces of presenteeism and reassuring business leaders that it is possible to operate remote teams without impacting on productivity, this has opened up access to a far more significant, global labour market.”¯ 

However, while the talent exists, encouraging them to join your team instead of sticking with the FinTech operating out of London isn’t easy.”¯ ”¯ ”¯ ”¯ ”¯”¯ 

What was clear from listening to Shane Kehoe, Co-Founder at SVK Crypto, who was a keynote speaker at EIE20, is the acknowledgement from London that there is an incredibly exciting scene here in Scotland. However, for whatever reason, the investment and to a certain degree the talent isn’t making its way north at quite the speed we would hope.”¯ 

Something both Shane said at EIE20, and Hector Mason, Investor at Episode 1, mentioned when we interviewed him for the TalentSpark podcast last year, was that the level of ambition shown by the companies in London and America is exceptionally high.”¯”¯ 

Our inbuilt Scottish apprehension prevents many from showing the global ambition we harbour, and from taking the risks that perhaps our counterparts in Silicon Valley, and to a certain degree those down in London, take for granted.”¯ 

These founders are shooting for the star’s fuelled by mind-blowing ambition, and many eventually fail. However, the lessons they learned along the way, will be invaluable to an emerging FinTech and the experience will help attract more significant levels of investment.”¯ 

This faster turnaround of experienced talent was, in fact, one of the potential solutions suggested by Mark Logan in his report. 

Define Your Market 

Another key aspect of attracting the right talent for your business is defining your ‘why’.”¯ 

Whether you are trying to attract the COO from a FinTech that has just exited to a global institution, or you have your sights set on securing the services of the most inspiring CTO, you need to sell a vision of a business that does more than it says on the tin.”¯”¯ 

This concept became abundantly clear when we worked with one of Scotland’s most exciting new FinTechs‘, Nude.”¯ 

 Lots of company leaders and advisors talk about creating the right culture, but Nude have worked hard to define their culture and make it a key component of their hiring process.”¯”¯ 

 Nude has now raised £5.7m, and their most recent raise was to help them deliver on the government-backed Lifetime ISA (LISA), created to help first-time buyers get onto the property ladder.”¯ ”¯ 

However, there was a time pressure on getting the LISA product to market, and it required the recruitment of up to ten staff. It was an exciting project for our team to get stuck into but daunting none the less.”¯ 

Nude’s Why 

Their one goal is to:”¯  

“Help you reach life’s most important life goals, starting with buying a home”.”¯ 

So, the ‘why’ was clear, and after meeting with Stephen Doherty, COO, it was apparent their culture was laser-focused on customer-focused delivery.”¯ 

Having this made the process that we went through very clear. It helped us define the type of person we were recruiting for making shortlisting far more effective. The vision and values also helped sell the opportunity to an already engaged audience which meant the candidates we put forward had a higher chance of success, reducing the time to hire considerably.”¯ ”¯ 

So, while defining the vision and culture of the company certainly helped us, it created a very attractive proposition in an incredibly competitive marketplace.”¯ 

Diversity and Inclusion 

Living and breathing an inclusive culture from the very top is not only the right thing to do, but it makes financial sense too.”¯ 

While no one should have to be convinced of the benefits of a more diverse mindset throughout your business, based on the potential financial upside, it does seem to be rolled out as part of the argument.”¯ 

Jacqueline De Rojas, Chair of Tech UK, has highlighted the imbalance of female representation in the tech sector, and the potential impact this can have on everyday lives.”¯ 

The retention rate of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic is far shorter than that of their white counterparts. This could be in part down to the, on average 13% lower salaries compared with their white workmates.”¯ 

 However, it is almost certainly also the result of a lack of buy-in from senior-level executives to embody change, making the role of Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) incredibly frustrating.”¯ 

It is incumbent on senior leaders, founders and CEO’s to take ownership of the diversity throughout their organisation. They need to embody the culture and take action to stamp out any perceived bias. Only when the policy is taken seriously at the top level will change genuinely take place, and companies will see the financial benefits of having a diverse workforce.”¯ 

So, if the many fantastic companies that make the FinTech sector here in Scotland are to achieve the growth they all grave, they need to be brave and embrace their real ambitions. They need to define their vision and culture and embody a diverse and inclusive hiring approach.”¯”¯ 

Author  

• Peter Dunn 
• Associate Director (Tech and Digital) 
• Eden Scott 
• 07795 553 835  

Fintech Recruitment: Top Tips From the Professionals

It’s no secret that great fintech candidates are rare. It’s a growing industry that’s becoming cooler all the time. Face to face and phone interactions are decreasing (let’s not lie, we’re all experts at talking to chatbots now!), so the highly skilled roles needed to facilitate these changes are becoming pretty in-demand. 

Add an increase in the need for cyber security and financial insurance and you’ve got a talent gap. But, if you’re reading this, you probably already know that… 

In Scotland, we boast some of the best fintech businesses in the world; as the BBC reported in January 2020, the number of Scottish fintech firms grew 60% in 2019. That’s obviously slowed in 2020, but the outlook remains strong. 

So, in this competitive market, how can your fintech recruitment strategy make your business survive and thrive? I’ve put together the top tips I’ve learnt working in tech and fintech recruitment that should help. 

Refine your EVP 

Highly skilled people in fintech can command high salaries. So, you need to differentiate your business to make it stand out. You need to give people a reason, more than money, to work for you. 

And no, we’re not talking pool tables and free coffee. 

The pandemic has increased the demand for flexibility and that means working from home, moveable hours, and part time working. 

People also want to know that they’ll be looked after as your employee. Do you provide private healthcare? Counselling? Gym memberships? Clearly communicate what you do to improve quality of life in your careers page, your marketing, and any external sites.

Then think about your company culture, particularly important when most of us are working from home. Show how you’re inclusive, how you welcome new employees, and show this to potential candidates. 

If you don’t provide the things above, why not? They’re what will make you stand out from the competition. 

Widen your talent pool 

Fintech in Scotland is still a relatively small industry. If you really want to discover great talent you might want to look outside either the fintech pool or your locality. 

Thankfully, with great advancements in tech (especially recently) it’s much easier to work remotely and most are finding it a positive experience.

By widening your search, you get a bigger talent pool and more diverse candidates. A May 2020 McKinsey report said that “companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile.”

How candidates view their careers is changing too. We used to work in the same role for most of our lives, but now, people are continually changing roles, reskilling, and upskilling. Now, this ethos means it’s easier to hire people who can be trained to do specific roles, rather than only looking for those already in them. 

Someone who works in customer service might be a great fit for sales, and we’ve seen designers move to development roles easily. 

Get methodical about hiring

In a market with talent gaps, it’s easy to make the wrong hire. In the long-term, this can cost you a lot ”“ both financially and in your company culture. If you have a robust hiring method though, you won’t make these mistakes. 

At Solutions Driven, my team and I use RPI ”“ Recruitment Process Intelligence ”“ to make the right hire, first time, every time. We use RPI with everyone from big banks hiring CEOs and startups hiring sales execs. And it always works. 

Through RPI, we use various methods to find and secure the best talent. The two fundamental ones are the 6s and the 6F processes. 

The 6S process is how we find and secure candidates: 

We hold an initial Scoping meeting to identify the hiring needs

We create a Scorecard that matches the businesses’ criteria 

We source candidates via the latest technology and human intelligence, 

We Select them against the scorecard, interviews and psychometric testing 

We Secure them via our 6F Process (more on that in a sec)

We Satisfy both the candidate and our clients by measuring the results and regular check-ins. 

For the 6F process, we ensure that candidates and companies are matched on six key areas ”“ Fit, Freedom, Family, Fulfilment, Fortune, and Future ”“ so that your potential hire becomes a long-term, happy employee who helps propel your business forward. 

Exciting passive talent 

Your ideal hires are probably already in roles. Thanks, talent gap! So, when talking to fintech companies, we’ve found a big problem they have is activating passive talent who are already happy in their roles. 

Many don’t even want to entertain an initial conversation. 

The first thing you can do is one we’ve already discussed – improve your EVP and how you market it. In this industry, top talent wants to work with companies that are going somewhere or doing something exciting. It’s important that your brand is known for being forward-thinking and allowing people to work on great projects and progress. 

It can be hard to activate passive talent by yourself. It takes indepth technology, experience, and a lot of time. So sometimes, it’s best to get the professionals in. 

If you’re really serious about getting the best people to join your company, a good recruitment company, who knows your industry and knows how to attract great people will be far more cost effective in the long-run than doing it yourself. 

Blog written by Nicki Paterson. Nicki is Global Head of Business Growth at Solutions Driven, a Glasgow company that has specialised in business-critical recruitment for over 20 years. Working on a flat-fee basis and 12 month guarantees, Solutions Driven’s focus is getting the right people for the right roles, first time, every time.

If you’d like to find out more about how you can recruit effectively in the fintech market, get in touch with Nicki at npaterson@solutionsdriven.com.

Coronavirus, Autism and Fintech

The Coronavirus crisis has led to the largest move to remote working that anyone has ever seen, with many companies switching to homeworking almost overnight. I have witnessed some surprising lessons on the power of neurodiversity in a crisis like this.

Autism and the fintech opportunity

When we founded auticon in 2011 we believed that diversity is a strength that enhances problem-solving ability. Neurodiverse people often excel at business intelligence, quality-assurance, test automation and complex software development projects. They have unique cognitive strengths: attention to detail, a systematic way of working, logical analysis, pattern recognition, error detection and sustainable concentration for routine activities.

Autistic individuals are equally capable of excelling in STEM subjects and many achieve degrees or advanced qualifications. However, in a recent survey of more than 3,000 technology leaders, IT outsourcer Harvey Nash and auditing firm KPMG found that 67% reported that a skills shortage was preventing their organisation from keeping up with the pace of change. Autistic people are often overlooked or not considered as a source of talent, with some studies showing that up to 90% are either unemployed or underemployed.

The fintech sector is one that could benefit massively from onboarding neurodiverse people with STEM related skills and above average attention to details.

Autism and homeworking

Prior to the coronavirus crisis, most consultants at auticon worked from client sites or from our offices.  That seemed to be the best way to make sure everyone performed at their best. Autistic workers like consistency in their office environment and routines. We employ Job Coaches to work closely with our consultants.  They suggest adaptations to work environment, smooth out any bumps and ensure that our consultants are set up for success.  They are also on hand to support our clients.

We had to change all of this when the coronavirus struck and on 23^rd March^, we matched our clients and transitioned all of our team to homeworking. Fortunately, everyone already had laptops and mobile devices, so we didn’t have to worry about the technology part of the equation. Our main concern was whether we could maintain productivity.

Overall, this has gone better than we hoped. Traditional managers at many organisations may worry that team members who work from home may not put in the same level of focus or be able to meet deadlines. We never have to worry about this.  Autistic people tend to be very direct and honest. If you ask them if they are being productive working from home, they will tell you the truth. (If they were watching Netflix, they will tell you that, too.)

auticon consultant, Kyle Walker says he actually prefers working remotely as for him, the most stressful part of his day was the bus journey to his client’s office.  With that out of the equation, Kyle is very happy and probably a little more productive on his client’s project.

The tech tools we used for remote communication, such as Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, also work very well for us. Autistic people often prefer to interface via a precise text or email. Verbal or face-to-face conversations, which involve body language and emotional expression, can be more subjective and challenging. Some of our consultants who aren’t comfortable making eye contact in person found that they were able to do so on Zoom calls, giving them a new way to connect.

The Coronavirus challenge and opportunities

We have seen additional business opportunity during the coronavirus crisis. Going virtual has meant our global operation is working together more closely, leveraging a much deeper resource pool with specific technical capabilities in near real time. We are working across multiple time zones to assist clients with rapid deployment in a very cost-effective way. This global virtualisation may have taken us months or years to realise prior to the crisis.

Having a team capable of working very effectively from home is powerful. Beyond the current coronavirus lockdown, many organisations will rely much more on remote working and need to have a workforce that’s capable of doing this effectively. In auticon’s experience, hiring more autistic people is an answer. Not only does it bring more diverse thinking to a team but it is also an ideal way to make sure that you are staffed up with people who naturally excel at remote work.

Written by Emma Walker, Regional Manager ”“ auticon Scotland

Auticon provides a neurodiverse and agile workforce to improve clients information technology projects predominantly in areas such as Data Science, Quality Assurance and Cyber Security.

www.auticon.co.uk

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Scotland’s recruiters working with fintechs

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Scotland’s fintech scene is getting more and more exciting. The local fintech startups have been growing and multiplying at a fast pace, increasing the number of fintech businesses by 60% in numbers. Scotland is becoming a leader in the fintech industry, based not only on the number of fintech startups but their success rate and demand from the public for more fintech services. There is still a lot that can be done to help boost the industry across the nation and it seems like Scotland fintech scene’s big break is just around the corner.

The U. K’s fintech scene has been developing at the fastest across Europe, and now there are many prominent examples of highly successful fintech startups that are operating from the U.K. Just to cite an example, recently InsideTrade.co reported that Revolut has become the most valued fintech out there.

Core-Asset Consulting is now looking to expand its fintech offering, and it plans to do so by joining forces with the tech recruiters across the nation. Core-Asset Consulting is a firm that operates in Scotland’s finance, accountancy, asset management, and legal industries and has an impressive portfolio of clients. Over the last year, the company has become more proactive towards its approach to the fintech scene and has set out a goal to incorporate the industry as much as possible into its day-to-day activities. 

Exploring the potential of fintech for Scotland

This is an important move for all fintech startups and those thinking of getting into this industry because this means that the well-established companies are now seeing the potential that the fintech industry holds and want to become a part of it as soon as possible. It will not only help to create more opportunities for the new startups but it will also help with establishing the industry as a legit source of growth and income that holds real potential for the future of finance. 

Every major company in Scotland is either building a team of tech professionals or already has one up and going. Hundreds of new jobs might be appearing across Scotland, as the nation aims to become a tech hub. 

Core-Asset’s move was no coincidence either. When speaking with the media, founder and managing director of the company, Betsy William pointed out that the recent changes to contracting law made the company a great fit for smaller recruiters. The changes will directly affect the areas where small specialist tech recruiters do the most work. Because of this update, the demand for companies like Core-Asset will be increasing, hence the requirement to take advantage of the opportunity to make the collaboration between Core-Asset and fintech much easier. 

Another important development that made this decision easier for Core-Assets was the recently signed partnership between FinTech Alliance and Fintech Scotland, which will make making connections between different fintech across countries and within the U.K much easier. 

It looks like Scotland is creating an environment where fintech can develop at a much faster pace and well-established companies are trying to help out newer ones along the way.

There is a lot of potential in this industry and it could become one of the main sources of income from Scotland.

Designing your Employee Experience

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Blog written by Puneet Sachdev, Human Capital Expert from Singularity Labs

These days everything needs to have an X’ in it, isn’t it, especially in the tech world! Not too long ago, you would have struggled to find too many words starting with the letter X’.Today, we see X pinned to any number of products and expressions as a sign of some undefined cachet!

EX in one word – Empathy 

EX in one sentence – It is wider than employee engagement, it covers a wide range of activities that influence your employee’s perceptions of your company”“good or bad.

Airbnb

As the ex-Head of Employee Experience for Airbnb, it is Mark Levy who defined the expression ’employee experience’ and gave currency to the way we tend to emulate it today. He questioned “If Airbnb had a Customer Experience Group, why not create an Employee Experience Group?” And the rest is history! Mark has a background in Service Design that posits empathy and experimentation to arrive at innovative solutions. This was one of the key lenses that drove the employee experience philosophy. The internal experience of the employee will have a direct knock-on effect on the customer experience. 

The context today

The Millennial mindset is permeating the entire workforce. As this latest generation has established itself in the workforce, its expectations for workforce flexibility, use of mobile tools and enhanced performance feedback have spread to other generations. 

Employees are approaching the workplace as consumers. Individuals want the same experiences in the workplace that they have as consumers, such as having the use of simple, intuitive technology, the ability to rate and share opinions about products and services, and direct access to decision makers.

Today, the research has found that a number of factors shape employee experience, including: the formation and development of work-based connections and relationships, the design and ongoing use of employees’ physical work environments, and the tools and social platforms employees use to accomplish work-related activities

The components of an employee’s experience

1. Physical – the interaction employees have with their physical environment. The workspace they find themselves in and how inspiring that is. The design of the workplace can impact mental states.
2. Emotional – the interaction that employees have in the workplace setting and social settings with their colleagues, their line managers and the leadership. Feeling a sense of belonging within a community, being taken care of and respected are all important factors. 
3. Mental – the quality of work, the mental stimulation, the flexibility to create and the caliber of peers makes up the mental component. 

Eventually it will all have an emotional impact, we are talking about an experience’ after all. The actions you as an organization will take (or not take) will vote for one or the other – we value and respect you or we do not. 

The aspects to consider in developing the employee experience 

Employer Value Proposition (EVP) – Let’s start from the very beginning, a very good place to start, when you sing you begin with Do Re Mi and when you EX you begin with EVP!

The first expressions of employee experience begin when you define your Culture DNA – the vision / purpose, mission and values, values in particular as they set the tone for internal interactions. The employer value proposition is your people’ promise, and this shapes the employee experience your organization will deliver to your people. It is a key reason why you will attract the right people into your organization in the first place and will be the standard by which your employees and prospects will evaluate you as a leadership team and as an organization. You can read articles I have written about EVP here

On-Boarding – On-boarding is a high leverage opportunity to culturally integrate employees and set the standard for the employee experience new joiners will have. Making the new hires feel welcome and prepared for their jobs will create a lasting impression in their hearts and minds and setting them and the organization up for success. Organization’s with a robust onboarding process experience 62% greater new hire productivity, along with 50% greater new hire retention. 

Nature and Quality of Work  – a major component of employee experience is the extent to which individuals feel they can influence their work, build mastery and understand their work’s overall purpose. The sense of self-determination and autonomy. Employees want to know how the work they do fits into the team goals and how they contribute to the organization’s larger mission.  

Possession of relevant knowledge or expertise, access to additional information or experts as needed, and availability of timely feedback ”“ either from managers or automated systems””can significantly shape the employee experience. Role specifications, performance management, career development, feedback loops, leadership communication all become key processes here. 

Tools and Social Platforms – the design of the physical equipment that houses the software is key. Is it easy to access and use under daily work conditions? Software design can also have a lasting impact on satisfaction and productivity. Is there single sign-on? How may clicks does it take to get to the right screen? Employees expect intuitive and easy to use systems be it for booking leave or collaborating on a project. 

Increasingly, companies are using social platforms internally to support organizational innovation, expertise location and knowledge sharing, and to help employees connect to others across in different time zones. These social platforms provide a common environment where employees can find relevant insights and identify hidden pockets of expertise or emerging employee issues. E.g. Slack, Jira etc.

The Environment – experts assert that configuration and design of individual and team workspaces are a critical component of employee experience. Physical workspace design can also impact employee wellness, as properly designed ergonomics can reduce employee stress and limit physical injury. 

Social Impact – this is almost becoming a must have’ driven by the Millennial generation, and is a growing factor in considering and continuing work with employers. Not one to be overlooked. Installing ethical business practices and projects to impact the community organizations are a part and providing opportunities for employees to make a contribution impact this aspect. It enhances their sense of purpose and contribution adding to the employee experience they have. 

Business Strategy and Culture – an organization must consider each of these facets of employee experience in light of overall business goals and culture. The business goals and objectives of a start-up may be quite different from a multi-national, from a hotel chain. For a hospitality company, the need to provide high-quality guest services may serve as a guiding principle in the design of employee experience; for an oil company, the emphasis may be on occupational safety. Clearly defining these underlying tenets is necessary to designing experiences that not only match the needs of the individual, but are aligned with organizational priorities. 

Here is the thing, if you want to deliver world class to your customers, have your employees experience world class internally so they know what it feels like. Then delivering world-class will be the standard. 

Your Purpose Partners’ in the delivery of Employee Experience in your organizations

The HR team of course. In addition, enter Line Managers or the people managers as they are being called in many of the growing tech companies we consult with. They have the keys to the organization i.e. manage the workforce, budgets and various other organizational resources. Three key things to bear in mind here: 

1) Managers in your organization have an understanding of your employer value proposition, your employee experience philosophy and are empowered for it’s fulfilment. 

2) Managers have complete clarity on their role and the expectations and especially in their responsibilities towards their team members. For example how do they best on-board new team members, how do they performance manage, how do they recognize their team etc. 

3) Being educated and up-skilled on the different kinds of conversations they will be expected to have with their team and peers e.g. day one conversation, week one conversation, performance conversations etc. Manager conversations and behaviours are a critical factor that creates the experience of the rest of the workforce. 

How can you design your Employee Experience:

Use Analytics – tune into the voice of customer’. The customers being your employees. You can turn to traditional HR surveys or any other semi-structured processes you have in place to gather and analyze data. 

Create employee personas and map the journey – an employee persona is essentially a semi-fictional representation of a group of employees with similar traits, experiences and behaviors. They’re based on the data and insights you have into the individuals that make up your workforce and brings them to life by building a narrative around them.

Invest in key touch points where employee experience has the greatest impact – you have now created the personas and mapped the journey. Identify the moments that matter most to them through their lifecycle which will cover pre-joining, on-boarding, working as a part of a team, performance, career development, exit. Making changes to employee experience often requires investment. Use the data you have generated to prioritize and guide your decisions. Ask your employees, they will tell you. 

Here is a good article by Qualtrics that covers employee personas and journey mapping.  

Cross functional EX group – some organizations we have consulted for have used cross-functional employee groups very effectively to stay engaged with employees, to continue to generate insights via face to face conversations and other processes. 

The employee experience is holistic. It covers a wide range of activities that influence your employee’s perceptions of your company”“good or bad. Mapping the experience of employees is a challenging task and requires a lot of effort. But the prize is too tempting for you not to care.

Ready or not? Questions worth asking yourself:  

1. How does your current employee experience affect the attraction and retention of critical job roles within your organization? 
2. How could improving your employee experience increase productivity within your organization? 
3. To what extent does your employee experience influence your customer experience?
4. Who has primary responsibility for designing employee experience within your organization? How does a person or team bring others together to address employee experience issues? 
5. What types of analytics are you using to evaluate the effectiveness of your employee experience?

This article has been an output based on my own experience, conversations and online research. IBM, Qualtrics and Deloitte have been very useful sources.   

Me and my colleagues at Singularity Labs specialise in designing interventions that solve People and Culture challenges and help creating engaging and High Performing Environments. We have worked across multiple industries and geographies and more recently with growing tech companies such as Nucleus Financial (Fintech) and Craneware (Healthcare Tech).

Resources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2016/02/01/global-head-employee-experience-airbnb-rid-of-human-resources/#118986f77c4e – Mark Levy, Airbnb employee personas and journey mapping.  – employee personas and journey mapping, Qualtrics  

Diversity in Recruitment ”“ FinTech can make it Happen

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I recently handed in my notice to my current employer and I now face not only the challenge of finding a new job but of also whether to declare my disability or not in the application process.   

My current employer, Meraki Talent, is a disability confident and a member of ENEI (Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion), so they are fully supportive of me, as they understand I need a new challenge and even offered to help me in my search, as I look to take my career in a new direction.

Despite my own disability, having dwarfism, I have successfully worked in recruitment for over 9 years but even I am fallible to unconscious bias (Unconscious biases are learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence behaviour) when identifying suitable candidates, so I do understand the recruiters need to fill jobs.  That is how they build relationships and make commission.

The unconscious bias is sometimes referred to as the Halo Effect. The Halo Effect is a type of cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about his or her character. With these biases will my disability stop me even getting through the door?

Having also been on the candidate side in the past, I have declared my disability, as part of the application process a number of times. In doing so this is claimed to guarantee you an interview, if you meet the essential criteria. However, I am yet to receive an interview through these means in my working career. Despite being proud of who I am, I have had a lot more success when I don’t mention that I am disabled. Am I bypassing the biases? This then means the interviewers are put in a difficult position when it reaches interview! They have to judge me on my abilities, rather than my disability.

It does make you question why it is so difficult to recruit people from these groups.  Could it be that that people with disabilities or from diverse backgrounds won’t fit in or would need more time or resources?

If an effort was made, to create jobs for people from these groups, perhaps people like myself would be more encouraged to apply?

So, if we truly want to be more inclusive, have greater variety in gender, age, ethnicity, social background, sexual orientation, education, religion, and disability then we must change our mindset and resist the temptation to stereotype.  Also, if there is a desire to recruit people from these groups, the expectations of what is essential has to be counter balanced with the benefits it would bring. 

Not only does it look great for brand, it means there is a greater variety of perspectives, increased creativity, productivity and people feel more included. Recently, I have been to Diversity & Inclusion events and I am keen for these great ideas to be a reality rather than a PR exercise and feel FinTech companies have a massive opportunity to do so.

FinTech companies are already admired with their culture – agile, flexible working, unlimited holidays, day off on your birthday, social events etc. FinTech organisations have a massive opportunity to take the lead in making their workforce a truer and fairer reflection of society.

In order to attract these candidates, we have to change the level of acceptability and I would encourage FinTech’s to take the lead, work with recruiters and create jobs for these minority groups.

How to create a meaningful Employer Value Proposition

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Blog written by Puneet Sachdev, Human Capital Expert from Singularity Labs

Note: This is he continuation of the EVP conversation we started here

1. Understand your EVP preferences

Try a top-down and a bottom-up approach. Top-down as in the person responsible for people and culture’ i.e. your people leader and the leadership of the organisation discussing and debating the EVP. Ideally the people leader creates a baseline document / template, circulates it in advance and the leadership gets together to have a conversation around it. And bottom-up as in a listening exercise with your employees. Ask them what they find great about working for your organisation and what can be done to make further improvements. 

2. Design your EVP

Gather data from important sources and competitors to inform your EVP design. Use the internal and the external data you have gathered, design your bespoke EVP. Use the five core elements of a robust EVP to structure your proposition. (link to previous article on the core elements of the EVP). 

3. Segment the communication

You have the sound bites by now. Here you will think about how this will be communicated to the different types of talent you want to attract into the organisation (engineers, customer service advisors) as different language will appeal to these different mindsets. Think about how you want to communicate this internally. You can consider a video message by the Head of People and some existing employees. And consider using a good copywriter. 

4. Create your employer brand

A strong employer brand needs a clear value proposition, which by now you have created. Now is the packaging and positioning. You can use your internal branding team to create this or use the same people you used to help create your organisation’s brand. You can also consider creating a boilerplate’ i.e. your EVP in a tweet and text, in a sentence – strapline, in a paragraph and in a page. Some organisations create well crafted infographics for exhibitions, conferences and other events to promote their brand. Also consider some guiding principles like what L’Oreal has done.

Here is L’Oreal’s: Strapline – “Lead the future of Beauty. When you love your work and the people you work with, amazing things can happen.”

Their employer value proposition is broken down into three pillars:

A thrilling experience ”“ a truly global business with a clear purpose and vision will ensure that candidates can see how they would fit this into their own trajectory

An environment that will inspire you ”“ with the amount of science, corporate social responsibility and sustainable business practices, there will be something to inspire most employees

A school of excellence ”“ world leading brands and products would attract the best people and skills, as a candidate you could be attracted to that environment for your career growth.

This is what Hubspot has – “We’re building a company people love. A company that will stand the test of time, so we invest in our people and optimize for your long-term happiness.” 

Suggested channels of communication

• On your careers page 
• Intranet website 
• Glassdoor
• LinkedIn page 
• Social channels used 
• Welcome packs 

The investment – and if you are thinking about the cost of doing all this work, which you probably are, consider the opportunity cost of not getting all this accurately aligned to the impact it can potentially have on the acquisition of key talent at the different levels in your organisation. If you want to attract A’ players and top on-demand talent, then you want to create an A’ grade EVP. Like attracts like. Here is an article by SAGE People on the impact on Employer Brand on talent acquisition. 

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions or clarifications. 

Me and my colleagues at Singularity Labs specialise in designing interventions that solve People and Culture challenges and help creating engaging and High Performing Environments. We have worked across multiple industries and geographies and more recently with growing tech companies such as Nucleus Financial (Fintech) and Craneware (Healthcare Tech). Get in touch with for a no-obligation consultation about your people and culture aspirations.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/puneetsachdevpro/