By Janus Boye
Most organisations are undergoing radical
changes on many fronts. Rapid evolution on
the digital and technological fronts and
changing demographics within the
workforce are challenging conventions
across sectors and industries. The
combination of a new generation entering
the workplace with fresh skills, approaches
and expectations and experienced seniors
staying on for longer means that we need to
fundamentally rethink the workplace – and how we design the employee experience to make the best of this new reality.
Creating a harmonious workplace is not a new discipline, but it takes more focus and cross-departmental e!ort and coordination than ever before to get it right – given the rapid pace of change. Creating good customer experiences and mapping smooth customer journeys have been ways of gaining market share across sectors and industries for ages. Many organisations are becoming acutely aware of the importance of creating equally good experiences for their workforce if they are to attract and retain the best talent now and in the future. This growing focus on the employee experience requires skilled and experienced professionals to take the lead, bring together the may strands and pave the way ahead.
We have identified 10 pioneers who in their respective ways are making waves in terms of improving employee experiences. Some lead software start-ups, some are independents and some work for complex global organisations – privates as well as NGOs – where they are making a notable difference.
We’ll be watching these bright individuals:
1. Elina Reinholtz, Philips (DE)
Working at the regional Philips headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, Elina has been instrumental in redefining the workplace. Philips has globally rolled out new corporate meeting spaces, which fuse productivity and wellbeing. They have totally redesigned the workplace for an improved employee experience.
You can find photos of the inspiring Philips Hamburg office in this post: 10 Learnings From Digital Leaders In 2016 - see learning #9: The best are shaping the workplace of the future
2. Frank Wolf, Staffbase (DE)
Frank is one of the co-founders of Staffbase, an employee
communications app start-up spun out of T-Systems MMS in Dresden, Germany. If you’ve worked with an employee
app, you’ve likely experienced how push notifications changes the game. Now with investor funding and a NYC base, Staffbase has been able to secure an impressive client list, including adidas, Daimler and Siemens.
3. Hanna Karppi, Skanska (SE)
Hanna has almost ten years’ experience in communications
and change management positions on both a Nordic and a
global level. Currently she leads the development of
Skanska’s global digital workplace. Hanna is an energetic
“never giver upper” who enjoys driving change and engaging people around the organization.
4. Jason Jacobs, RBC (CA)
Jason is director of strategic and online communications and heads up the internal communications e!orts at Canada’s largest bank. He constantly pushes the envelope and tries and tests new ways of utilising existing and emerging platforms and channels to engage RBC’s global workforce and improve the employee experience.
5. Jonathan Phillips, ClarityDW (UK)
Jonathan is a power house in the field of employee communication. He has extensive experience of leading both internal and external digital communications e!orts in a large enterprise. He spent almost two decades at Coca-Cola Enterprises in the UK and has constantly pushed the boundaries and tried new things. He has generously shared his experiences through blogging, speaking etc. A true thought leader. He now flies solo with ClarityDW
6. Sara Glick, Discovery Communications (US)
Sara and her team deploy a wide range of tactics to enable cross-pollination of ideas, talent and inspiration across the
multi-faceted organisation. Storytelling, culture-building, talent meet and greets, experiential events, campaigns, outreach and much more; all used to recognise and highlight the creativity and excellence of the talented employees at Discovery.
7. Sharon O’Dea (UK)
Sharon has held numerous internal communications posts – including as intranet manager at Parliament in the UK, Head of Digital Comms at Standard Chartered Bank and Digital
Engagement Lead at the Department for International Trade in the UK. She is constantly exploring new territory and assessing the value of emerging tools and technologies and ways of deploying them successfully in the enterprise. And she is great at sharing her findings and thinking with the World – through blogging, tweets and other outlets. She is currently freelancing around the World.
8. Wictor Wilén, Avanade (SE)
Office 365 from Microsoft is hard to avoid as a key technology and game changer for most employees. Few manage to combine deep technical understanding and business acumen like Wictor who is also acknowledged in the Microsoft eco-system as a Most Valuable Player
9. Sarah Livingston, Oxfam America (US)
Sarah is a highly dedicated connector, facilitator and communicator. She highlights and promotes many of the extraordinary achievements of Oxfam’s activists, campaigners and front line sta! to stakeholders and supporters everywhere. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she manages to make impact and facilitate meaningful collaboration and conversations – and introduce innovative and empowering new initiatives despite having very limited resources at her disposal.
10. Shaun Randol, Bloomberg (US)
Shaun and his colleagues on Bloomberg’s Employee Innovation and Communications Team navigate and use a plethora of tools and channels to inform, engage, enable and inspire their global workforce. He is constantly exploring new styles and formats and is obsessive about measuring the impact and e!ectiveness of the team’s endeavours; he has an inspiring approach to using data and insights to constantly improve, adjust and make better informed decisions.