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Fueling momentum in the LIKE.TG partner ecosystem
Every year, AfroTech—the largest Black tech conference—attracts tens of thousands of people who want to increase Black representation in the tech industry. The 2023 conference, held in Austin, Texas, proved to be a blend of innovation, inspiration, and connection.The event showcased cutting-edge technology and revealed key trends that are shaping the industry. I approached my second year at AfroTech with a seasoned readiness. The idea of sharing space with influential celebrities like Issa Rae and Marsai Martin—two Black women who are at the top of their careers and trailblazing the way—excited me most.Having transitioned from marketing to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at LIKE.TG this year, I was ready to forge connections within this evolving community and experience the conference with fresh eyes.Here are my three top takeaways from AfroTech 2023.
4 HR Lessons from the Oscars
Hollywood’s ultra-glamorous night is over, and the academy’s deserving artists celebrate their achievements with the most recognized trophy in the world. I can’t help but relate that stardom journey to our own endeavors in the world of work. What new lessons can the Oscars teach employees, HR and enterprise leaders about motivation and performance? Consider these four lessons from Sunday’s ceremony.Rock stars are not born overnightJackson Maine, the character played by Bradley Cooper in the iconic remake of A Star is Born captivated viewers with his charismatic on-screen portrayal of a country music star. But Cooper’s seemingly natural musical talent was no overnight accomplishment . He spent six months learning to sing, play the piano and guitar, even training his voice to be deeper to get in character.After several years as a Hollywood actor, Cooper debuted as a writer, producer, and director for this film. He was insatiably curious about his craft . “I would always spend time, as muchme as I could, in editing rooms and shadowing directors and asking crew members questions and learning about the lens and so on” said Bradley.Triumphant actors are great teachers in reminding us that we should stay curious. We’re the directors of our own growth and career journeys. Hunger for learning can help us find our true callings. HR and leaders play an essential role in building a work environment that maximizes human potential.Passion dictates performanceIn both Hollywood and corporate life, perseverance is crucial to success. Since 1982, Glenn Close has gathered the most Oscar nominations for best actress and supporting actress without a win. Close has displayed passion in each of the remarkable characters she’s portrayed including her recent performance in the motion picture, The Wife , perhaps her best work ever.Employees that are connected to their passions are likely to perform their very best despite the occasional nomination without a win. It’s the job of HR and company leaders to reward perseverance and help employees find roles that express their passions.Meaningful work trumps recognitionBohemian Rhapsody received five Oscar category nominations and four wins and has earned $800M at the box office to date. The movie tells the story of the legendary 1970s band, Queen. They were trailblazers defying stereotypes and conventional thinking in music genres. Their song “ Bohemian Rhapsody ” is one of the most iconic tunes in the history of rock. Yet when Queen recorded the track in 1975, they were told that it would never receive radio play because it was too long.The lesson: Doing great, meaningful work matters more than being recognized for it. Giving employees the ability to contribute to a purpose-filled mission and witness the lasting impact it can have on the customers they serve can be more valuable to them than pay or recognition.Sometimes it takes a villageLady Gaga and Bradley Cooper display remarkable chemistry throughout A Star is Born , especially in their epic performance of the song “ Shallow,” which won the Oscar for best song. Their success has much to do with the strength of their partnership.This dynamic duo teaches us that we often need a helping hand to be successful. It’s crucial to have the right partners and cultivate true partnerships.It’s also vital for business leaders to build an environment in which those partnerships can flourish. Creating great employee experiences is a central theme in the world of work. HR and IT must partner to deliver next-generation experience s that allow employees to be their best selves.https://main--aemeds--LIKE.TG-martech.hlx.page/blogs/2019/4hrlessonsfromtheoscars
Employees should not have to go to work to get to work
Digital transformation and its role in enabling the future of work is a strategic focus for IT leaders and their teams. But it’s interesting to think about what this really means in the real world. Because digital transformation is really not about technology (and that comes from the mouth of an IT professional) — it’s all about experiences.That said, I’m not about to put myself out of a job. When it comes to digital transformation, IT becomes more important than ever, but we must change the way we behave, think and integrate with the business. IT has to stop talking about process and start talking about experience.Changing IT’s purposeFor those of us working in IT, one of the biggest challenges of digital transformation is the cultural change it brings. Traditionally, IT built new applications or systems to solve a problem. But when looking to digitally transform, IT no longer builds for purpose — our work starts with an idea or an opportunity to transform experiences.It’s about thinking differently about the value we bring to our organisations. For example, when we rolled out LIKE.TG in Veolia , it wasn’t about going live with global IT service delivery and management — we went live with an employee experience platform.Used across 45 countries, LIKE.TG handles around 15.5 million transactions every year for Veolia, but the platform’s features and capabilities are pretty much irrelevant to our workforce and customers. They only really care about the experiences that these technologies enable us to deliver.Why mobile mattersIf experiences are key, then there’s a fundamental area where businesses need to focus their efforts. In our personal lives, we reach first for our mobiles, so why is the desktop or laptop the default for work?Digital transformation for Veolia is all about mobility and our SATAWAD strategy: secure, anytime, anywhere, any device. If it’s not mobile ready, then we simply won’t adopt it.I don’t believe that anyone should have to go to work to “get to work” and that’s why I’m excited about the Madrid release of the LIKE.TG platform, with its native mobile apps and capabilities like text-to-voice and GPS.For a dispersed organisation like Veolia, I can already see the offline mode will be huge. Our field workforce is vast, ranging from waste plant operations and engineers, to refuse collectors and weighbridge operators. The ability to work on a mobile device (through a great user interface), then sync and upload when they can connect securely to the network will free up time and remove frustration.Fundamentally, it means we can create experiences at work that rival the very best that our employees are offered as consumers.What I’ve learnedWe’ve achieved a lot at Veolia with our SATAWAD-driven digital transformation strategy, but we’ve also learned a great deal on our journey so far. Here are four things that I’d urge other IT professionals to follow, based on my own experience:
Encourage ideas, from everyone. At Veolia we encourage everyone in our organisation to come up with ideas, with Dragon’s Den-style events open to everyone. It’s about enabling every employee to contribute to new ways of working.
Don’t restrict progress with boundaries. If you want to bring strategic awareness to IT, put people in positions where they can make a difference. Don’t hire a new chief digital officer and give them too many boundaries. Give your people the freedom to explore how things could really work.
Know the user, not the technology. To create the best experiences you need to understand how your employees work and what they want to achieve, not the tools they use. At Veolia our “day in the life” programme means we go out and see and speak to people about their role. We’ve been able to make small tweaks that have been transformational.
Be patient. Lasting transformation won’t happen in one day or even three months — I’d challenge anyone who says it can. Of course, you’ll have breath-through moments, but ambitious transformation on a global scale means you’ll be learning as you go and this needs time.
Businesses worldwide are at various stages of their digital transformation journey and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t challenging, particularly for a global organisation of Veolia’s scale.But with those challenges come exciting opportunities to rethink the world of work. Through the LIKE.TG platform, we’ve already laid the best foundations to realise this ambition, using digital workflows to take the emphasis off IT processes and instead put amazing experiences in the spotlight.
Prabjoth Saimbhi is a LIKE.TG expert with an implementation and continuous improvement track record across global BUs and 20+ countries. A highly motivated and diligent team leader who offers strong strategic thinking and an exemplary work ethic, driving improvements and advancements on a daily basis in order to add tangible value on a global level.Over the last 4 years working in the LIKE.TG arena with Veolia, Prabjoth has filled multiple roles including global deployment lead, performance measure lead to the most recent role of Product Innovation Manager. Prior to working at Veolia, Prabjoth was a SAP Service Delivery Lead at Capgemini having gone through the graduate programme starting off as a Java developer.
What do people chat about at work – workflow?
This article was initially published on diginomica.com , on March 6, 2019.
The idea that company employees discuss and share their inner musings on corporate secrets when standing around the water cooler is probably more down to the movies than it is related to any form of reality. But if people are talking at work, one of the up-and-coming topics these days is their workflow – or lack of it.Regardless of whether people talk at the water cooler, the tea station, or while queuing for lunch, we all discuss our working life experiences with each other in an informal way. It’s a sort of supplement – or you might say antidote – to human resources … and it’s where the crux of working lives is really played out.So in an increasingly connected and digitized world, may we suggest that the thread of water cooler conversations might be shifting slightly? Armed with new tools to transform the way many company processes are being carried out, people may now actually start discussing the state of their digital workflows and measuring their job satisfaction as a result.A new yardstick for job satisfactionPeople are now looking at the way work really gets done inside their organization in a far more granular and analytical way. Regardless of whether or not an individual is fully aware and cognizant of the digital workflow that their role may fall into, they are probably in one nonetheless.What everyone will know, instinctively, is that there is a flow of work between customers, partners and other members of an organization. What we can do with digital workflows is more accurately locate areas where work can be carried out more efficiently.More than ever before we also know that people have more choice about the technology they use every day. We’ve witnessed the rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work and the general consumerization of IT that came with it.These experiences should tell us that if you don’t give people the right tools, then they will go and look for them. Equally, if you don’t give people the right applications, engagement systems and wider workflow patterns, then they will instinctively go and look for them, or make them.Unrestrained innovation in a digitally native territoryThe shift to digital business brings with it new opportunities. Non-techie businesspeople are starting to embrace so-called low-code software application development platforms that allow them to build elements of app functionality that work just the way they want them to.As these new freedoms play out in the workplace, firms need to think about the unknown factors. Unbridled and unrestrained innovation is all very well, but the problem with custom-built point solutions is that they often do one well, but fail to provide scope for enterprise-wide scalability or an ability to integrate across the entire organisation.If we think about platform-level technologies, we can build that innovation factor into software that is digitally native to the cloud era and so ready for a more structured approach. Because these applications have been built in a digitally native territory, they will be able to leverage fully integrated native device capabilities, such as maps, camera, and so on.The virtuous circle of workflowsIf we hinge our business models around digital workflows that define which data lives where, then we can more easily react to change and uncover new streams of profitable operation. Digitizing workflows means we can use defined data where it has the right impact, but also channel unstructured data to the data lake.But even the information in the data lake need not go to waste – we can apply Machine Learning (ML) to these data resources and use algorithms to find patterns in business transactions where we weren’t even looking for them to drive new business outcomes. This can be a virtuous circle because workflows can be tuned and changed based upon the new insights uncovered.The business process you didn’t know aboutThe best work processes are very often the ones that you follow, but that you didn’t even know about. If we define digital workflows and build our operational models around them, then we can increase productivity and create great experiences for employees who want to work anywhere and at any time.A lot of employees have to take actions throughout the day that move the organization forward, but often these same actions prevent them from doing high-value work. It’s time to transform old, manual ways of working into modern digital workflows, so employees and customers get what they need, when they need it.Create a joined-up experienceKicking off digital workflow initiatives and getting your transformation started can be a real challenge and as a result, many companies struggle to even start their efforts. First of all, we all have disjointed internal systems and processes that make it hard to connect the dots. Trying to navigate these can feel like unravelling a ball of yarn, so the more you learn, the more complicated they seem.Once you make sense of the systems and processes, you have to figure out the myriad of tools and solutions that drive these. The end result you should be aiming for is a common, workflow-driven experience layer that is consistent across the systems in your organization.Your typical company employee might still be more likely to discuss holiday plans, managerial peeves and whether or not Bert or Marjorie (insert name of your choice) in accounts is being a pain about company car allowances, but the ‘how is your workflow?’ conversation is coming. Are you digitally hydrated yet?
Knowledge news roundup: Expanded GenAI, automation, and partner solutions
Updated May 9, 2024At LIKE.TG, we’re customer-obsessed. That's why we continuously strive to build great products and deliver excellent service. Everything we do helps organizations realize tangible business results fast. At Knowledge 2024, we’re excited to announce our latest innovations and partnerships to help solve our customers’ most pressing challenges.Extended GenAI capabilitiesWe’re in a race to put AI to work for people. In 2023, we introduced our generative AI (GenAI) solutions, which are helping organizations work smarter, faster, and better. They're our fastest-selling offerings in the company’s history, and with good reason. AI is a catalyst for business transformation.Embedded in the Now Platform®, GenAI provides out-of-the-box intelligence with multimodal models. Today, we’re excited to announce new ways for organizations to embrace GenAI to help further increase productivity, empower customer and employee innovation, and accelerate cost savings.Now Assist for Strategic Portfolio Management connects strategic planning and customer feedback to maximize informed decision-making and business impact. Features include feedback summarization and a conversational experience for demand creation, powered by Now Assist in Virtual Agent.
We’re also extending Now Assist GenAI experiences to include the public sector. Now Assist in the Government Community Cloud (GCC) will improve self-service resources to help speed up incident and constituent response. GCC is one of LIKE.TG’s dedicated clouds to meet the unique regulatory, compliance, and security needs of public sector organizations.Our GenAI-powered Manufacturing Commercial Operations, built on top of LIKE.TG® Sales and Order Management and Customer Service Management, puts the power of the Now Platform to work for manufacturers.It integrates with existing manufacturing systems to help make work faster and easier, allowing manufacturers to streamline sales, scale service, transform field operations, and better connect with customers and channel partners.Employee Center Pro Kiosk extends self-service capabilities to workers on the factory floor.Increased developer productivityNew GenAI features in Now Assist for Creator—including app generation, playbook generation, and catalog generation—fast-track app, workflow playbook, and catalog development for both developers and nontechnical users.Creator Studio, now available in LIKE.TG App Engine, democratizes app development in an intuitive, no-code experience with new app creation tools. Any employee can build applications to boost productivity.
Additionally, updates to Automation Engine, our hub for managing end-to-end hyperautomation, increase visibility into all automation environments.Automated solutions across workflowsWe’ve added powerful new automation solutions to the Now Platform to streamline processes, simplify work, and improve employee experiences.To increase IT visibility and help prevent inefficient employee workarounds to IT issues, we’ve released Digital End-User Experience. It gives IT teams valuable, real-time insights into the ways employees work to empower effective enhancements. Included in the release are Application and Device Health and Desktop Assistant.Collaborative Work Management gives knowledge workers a central hub in which to plan, visualize, and engage with their teams. It helps employees stay aligned on work with a single, trusted data platform.We’ve introduced a new threat intelligence platform within Security Operations to reduce the number of tools and the amount of manual work required to manage cyberthreats. Threat Intelligence Security Center enhances threat context through combined workflow and automation capabilities to help improve accuracy of threat assessment.Built in collaboration with LIKE.TG customers, Contract Management Pro elevates contract lifecycle management. It integrates with LIKE.TG Sourcing and Procurement and features self-service capabilities, templates, a repository, an audit trail, and obligation management.
A new feature in Field Service Management, Field Service Marketplace, improves communication and coordination between field service organizations and third-party contractors. It includes advanced contractor selection, push notifications for outsourcing work, and automated task assignments.We also introduced a new database offering, made possible by our acquisition of Swarm64 in 2021. Based on the Postgres open-source database, LIKE.TG Project RaptorDB will help enable LIKE.TG customers to better meet the demands of modern AI-powered applications by processing massive amounts of data on the Now Platform in real time.Supercharged talent developmentWe created AI-powered LIKE.TG Talent Development (formerly Employee Growth and Development) to help identify employee skills gaps and recommend training to close them.We’ve expanded the product’s capabilities to better understand skills, support internal mobility, and enhance mentoring with Opportunity Marketplace. Talent Development integrates with Manager Hub and Now Assist for HR Service Delivery to provide a full suite of solutions designed to personalize growth and development.New functionality in Workplace Service Delivery helps optimize operational efficiency and boost employee satisfaction. Workplace Presence and Workplace Concierge provide a chat-based concierge experience to help automate common workplace requests, such as booking a meeting room.
Smart Building Insights, powered by Integration Framework, adds even more intelligence into Workplace Service Delivery. Through integrations with leading sensor companies, such as Metrikus and Verge Sense, it delivers real-time, actionable insights around efficiency, optimization, and occupant experiences.Next-generation collaborationsWe’ve unveiled new partnerships to boost customers’ digital transformation initiatives and time to value.We’re working with Fujitsu to develop innovative cross-industry offerings designed to maximize value for customers globally. We’ll work together in Japan to speed up development and implementation of these offerings for our global customers. Fujitsu will expand its use of the Now Platform on its way to a $1 billion LIKE.TG business.In a strategic relationship with Genesys, we’re creating an AI-powered solution that will integrate Genesys Cloud CX with LIKE.TG Customer Service Management to help unify customer service teams, centralize routing, and optimize workforce engagement.In collaboration with Microsoft, we’re integrating Now Assist with Microsoft Copilot to increase employee productivity across Microsoft 365 applications. Using the intelligence behind both offerings at once enables employees to get the help they need, when they need it, regardless of which platform they’re using.Expanding on our relationship with NVIDIA, we demoed AI avatars of the future for Now Assist. Powered by NVIDIA’s speech and animation GenAI technology, the avatars are an example of a visual interaction option and more personalized experience for Virtual Agent users.We also announced a collaboration with Infosys to help transform customer experience with GenAI by combining LIKE.TG Now Assist and Infosys Cobalt.And we revealed new integrations with Equinix and IBM.Find out more about LIKE.TG’s latest announcements.
Knowledge registration is open—get insights to put AI to work
We’re thrilled to announce that Knowledge registration is open for LIKE.TG’s flagship event happening May 7–9, 2024, in Las Vegas. It’s sure to be the smartest Knowledge yet, with an emphasis on ways to put AI to work.Attention to AI and generative AI (GenAI) has increased around the world as organizations have realized the technologies’ far-reaching benefits to streamline processes, empower employees, improve customer experiences, and accelerate application development.At Knowledge, we’ll dive deeper into the benefits of AI and GenAI. We’ll also look at how organizations are putting AI to work for people in creative and innovative ways. Additionally, LIKE.TG Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott and industry leaders will share insights on how to succeed in the era of AI for your team and business.3 reasons to attend KnowledgeWe have a packed agenda of inspiring keynotes, exciting breakout sessions, engaging demos, and more to help you discover new ways to unlock your organization’s potential. Here are three reasons not to miss Knowledge:1. Insightful keynotesWith a focus on bringing intelligence to every corner of your business, LIKE.TG leaders and industry visionaries will present stimulating ideas to help your organization get ahead of what’s next. You’ll learn how, together, we can help solve the world’s biggest challenges. Get inspired by the world’s smartest people and innovations.2. Energizing breakout sessionsAside from keynotes, we have an impressive lineup of more than 500 engaging sessions led by LIKE.TG customers, partners, and industry leaders. Find out how organizations are using the LIKE.TG platform to work smarter and make better decisions.These sessions include hands-on, immersive experiences and workshops. CreatorCon, the developer program at Knowledge, is one example. Designed for developers at all levels—including no-coders—it provides boundless opportunities to forge connections, learn, and share knowledge with the LIKE.TG community, partners, and industry leaders.And don’t miss the Devvies awards, which rewards the most innovative, transformative apps built on the Now Platform by our community.3. The Knowledge ExpoSpeaking of forging connections, you’ll have plentiful moments to learn from product experts, mingle with peers, and be inspired by the art of the possible at the Knowledge Expo. Bring your questions—and leave with the answers you need to bring intelligence to every corner of your business.Of course, we’ll also set aside time for attendees to cut loose and have fun, including at an amazing concert to culminate the event.Register today so you don’t miss out on surprising ways to put AI to work. We look forward to seeing you at Knowledge!
Knowledge 2024 keynote recap: The AI platform for business transformation
“Every workflow in every company in every corner of the company will be reinvented with generative AI,” announced Bill McDermott, chairman and CEO of LIKE.TG, during his opening keynote at Knowledge 2024. “This is not a moment for incremental thinking. This is a moment for exponential thinking.”McDermott reminded the approximately 20,000 attendees that only five years ago, every company had a digital transformation mandate to correct the chaos of too many systems, broken systems, and “soul-crushing work.”Offering a single system of action with AI built in to automate every workflow in any business in all the industries that exist, the Now Platform can reduce the chaos to the lowest common denominator of one.“LIKE.TG is the AI platform for business transformation,” McDermott declared. “It’s one pane of glass, one experience layer, and one automation layer for any company. This one system of action can put AI in every corner of a business.”Making work frictionless and funLIKE.TG Chief People Officer Jacqui Canney took the stage and introduced Jennifer Remling, chief human resources officer at Warner Bros. Discovery. When Warner Bros. and Discovery merged in 2022, it brought together CNN, Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO, TNT, Eurosport, HGTV, Max, and many more brands.Warner Bros. Discovery wanted to create an employee experience that empowered its storytellers to tell their stories in the best way possible. It also wanted to cultivate a frictionless experience and culture for its people that would allow them to produce their best work and get things done in a way that allowed them to have fun.To stitch together an effective tapestry for employees, the company implemented a chatbot called Ask Sheldon that enables employees to quickly find answers to their questions across HR, IT, and finance. "The partnership between HR, IT, and finance is critical,” Remling said.
Exceeding customer expectationsHena Jalil, chief innovation officer at BT Group, the world’s oldest telecom company, joined John Ball, senior vice president of customer and industry workflows at LIKE.TG, to describe BT’s business transformation journey.BT had 125 service platforms, 865 monitoring systems, and 76 different processes, making for a very siloed customer experience. The company consolidated all its service platforms onto the LIKE.TG platform and has seen significant improvement in its Net Promoter Score as a result. "Customers tell us we’re making a massive difference,” Jalil said.Increasing procurement efficiencyJosh Kahn, general manager of creator, finance, and supply chain workflows at LIKE.TG, took the stage next, accompanied by Marc Jones, global head of digital products at financial services firm HSBC.HSBC wanted to improve business processes for its 230,000 employees. So, the bank consolidated 50 fragmented systems down to 15 using the LIKE.TG platform. “Small efficiencies can have huge impact in the long run,” Jones said, especially for an organization that raises 300,000 purchase orders each year.Putting AI to work for peopleJon Sigler, senior vice president of platform and AI at LIKE.TG, and Joe Davis, senior vice president of platform engineering and AI at LIKE.TG, walked attendees through the architecture of the Now Platform. They explained how each layer—experience, workflow, intelligence, and data—is purpose-built for business transformation.The experience layer is tailored to an individual, not a department. The workflow layer connects and orchestrates different systems. AI is built into the intelligence layer, allowing exposure of that AI and service to every product in every corner of the business so that those systems can work together.In 2023, LIKE.TG created 18.5 million knowledge base articles, each of which took about 30 minutes of an employee’s time to make. With Now Assist, we were able to reduce article creation time to a single click and a few seconds.“AI and Now Assist help people accomplish things faster, be more productive, and have a great experience—it's all part of putting AI to work for people,” Sigler explained.“We’re on the cusp of something really, really big.” McDermott concluded. “We are here to make you a winner and to make your companies even greater than they already are.”Find out more about Knowledge.
How can you help your team find more meaning?
We all face ups and downs at work – but we all want far more good days than bad.In the war for talent, offering engaging work gives you a competitive edge. We wanted more insight into how much of one it can really be. So, we took on a study to explore the importance of meaningful work for Canadian office workers.Unsurprisingly, most Canadian office workers crave meaningful work. In fact, 81 per cent say they need most of their job to be meaningful. Unfortunately, nearly 60 per cent also say they wish their work were more meaningful.That’s probably because many workers are spending a lot of their time – about 15 hours a week – on menial tasks, from fixing IT issues to coordinating meeting space.Clearly, there’s a big opportunity for Canadian organizations to better support their teams in the quest for meaningful work. Our survey findings reveal that employees are expecting that support, too.From how menial tasks make office workers feel to where money fits in, check out the key findings for yourself.
4 key takeaways from Knowledge 2024
Knowledge 2024 was an incredible, action-packed three days of inspiring keynotes, exciting demos and breakout sessions, and plentiful networking opportunities for the 20,000 LIKE.TG customers, partners, and developers in attendance.In addition to announcements about expanded GenAI, workflow automation, and partner solutions, here are the key takeaways from Knowledge:1. AI is the future, and the future is nowThe theme of “Put AI to work for people” pervaded the event, and for good reason. IDC predicts “worldwide spending on AI solutions will grow to more than US$500 billion in 2027.”1LIKE.TG CEO Bill McDermott announced in his opening keynote, “In every business in every industry across the world, every single business process and every single workflow will be reengineered with generative AI (GenAI).”“I’ve never seen anything as transformative as what we’re seeing now,” added Heath Ramsey, vice president of outbound product management at LIKE.TG, in the AI keynote. “It’s not about the GenAI,” he stressed. “It’s about the workflow.”LIKE.TG has a simple strategy when it comes to AI: intelligent workflows in the flow of work, said LIKE.TG President and Chief Operating Officer CJ Desai in his keynote. We’ve built AI into the Now Platform to make that a reality, knowing that AI is only as powerful as the platform it’s built into.
Because GenAI and Now Assist are available at the platform level, every solution built on top of the platform is GenAI-aware, Ramsey explained. As a result, “you can tap into powerful technology to do all those things you need to do to stay competitive.”Demos throughout the keynotes showed how quickly and seamlessly processes can be completed using GenAI, including Now Assist within Microsoft Copilot and Now Assist within Teleperformance.2. Human creativity can never be replacedDespite the exponential growth of AI and GenAI, the technology can never replace human creativity. “Machines are going to be fast. Humans are going to be human,” said Nick Tzitzon, chief strategy and corporate affairs officer at ServiceNow.In a keynote session about technology and the arts, musician Jon Baptiste and actor Dan Levy agreed that technology is a tool. Tech can help us create things, but it will always be in the service of people. We need to be sure to find that balance, Tzitzon stressed.“AI is a labor-saving device,” added Pat Casey, chief technology officer at LIKE.TG, in the CreatorCon keynote. “GenAI doesn’t write itself. It’s a new set of tools in your toolbox.”
Human imagination will continue to be important and drive brilliance, said Vince Kadlubek, co-founder of the arts production company Meow Wolf. AI and GenAI can help take mundane, repetitive tasks off our plates so that we can focus on the things that truly require human creativity.Author and tech strategy consultant Kate O’Neill, CEO of KO Insights, pointed out that when things become more predictable, they also become less meaningful. AI can help us as a co-collaborator, but human intelligence is what creates meaning.3. Collaboration is vitalAnnouncements about extended partnerships with Equinix, Fujitsu, Genesys, IBM, Infosys, Microsoft, and NVIDIA emphasized the importance of collaboration for business success moving forward. Together, we’re stronger than when we’re apart.That’s why LIKE.TG is a big proponent of the open-source community. We take the best AI models available and fine-tune them, training them to run in the LIKE.TG cloud. But we don’t limit customers to our models. We also support OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, WatsonX, and others.The importance of collaboration goes beyond AI. Famed actor and special guest Viola Davis shared how sometimes we don’t have it in us to accomplish things on our own.The same sentiment surfaced in the technology in creativity keynote. “No one can do it alone,” Tzitzon said. As humans, we need each other to lean on, learn from, and help us grow.That theme also resonated with our developer audience, which has been asking for real-time collaboration with fellow developers. At the CreatorCon keynote, we announced new developer sandboxes that make that dream a reality. They allow anyone on a team to work on the same flow, app, and code base at the same time in their own sandbox.“We’re unlocking collaboration,” announced Samir Diwan, a senior director of product management at ServiceNow.4. Women techies are risingA number of sessions at Knowledge 2024 were dedicated to women in tech. Judging by the impressive turnout at these sessions—nearly double what we had anticipated for the women in tech keynote—women are stepping up and getting more of the support they need.
“The power of a network of women is important, and celebrating that is important to LIKE.TG,” said LIKE.TG Chief Financial Officer Gina Mastantuono.Our first Hack4Good at CreatorCon confirmed that, encouraging developers to create an app for Technovation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls in tech.As Davis shared, “There is no way you’re going to create a space for change if you don’t bring other people up with you.”Find out more about Knowledge.1 IDC FutureScape: Artificial Intelligence Will Reshape the IT Industry and the Way Businesses Operate, doc #US51335823, Oct. 26, 2023
Welcome to LIKE.TG Knowledge 2024!
We couldn’t be more excited to kick off LIKE.TG’s annual flagship user conference. Knowledge 2024 promises to be the most intelligent and inspiring Knowledge to date, with an emphasis on putting AI to work for people. Here are the highlights you won’t want to miss.
3 top takeaways from AfroTech 2023
Every year, AfroTech—the largest Black tech conference—attracts tens of thousands of people who want to increase Black representation in the tech industry. The 2023 conference, held in Austin, Texas, proved to be a blend of innovation, inspiration, and connection.The event showcased cutting-edge technology and revealed key trends that are shaping the industry. I approached my second year at AfroTech with a seasoned readiness. The idea of sharing space with influential celebrities like Issa Rae and Marsai Martin—two Black women who are at the top of their careers and trailblazing the way—excited me most.Having transitioned from marketing to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at LIKE.TG this year, I was ready to forge connections within this evolving community and experience the conference with fresh eyes.Here are my three top takeaways from AfroTech 2023.
Extending the first-day-of-work excitement to the rest of the employee experience
While employers have made strides to improve aspects of the employee experience, a new study reveals that employees believe there is still a gap between good and great.First, consider a few positive stats. A new survey from LIKE.TG shows that 85% of employees are enthusiastic about their position and company when starting a new job, and 72% report a positive experience during their first few weeks.But for many workers, starting a new gig is the peak of their employee experience. When asked to consider how their experience is today, just 63% continue to be enthusiastic about their position and the company.How do organizations ensure that your first day won’t end up being your best day? That drop in satisfaction suggests early positive feelings aren’t lasting. Where are the key areas for organizations to improve?There are countless moments in the employee experience that impact an employee’s experience with work and their relationship with their employer. Our research suggests a number of critical insights:Day-to-day experiences matterFirst, recognize that it’s not just the big moments that capture an employee’s experience. For example, our research shows that employees don’t find it easy to get simple things done, including finding information about a company policy (41%), resolving an issue logging in to software (46%), or getting a question answered about their benefits (45%).Mobile device access is a gateway to productivity as well. In fact, 63% of employees with access to mobile tools believe it improves their ability to access needed information and 47% believe it helps improve their ability to get work done.Employees see these as table stakes, while companies struggle to provide these basic support functions. And as organizations grow, so does the disconnect.Big moments matter, tooWe also need to recognize that workers need to know employers care about the big moments too, such as pre-boarding activities, offboarding to a new job, or taking parental leave. When it comes to these big moments, employees specifically state that employers could positively improve the employee experience with better support staff, better access to information, and better access to communication tools.Even though employees are excited when starting new jobs, the pre-boarding process needs improvement. Less than 60% believe their employer clearly communicated what to expect on their first day and just a third of employers made it easy to complete pre-hire paperwork on a mobile device.Employees reveal some especially interesting insights regarding offboarding and leave. For offboarding, two thirds of employees (67%) report that their former employer didn’t conduct an exit interview. A negative offboarding process speaks volumes about whether an employee would return: Only 43% would consider working for their former employer in the future, and only 42% would refer a friend or colleague to their former employer.For leave, the numbers aren’t much better. Nearly half of employees don’t find it easy to hand off work before a leave of absence, and even fewer say the same about picking up projects upon returning from a leave of absence. This means the organization’s interest in “collaboration” is only going so far.A holistic experienceLeaders should recognize that the employee experience is about far more than individual moments, whether big or small. It’s a holistic experience that employees engage with every day.With all the talk of the employee experience today, are employers missing the mark on what really matters? Have employers been focused on everything but the service experience at work?Recall that less than half of employees feel that finding basic, everyday information about their jobs and benefits comes easily to them. There’s also a gap between the positive emotions employees experience as they start a new job and their emotions after a few weeks or months in the job.There is, however, a solution to these and many other problems, a solution that can alleviate concerns from employers and employees alike. According to our survey, 77% of employees expect their companies to offer a portal to access information in one central location.A better service experienceHR is often playing catch-up at most organizations to create consumer-like experiences for new hires. To make real change, employers should consider the service experience holistically across the entire employee journey.Making real progress may require employers to remove the burden of deciphering where to go and what to do. Employers should be offering employees easy self-service in the flow of their work. Employees should have the option to click, swipe, or chat to resolve an issue anytime and anywhere. And employees need to be better equipped with what they need during those important moments of change.Download our full free report on the employee's point of view on employee experience. You will find even more areas where organizations can improve the holistic experience and harness the consumer innovations that employees expect in their work life.
What does Gen Z want at work?
For many employers, Gen Z is a bit of mystery.There’s no question that these young employees – between 18 and 24 – just entering office workplaces are driving the desire for more technology solutions integrated into the company.Communication, collaboration and scheduling tools are all on the list of what Gen Z wants. It’s not a surprise, given that these workers spend 10 hours on their mobile devices – every single day. And most of them want their tech experience at work to be as simple as it is at home.Unfortunately, for many, there’s still a gap in the solutions they’d like to see and what they’ve actually experienced.Beyond the desire for technology to make work easier, this mobile-savvy generation also appreciates flexibility in their office hours, even more than other perks like snacks. At the same time, they still crave the basics, like in-person interactions with their managers and regular feedback, so question your assumptions about these young employees.This generation is certainly feeling misunderstood. While Millennial, Gen X and Boomer coworkers think Gen Z can help them with their digital and social media skills, the youngest generation feels they can contribute to helping improve other skills, like open-mindedness and creative problem solving.Gen Z is still young but will soon make up a huge portion of the workforce – and Canadian offices need to get ready to meet their expectations.Check out our key Canadian findings to get a better sense of Gen Z at work.
Why it's time for HR to think like a brand
Think about the last time you watched Netflix, browsed Amazon, or ordered a ride from your Uber or Lyft apps. Were you able to do what you wanted and get what you needed quickly and without frustration? Would you go so far as to say the experience was a joy?If you answered “yes” to either question, you can thank these brands for investing in the customer experience. They haven’t just improved the customer experience; they’ve redefined it.You may be asking why this is relevant to you, an HR professional. It’s because these brands are also redefining expectations in your world. The better the experiences your employees have with these consumer brands, the greater expectations they’ll have—even in the workplace.Smart companies should take cues from Amazon and Netflix and other innovators and work to become laser-focused on the employee experience. The benefits of doing so are undeniable: Jacob Morgan, author of “The Employee Experience Advantage,” found in his research that companies that invest in improving employee experience report having twice the average revenue and four times the average profit of other organizations.How do you get there? HR leaders can design and deliver experiences that make employees’ lives easier and work more enjoyable by bringing in colleagues from IT and other functional areas to support your efforts and help make your vision for employee experience a reality. Here are a few recommendations to help guide the process:
Adopt an employee-centric service mindset. Since its inception in 1997, Amazon has been relentlessly customer obsessed, so how can HR become employee obsessed? Amazon uses personalization tactics to make the shopping experience seamless for all visitors. But in the world of work, the number of employee-facing systems has increased and employees are feeling the stress.Like Amazon, you can use an employee experience platform to deliver an intelligent, self-serving experience that supports employees in their day-to-day work needs. An experience platform will help organizations deliver an integrated employee experience by giving employees a single place to manage their work needs, experiences, and transitions while shielding them from back-end systems and complexity.
Better understand what employees really want. Most employees share common experiences like on-boarding, career development, planning for a leave, or even resigning. Assess these critical moments in the employee journey, identify potential points of failure, and determine how you can better meet their needs and expectations.Imagine being able to streamline employee onboarding by automating processes that require involvement from HR, IT, and other departments. Get these new hires up to speed quickly by creating a central location for all critical onboarding materials, such as training videos, learning courses, and documentation.
Implement UX principles to ensure ongoing success. Employee behaviors and expectations are constantly changing, so it’s crucial to keep a constant pulse on the community and refine practices based on this input. Netflix, for instance, relies on customer feedback and behavioral data to continually improve its interface and content recommendations. Employ a combination of ongoing surveys, discussion forums, and omni-channel feedback tools to paint a detailed picture of how the employee experience is perceived—and how it can be improved.
Historically, HR has been the primary advocate for an organization’s employees. But smart business leaders know that employee experience has a direct impact on business success. Now is the time to align HR and IT and implement a transformative mindset that supports employee-centric systems and experiences.To learn more about how other organizations are differentiating with the employee experience, download our ebook, HR and IT Better Together.
CIOs can transform employee service experiences with CHROs
CIOs and CHROs are collaborating on talent strategies, but they are largely missing out on opportunities to improve employees’ experiences through workflow digitization.While 72% of CIOs say they are collaborating with CHROs on setting talent strategies, just 8% are implementing technology solutions together, according to new research published in Workflow Quarterly.Leaders should recognize that the employee experience is about far more than individual moments, whether big or small.This gap could result in key missed opportunities in your organization.In fact, the data shows that CIOs who lead the most digitized organizations report higher rates of organizational efficiency and productivity, as well as employee performance, collaboration, and innovation. New data set to be published in Quarterly next month also reveals that CIOs farther ahead in digitizing workflows with peers also report increased effectiveness in multiple functions, including IT and HR/talent.
How employee experience is reshaping HR and IT staffing
In HR, Employee Experience (EX) is the New Black. Everyone’s talking about increasing employee engagement, retention, and productivity with rewarding emotional experiences.But smart CHROs are doing more than talking. They’re taking a more strategic approach by organizing cross-functional teams dedicated to putting employee experience at the center of their people strategy. They know that optimizing the employee experience requires new capabilities and skill sets—and maybe even shaking up the traditional HR organization altogether.As a result, a cadre of new roles is emerging in HR and IT departments (or new Employee Experience functions) focused exclusively on delivering stellar employee experiences.Which of these new roles is your organization considering?Leadership RolesAs employee experience becomes more central to corporate strategy, companies are reconsidering how to organize teams. This is creating new or redefined leadership positions. These include:
Chief Employee Experience Officer (CEEO)/Director of Employee Experience. This role focuses on creating and maintaining a work environment that engages and satisfies employees, touching on every aspect of the employee experience. The CEEO’s role is broader in scope than a traditional HR leadership role. It intersects with compensation, benefits, office technology, real estate, community involvement and more.
Some CEEOs might operate within the HR department, while more senior CEEOs may even oversee HR, IT, real estate, and other employee-directed departments. (Learn more about creating cross-functional alliances to drive employee experience by downloading our white paper, Top 5 Ways HR and IT Can Partner on Delivering Great Employee Experiences
Head of Employee Experience in the IT department. This person interacts regularly with other department leaders. His or her primary goal is to ensure that all digital initiatives align with corporate values and top-level goals, as well as employee needs.
For example, organizations require tools and systems that facilitate key points in the employee journey, such as onboarding and development planning. A chief of employee experience in IT ensures that these employee-facing technologies have all key features and functionality, but also have the seamless interface that employees now expect.
Director of People Analytics. This is a strategic role that examines every element of the employee lifecycle—including recruitment, engagement, development, diversity, succession planning, and retention—with the goal of maximizing the organization’s talent investments.
Jeremy Welland, Global Head of People Analytics at PayPal, for example, oversees three primary functions: maintaining a data warehouse, which aggregates information from multiple employee-facing transactional systems; mining that data for business intelligence reporting for the CHRO and line-of-business heads; and developing predictive statistical analysis and modeling to anticipate the company’s future needs.
Chief Transformation Officer (CTO). Transformation is often thought of as a process with a beginning, middle and end. But in a world of accelerated change, only the nimble survive and transformation is consistent and integrated into the business. The CTO is responsible for ensuring that organizational transformation delivers on its promises and remains aligned with the overarching business strategy. This cross-functional role orchestrates a complex process that involves a variety of individual initiatives—including employee experience—so the organization can successfully respond to new disruptions and stay ahead of the competition.
Functional RolesNo less important than the new leadership positions are the supporting roles that bring the new skills needed for a successful employee experience program. Some, such as HRIS specialist (human resource information management systems), may represent a realignment of traditional roles, while others may be entirely new. These include:
Data Scientist. The most effective employee experience initiatives leverage data to measure the effectiveness of the solutions they provide and identify where to improve. Data scientists focused on employee experience are searching for frustration or unmet needs as they sift through multiple inputs that convey how employees are interfacing with the workplace.
For example, Welland describes a process that progresses from “diagnostic to the predictive to prescriptive” to improve employee experience at Paypal. His team begins by describing the characteristics of key talent, such as high-potential and high-performing employees or those in critical roles who would be difficult to replace. Then they analyze how elements of employee experience add to or subtract from the groups’ engagement and retention levels. Finally, they use this analysis to create programs that help the company support these key talent pools and provide the experience they need to thrive.
Director of HR Shared Services. The scope of HR shared services has evolved well beyond routine transactional activities. This role oversees the complex workflows required to deliver service to workers at key moments in their employee journey. In fact, the HR shared services model has become the primary provider of key employee experiences, such as onboarding, employee lifecycle processing, personal data maintenance and general inquiry/issue resolution.
These services are delivered by an employee experience platform that aggregates multiple digital channels that these workflows require into a single seamless interface. The platform also integrates human channels, such as voice and chat. (Learn more about HR Shared Services by downloading our white paper, How Emerging Technologies Will Power the Future of HR Shared Services.)
HRIS Specialist. This role is responsible for implementing and maintaining human resource information management systems (HRIS) that have long been the foundation of HR technology. This role has been evolving recently as HR organizations add new, cloud-based applications to their core HRIS technology. While these best-of-breed applications offer greater capabilities, HRIS specialists will be increasingly challenged to ensure security and integration, as well as maintaining a streamlined user interface for employees.
HR or IT App Developer. Larger enterprises may find the need to create their own employee-facing applications, so they are building HR technology teams focused on architecting HR software, applications, and systems that can be accessed from multiple devices. The key to success here will be ensuring that these new apps provide value for employees and integrate well with one another as well as the HRIS.
Employee Experience Platform Owner. This role manages the employee experience platform, delivering services to employees. It’s a hybrid role that requires expertise in both IT and HR, and may fall within either department. (To learn more, read Josh Bersin’s white paper, The Employee Experience Platform Market Has Arrived.)
Employee experience represents a new paradigm in the employee-employer relationship—one that many organizations are embracing as a strategic competitive advantage. Siloed technology and “same old” roles and skills are no longer enough. CHROs must reimagine their function and discover new ways they can collaborate with their IT colleagues to deliver the easy and engaging experiences that employees crave.Learn how LIKE.TG's HR services delivery platform can help you give employees the service experience they deserve.
How Gen Zs will define the future of work
We’re Gen Zs and we’ve heard you. You think we're narcissistic, entitled, self-absorbed, and overly confident. While every generation may have been labeled as such by other generations, we say we’re entrepreneurial, technologically native, and still crave face-to-face interactions. And just like the generations before us, we are approaching life with our own, unique values. We can’t be summed up in a few adjectives and put in a box.While we’re not all exactly the same, what we have in common is that we are the first digital native generation. Growing up with technology at our fingertips has shaped our lives. We weren’t shocked when all of a sudden we could order a meal by talking to a tiny device on our countertops or hail a ride from our cell phones.
Digital workflows: We’re just getting started
Digital workflows can enhance collaboration and work quality. Imagine the payoffs when companies fully embrace them.Workflow Quarterly dives deep into one topic in each issue, presenting original research and reporting in an immersive online experience. In the inaugural issue , renowned IT strategy scholar Thomas Davenport explains how digital workflows can improve the employee experience and help companies drive higher profits.Our survey of more than 6,000 employees on the business value of digital workflows and automation shows impressive results, but the future looks even more promising than the present.Roughly 8 in 10 employees from highly automated companies say automation technology simplifies work processes, enhances efficiency, and boosts productivity. They also say it improves job satisfaction, and increase both time available for creativity and opportunities for advancement.Yet most automated processes today tend to be confined to highly structured and back-office tasks, such as installing software, setting up passwords, and tracking invoices. The use of automation in collaborative tasks and knowledge work—such as decision-making, strategy, and new product development—is limited. Surveyed workers reported that only 27% of the processes they worked with were highly automated or automated. This was true regardless of company size.Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, is investing significantly into process automation. After more than 100 years in business, it has launched an enterprise-wide “Second Century Enterprise Systems” initiative that aims for total digital transformation. As Rob Muszkiewicz, senior manager of Operations Transformation in Boeing’s IT organization, explained to Davenport:“We are on a journey with LIKE.TG—some capabilities are in production—and we have also done a lot with RPA. We have already eliminated hundreds of thousands of work hours in areas like invoicing reconciliation, for example. But Second Century is first and foremost a business process transformation, including a consolidation into single systems in engineering, manufacturing, and even HR to support processes in those areas. We will be looking at the potential for automating cross-functional workflows throughout the company.”When business processes are simplified, work becomes easier.“We need to become much more efficient and remove manual toil, so that people can do higher-value work,” said Muszkiewicz.Visit Workflow Quarterly for the full interactive article.
Let tech handle the menial so people can fast-track the meaningful
As a country that prides itself on a strong work-life balance, it goes without saying that Australians work hard to achieve this balance. It does however beg the question: Are we working smarter or harder?We are a nation of hard workers, and like everywhere else in the world, work expects more of us – and we expect more from work.I shared my views with the Australian Financial Review recently on how technology will transform work. The key takeaway for leaders: If you’re not already talking to the Board and your teams about how technology will improve the employee experience, it’s time to start now!With more access to technology in the workplace than ever before, leaders have the opportunity to make work better for people. But recent declines in Australia’s productivity growth tells us that Australians are falling behind global peers in embracing disruptive technologies that help them reverse this trend.Technology has the power to free our teams from tedious work, to fix things that are broken and give people autonomy to focus on the innovative work—the best possible products and services to deliver the best consumer experience.Earlier this year, LIKE.TG conducted research to see just how much Australians value meaningful work and in light-hearted fashion, we explored what people would give up to avoid administrative busywork.We found that people want the same seamless and intuitive digital experiences they enjoy at home through mobile devices, smart speakers and other tools. In fact, 60% of Australian millennials say they would forego a pay raise if they could get rid of the low-level tasks at work and be freed up to do more meaningful work.Business leaders need to address the fears around automation and enable employees to capitalize on business investments in technology. Digital workflows give people time back in their day to focus on the work that will make a difference.One case in point is the team at TAFE NSW, Australia’s leading vocational education and training organization. TAFE is creating a workplace driven by mobile processes. TAFE’s employees now have access to easy-to-use portals and workflow apps for their field services and IT teams. Teams can self-serve the menial chores and fast-track the meaningful work.As TAFE NSW has demonstrated firsthand, the future of work is now, it’s built around people, where organizations and technologies meet to deliver human benefits.My challenge to all business leaders is to look at the steps you’re taking to enable the talent in your business to succeed. Help them to get rid of the menial and frustrating tasks and work with them to act on how they can make work, work better. This is something I’m incredibly passionate about and I encourage you to reach out to discuss how LIKE.TG are seeing people achieve meaning at work—I’d be happy to share some local and global best practices with you.
5 reasons your HR transformation has left employees wanting more
CIOs and CHROs are collaborating on talent strategies, but they are largely missing out on opportunities to improve employees’ experiences through workflow digitization.While 72% of CIOs say they are collaborating with CHROs on setting talent strategies, just 8% are implementing technology solutions together, according to new research published in Workflow Quarterly.Leaders should recognize that the employee experience is about far more than individual moments, whether big or small.This gap could result in key missed opportunities in your organization.In fact, the data shows that CIOs who lead the most digitized organizations report higher rates of organizational efficiency and productivity, as well as employee performance, collaboration, and innovation. New data set to be published in Quarterly next month also reveals that CIOs farther ahead in digitizing workflows with peers also report increased effectiveness in multiple functions, including IT and HR/talent.
Employee Workflow: Q&A with Blake McConnell
How LIKE.TG delivers great experiences for employeesEmployees have many moments that matter during their journey with a company. Some moments are more significant than others, but they all require support from different systems and departments across the enterprise.Digital workflows remove the friction and inefficiencies of the tasks connected to these moments, so that employees can focus on more strategic, meaningful work. We recently sat down with Blake McConnell, Senior Vice President of Employee Workflow Products, to learn how companies use LIKE.TG to improve the employee experience.What makes LIKE.TG’s employee workflows unique?When employees need to resolve issues related to their jobs, their inquiries can go to many different places on the back end, such as facilities or finance. These inquiries relate to what we call “moments that matter” in the employee work lifecycle. They include everything from navigating maternity and paternity leaves—the major moments—to everyday requests like, “I need a new monitor,” or “What’s for lunch at the cafeteria today?”LIKE.TG provides technology that dramatically improves all of these experiences, whether they’re major events or everyday requests. We help customers get to a place where moments that matter are increasingly self-service, no matter how employees want to find answers: via browser, mobile, chat or voice. This way, the organization functions more efficiently and employees can get back to doing the jobs they love.The enterprise IT market is pretty crowded. What differentiates LIKE.TG?It’s the Now Platform. Our single platform approach is unique to ServiceNow. To deliver a seamless and unified experience for any moment that matters, you need a platform that spans the organization and cuts across multiple departments. That’s how you eliminate the friction and disconnectedness that occurs when you haven’t digitized and unified all those workflows.It’s not easy to break down corporate siloes. Often, that’s not a technology issue so much as a people and change management issue. But when someone like a CEO decides that she wants to create better experiences for employees—and stands up and says that this is important— we can help make it happen.Many legacy systems were designed for one specific purpose and can degrade the employee experience because they weren’t designed with the employee in mind. By contrast, the employee experience is always top of mind for ServiceNow. Increasingly, we’re building out our single platform with an employee-first mindset.How are you evolving the Now Platform? What can we expect in the future?Employees need one place where they can easily get service from HR, IT and other departments in the organization. That’s why we built Employee Service Center, which provides a single, brandable center for employees to find user‑specific content, receive targeted communications with step‑by‑step guidance, and submit and track cases or requests when they need help.We’re also investing in native mobile capabilities that allow employees to access services using the native capabilities of their smartphones, including push notifications, camera, swipes, facial recognition and so on. Employees enjoy consumer-style service experiences, while departments benefit from lower costs and fewer inquiries.[RM1]How does the Now Platform help deliver great employee experiences?Think of something as simple as changing a home address. Historically, that process has often required employees to use separate applications maintained by departments like finance and HR. Employees want and expect that to be easy to do. Why are things like this still so much harder at work than in our personal lives?Onboarding is a great example. There are many steps to bringing an employee on board. Some relate to HR, others to IT, finance and facilities. With LIKE.TG, these processes all get kicked off at the same time, automatically. IT provisions the right applications for that person’s job. HR handles background checks. Facilities finds a place for the new employee to sit.LIKE.TG manages all these processes in one digital workflow, as opposed to emails being sent to a shared services inbox. The goal is for every new employee to be Day 1 ready when Day 1 arrives.Ultimately, this is about collapsing the time to productivity for a new employee. Great experiences and productivity are two sides of the same coin. When the new employee has a great experience, the company reaps the benefit of their productivity that much faster.Everyone in our industry talks about digital transformation. Can you share an example of a customer that has used LIKE.TG to transform employee workflows?A great example is Asurion, a provider of electronic device insurance that’s presenting at Knowledge 2019. The company transformed its onboarding process using ServiceNow. Their recruiters used to handle most onboarding tasks, which tended to involve multiple systems, departments and processes. You needed one process to request a computer, another process to get a parking pass, and so on.IT and HR leaders from Asurion attended Knowledge 2018 and asked themselves, “Why isn’t our employee experience as good as our customer experience?”Using LIKE.TG, Asurion went live with new automated processes in only two months. Now, as soon you hire someone and create a new employee record, there are simple checklists for everything that employee needs. It’s working so well that 86% of new hires say they’re satisfied with the onboarding experience.
Gen Z are here – and they’re swiping, tapping and snapping Australian workplaces into a new era
Let’s assume that the average Australian university graduate enters the workforce somewhere between the ages of 21 and 24, bringing with them a qualification (or two, or three), a fierce determination to establish a secure career, and a finely-tuned radar for what’s authentic and what’s fake news.With the oldest Gen Zs turning 25 this year, Australian organisations already have several years’ exposure to working with the first digitally-native employee group and understand what engages and motivates the newest workplace generation to succeed.Right?Or perhaps the more likely scenario is that while we’re aware Gen Z will represent around 20% of the workforce by 2025 and nearly 35% by 2030, we’re only just starting to understand their behaviour, outlook and how differently they work from their millennial predecessors.Harnessing the Gen Z talent pool is a strategic business imperative. And that presents an urgent question for leadership teams: how will today’s companies attract, retain and transform for tomorrow’s workforce, if we’ve only just met?We know Gen Z have grown up with the world in their pocket – they were no more than 12 years old when the first iPhone launched. They’ve never lived without social media or ubiquitous internet access. Gen Z are self-serve learners and consume information as fast as they can access it with their fingertips. Because of this hunger for learning and growth, Gen Z also seek continuous feedback from their employers. We also know Gen Z will retire at a later age and seek work that fits around – and enriches - their lives.Take a look around the office, can you see the growing influence of your youngest employees? Leaders can learn a lot about the future of work from engaging with future leaders. In just a few years, Gen Z will be our people managers, our emerging executive leaders and the cultural barometers of our workplaces.LIKE.TG recently canvassed over 1,000 Gen Zers across Australia about their career aspirations and expectations at work. Our research reveals that Gen Z’s values and perspectives are already placing entirely new demands on workplaces. The study also cements growing industry research that the employee experience is as critical as the customer experience.So, what does Gen Z care about at work? Spoiler alert: while social responsibility is a priority for this generation who’ve grown up participating in global communities and amplifying their political voice through likes and shares, it’s not the first driver when they’re choosing a company to work for.The research shows that Gen Z places most value on a great work environment.Defining the future of work61% of Gen Z say that flexible work hours are important when they’re looking to join a company.For Gen Z, a great work environment uses technology to deliver a truly flexible employee experience and more control over how and where they get their work done. Flexibility necessitates mobile platforms, digital workflows, intelligent automation and intuitive systems and processes – all of which will evolve our perception of the work/life divide.For Gen Z, at the heart of a great workplace is flexibility. While remuneration, culture and career path matter,On the surface, this may seem like a relatively logical step along the flexibility continuum: progressive Australian workplaces have embraced flexi arrangements in recent years and watched employee engagement and performance measures track north as a result. It stands to reason that Gen Z have observed their parents and see flexibility as a right, not a benefit. In fact, nearly half say ‘it’s important I’m in control of my work/life balance, not my employer’.In optimising the work/life balance, they say flexibility is not necessarily about more ‘home life’ but about the quality of ‘work life’. And they rank this above pay and career progression.That’s an insight every leader should be exploring in 2020, because 42% of Gen Z say they would leave a company if they were spending too much time on administrative tasks (think: navigating clunky finance systems, completing timesheets, fulfilling repetitive HR and IT forms) rather than doing their actual job.Gen Z are telling us that workplace technology is not simply about streamlining or efficiencies: it’s about the impact technology has on their broader work experience and its ability to minimise the menial so they can focus on the meaningful.They expect work life to be more like real life: the simple, convenient, elegant apps and services we enjoy as consumers. If we can swipe to order dinner while standing in a bus queue, why can’t we swipe to approve a new team hire?An obvious difference between generations is in ‘technology tolerance’. Most of the working generation are impressed by the intuitiveness of Netflix and Spotify knowing precisely what we’re looking for before we make a decision or splitting an Uber fare three ways with just one tap. For Gen Z, this just how life is - they have zero tolerance for tech that adds complexity instead of removing it.Gen Z won’t adapt to enterprise tools; they assume workplace technology will have the same intelligence as the platforms they’ve grown up on. It’s a generational trait that will unlock the next wave of collaboration, innovation and productivity.
Ok, Boomer: Gen Z is listeningThe next decade will see increasing pressure on Australian workplaces to accommodate employees choosing to work well into their 60’s. Today, our workforce comprises Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. With Gen Z hitting their 30’s in 2025 and organisations embedding diversity at all levels, inclusive leadership teams will soon benefit from representation from across four generations.One of the most surprising findings from LIKE.TG’s research is that 79% of Gen Z think they work well together with older employees. That’s to say, Gen Z understand each generation have their own strengths to offer and believe there’s more to gain from peers with career and industry experience.This is a particularly revealing insight from a cohort who are often generalised in the media as entitled and dismissive of the generations that precede them. In fact, we’re welcoming a new employee group into our workplaces who navigate change like they scroll their news feed and express a strong desire to work hard, learn from every generation and make a real impact.Technology is the catalyst of change for the future of work in AustraliaOrganisations that acknowledge how fundamental technology is to Gen Z’s entire work/life ecosystem, will be ready to harness the enormous opportunity this brings.There’s no question the employee experience is a key differentiator in the battle for talent and engagement, and that experience will be deeply influenced by an employees’ interaction with technology. It’s because of this, investment in great work foundations is essential.Let’s enable employees in every role to get things done faster, more easily and more intuitively so they can focus on meaningful work and deliver the best possible business outcomes.Technology is undoubtedly going to transform not just the way we work over the next decade, but the nature of work itself.
Mapping the future of work
Work will never be the same after COVID-19, according to LIKE.TG CIO Chris Bedi and Chief Talent Officer Pat Wadors who recently discussed the future of work in a joint appearance at our Knowledge 2020 digital event.In this three-part blog series, “Mapping the future of work,” we present their thinking on what a new paradigm for work might look like.Part Two: The “Next Normal”In Bedi’s estimation, we’re about to enter chapter two of the journey, in which it’s no longer “work from home,” but “work from anywhere.” This opens the door to opportunities for more collaboration and innovation, as well as access to new talent pipelines.Said Wadors, “The pre-COVID workplace no longer exists. I know for many of my peers and for us, we will undergo dramatic shifts to make sure we are safe, healthy, productive and adaptable in our new workplaces.”C-suite leaders across industries are facing significant challenges. A CFO might be concerned about cash-flow forecasting, while a CHRO focuses on keeping people engaged and happy, and a COO worries about the supply chain.“The CIO is interacting with every C-suite member to figure out how to navigate the‘next normal’ using technology and workflows,” said Bedi.
CIOs are insisting that digitization efforts accelerate, Bedi added. Around the world, customers who are furthest along on their digital transformation journey are better equipped to manage and emerge from this crisis. Bedi sees three focus areas for digitization:· Protecting revenue,· Pursuing productivity· Prioritizing business continuityBedi and Wadors agreed on the importance of monitoring employee sentiment about coming back into the traditional workplace, which could be impacted by geography, type of job, and in some cases, age.In the “next normal,” the “office” will become a more fluid destination and there will be new policies in place to protect the health and safety of workers, including where and when to work in shared spaces.There’s a great debate happening now around whether to shrink the physical size of the office or maintain existing footprints to allow for social distancing. Leaders are also thinking about everything from office sanitization to ensuring a safe commute.In the “next normal,” we’ll see a wave of technological innovation. Biometric tech will become more commonplace in the office. Translation tools will also become ubiquitous, enabling diversity in how people learn and speak.Similarly, technology will facilitate collaboration, regardless of location. Teams will be able to hire without worrying about geographic location, as they can do everything – onboard, train, manage – in a remote setting. This will open the door to a more diverse and distributed workforce.As companies plan their eventual return to the workplace, Wadors offered some advice to HR organizations. “Employees love choice,” she said. “It helps reduce anxiety. And if you don’t know exactly what your return to the office will be like, make sure that employees know they are at the center of your universe.”Learn more about how work will change in part three of our “Mapping the future of work” series: Long-term changes in the workplace.Series: Mapping the future of workPart 1 - Mapping the future of workPart 2 - What the “next normal” workplace will look likePart 3 - Long-term changes in the workplace
Building a more seamless onboarding experience
Onboarding frequently offers a disjointed, slow and frustrating experience for new employees.
Automating the experience can help onboarding stakeholders to streamline the process.
From onboarding on day one to everyday tasks, employees can work faster – and focus on work they enjoy.
Settling into any new job can be exhausting, and in the environment we suddenly find ourselves living in, onboarding remotely can seem more daunting than ever. New remote faces, new computer, new… everything. On top of that, there are forms to fill in and return to multiple onboarding stakeholders, passwords to create, HR policies to read.In the midst of a new working environment, the process of getting up to speed on the admin front — waiting for tech set-up to be completed and multiple layers of access to be granted — can leave new arrivals feeling a little spent by the end of the first week.Fortunately, automation technology is giving enterprises the opportunity to break down siloed onboarding processes and build new, more efficient connections right across the business.IT can drive the onboarding journey, streamlining processes relating to security access, firewall set-up, passports, employment history and more, so new employees can get to work sooner, and the business can deliver an outstanding onboarding experience with less effort.
Streamlining the onboarding journeyWith LIKE.TG, IT can easily configure digital workflows that manage employee lifecycle events across multiple departments. This allows much of the onboarding process to be streamlined and automated. Other service requests can be handled in a similar way, whether they relate to the day-to-day employee experience in the office, on the go or away from work.Automated onboarding boosts productivityAutomating the process of onboarding and other transitions can improve enterprisewide productivity. From day one, employees experience a fast, consumerstyle service that makes them feel ‘at home’ at work.Employees will be able to get started in their new role quickly, and receive the ongoing support they need, whenever they need it. On top of that, IT and HR, plus other related business operations including facilities and finance, can save time that can be devoted to higher-value tasks and projects.From onboarding to beyond, automation enables your enterprise to:
Simplify employee access to services
Gain complete end-to-end visibility of business processes
Optimise employee service delivery, with a clear view of all requests
LIKE.TG® can also provide you with the analytics to measure and track ROI – providing data-driven insights to identify the areas where automation stands to deliver the greatest benefits to your business.Workflows can be orchestrated across departmentsWhen enterprises set out to automate processes such as onboarding, they’re often left dealing with disparate tools and a lack of coordination between teams.By taking an enterprise-wide approach to automation, businesses can enable the more efficient management of day-to-day operations for the onboarding journey and beyond.Repetitive tasks can be powered by digital workflows, not people, and be easily configured to cut out the aspects of work that drain time and energy across the business. Ultimately, employees are freed up to focus on more interesting, high-value work, which boosts productivity and innovation for the business.Visit our automation page to learn more about how the right technology can help to transform the employee experience – at every stage of the journey.
The enterprise is ripe for mobile disruption
Business leaders are always looking for ways to leverage technology so that employees can do their best work and meet evolving customer demands. While we settle into the new normal of remote work, mobile technology is taking on a new role in the enterprise, as employees adapt to an increased blending of their professional and personal lives.At LIKE.TG, we recently conducted new research to understand how employees are taking advantage of mobile services offered by their organizations. We looked at gaps between what employees currently do on smartphones and what they want to do. Our goal was to uncover how we can leverage mobile to redefine employee service delivery.We found that mobile is a burgeoning opportunity for enterprises across industries to boost employee productivity and build better employee experiences.Basic mobile apps have become ubiquitous in the enterpriseAn overwhelming majority of enterprises are already using mobile to support their employees. We found that 90% of organizations use at least one app to increase productivity. Half of the companies in our survey provide productivity, document-sharing, and communication apps.Now more than ever, employees require flexibility to get work done from anywhere. However, it has been an uphill battle for enterprises to provide a simple, easy, and intuitive mobile experience that enables efficiency.Businesses need to offer higher-level tasks on mobileCurrently, many employees use mobile apps to help with basic needs such as accessing the corporate intranet, consuming company news, looking up organizational policies and procedures, or figuring out how to resolve an issue themselves.However, the mobile experience for complex tasks, like mandatory trainings and submitting expenses, had the lowest satisfaction rates in our survey. Additionally, we found that the user satisfaction rate for such activities is less than 70%.While it may seem counterintuitive, enabling a one-stop shop for all employee inquiries on mobile devices can also help reduce distractions. By allowing workers to tackle activities like IT help or break-fix requests, or getting answers to HR policy questions, or doing approvals on their smartphones, they can continue with day-to-day responsibilities on their workstation uninterrupted.
Enterprise apps should work as well as consumer appsWe also found that current enterprise apps are not living up to high consumer expectations, with 86% of respondents noting a wide variety of frustrations while working on a smart phone, from frequent glitches to unintuitive mobile interfaces. All of this presents a massive opportunity to start making consumer-grade enterprise mobile apps.At LIKE.TG, we believe that organizations should provide their employees with the right digital experiences from anywhere. Mobile apps that provide simple, intuitive, enterprise-grade experiences are crucial to delivering amazing employee experiences.We are in the early stages of mobile in the enterprise. We see tremendous opportunity to expand mobile capabilities so that employees can access important information and get work done where and how they want. Now that’s a smarter way to workflow.In coming years, new mobile experiences will greatly improve our efficiency and job satisfaction. LIKE.TG is committed to delivering mobile innovation every step of the way.LIKE.TG conducted this mobile research to examine how individuals at work use mobile. It was conducted from November – December 2019 via a 15-minute online survey. A total of 691 general population full-time employees responded to the survey from the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan. These respondents work for a company with at least 1,001 employees and use a smartphone for work.