in a post-pandemic world employee expectations have pivoted and demands on HR departments have reached all new levels we're still in q1 of 20124 and I wanted to get into a little bit more of this with an hrsd expert who's been in the game for over 25 years so without further Ado let's welcome Lynn ballerini to 100 days of service now welcome to the stream Lynn hi colie good to have you here hello everybody I'm kie Alexander this is Lynn ballerini my my colleague over at Glide fast Consulting Lynn what are we talking about today hi everybody collie it's great to be here yes we we are going to talk a little bit about um some of the things that are happening in the workplace as a result of you know everything that's going on post pandemic and how and how technology and in particular service now is changing the game right on so give me a high level view of what's taking place in this post-pandemic world that we're in in terms of HR Service delivery sure I mean you mentioned it employees expectations have changed you know they they expect a consumer grade experience today they have a sense of instant gratification uh they get frustrated easily frustrated if information is not easily accessible and they expect it to be accessible to them 247 they expect to be able to have access to a live person if they want to or need to speak to somebody but they also do a lot more of their transactions through a web-based portal yeah yeah that's really great and I know that you have you have recently have released a white paper and we'll be sure to link that in the notes for this particular episode and you have something coming up and but in this episode it's really special because I know you're going to get into like the five top emerging challenges are you ready to get into them now yes I sure am um and you know Jay's comment I find it very interesting because I'm learning that often service now comes into an organization through their itsm uh part of their and and then later it it comes into HR in my experience I've done it the other way as well um where HR was um groundbreaking in implementing um HR Service delivery through service now so you can do it either way but it really is a game Cher absolutely you know a it TSM often leads the way that is the the the foundation of service now and has grown into so many different areas of the business and I love your point about you know you can enter the service now ecosystem from various modules whether it's hrsd or itsm let's get into those five emerging challenges okay so we have five emerging HR challenges Lyn what is the first emerging challenge employee expectations what do you mean by employee expectations you know they've changed significantly they they expect a consumer great experience and um I was mentioning this earlier you know they they want to be able to access a HR or their benefits um or contact your Human Resources Service Center or human resources uh employees by multiple channels so either through a website by calling and speaking to a live agent by chat by being able to have searchable information that's easy to find their expectations are much different than they were once you know I appreciate what you say and it makes me think about how you kind of open the conversation at the beginning of our talk you said that employees are now looking for Consumer grade engagement with their HR department so when you talk about chat I did a little shopping this weekend I immediately got prompted hey do you want to speak to a virtual agent right now and if we can't answer your question we'll connect you to someone live exactly that sounds very similar to what you're talking about that consumer grade experience am I on the right track here yes absolutely to serve employees where they are company need to put the employee experience front and center I appreciate that you ready for the second emerging challenge yeah let's do it all right so this first emerging challenge is employee expectations have changed and secondly what's up next Lynn so the post-pandemic work environment has reduced human interaction and it's increased Reliance on technology companies are struggling with decisions about where and when to bring people into the office um or to bring people together and whether or not to mandate in office time and for whom and there's still a lot of confusion and inconsistency out there about that and there's a lot of pressure on the intersection of work and life like we have never seen before you know I was reading a Forbes article was published a little bit over a year ago and I actually will leave that link as well uh I believe the name of the article was future of work is flexibility they were talking about just what you are suggesting here I appreciate the detail you're giving where you have home life you have work life and especially with people working at home there is an intersection there so I appreciate what you're talking about work environment shifts is there anything that you would like to add to the flexibility that that employees are are expecting you know interestingly today in the Wall Street Journal there's an article about the and um how employees are are much less engaged in Virtual meetings than inperson Gatherings so I I would recommend taking a look at that you're saying they're less engaged in Virtual meetings so you mean to tell me that people are like not paying attention in their zoom and team meetings is that what you're suggesting yeah uh there's more distractions they could be multitasking um you know it's just a little bit more challenging when you don't have that human face tof face interaction you're not all in a conference together sure so what sounds like what you're suggesting is keeping things flexible having options to have in-person meetings uh options to meet virtually that those can be a lifesaver when it comes to meeting organizational outcomes am I getting that correct that's that's right yeah right on right on let's get into the third emerging challenge let's see let's see let's see what is the third emerging challenge there we go HR silos HR talk to me about HR silos um there's there's a a concept called the erck model that that was introduced into Human Resources quite a while ago now um probably like 20 years ago okay um where HR started to establish centers of expertise and as these centers of expertise have matured those silos have hardened and it creates uh some challenges in Communications across silos um sometimes it's confusing for employees to know where to go and they could be bounced around from Department to a department HR matters especially complex matters um that cut across silos such as onboarding or offboarding or employee transitions or leaves these events happen frequently and they can be a little bumpy because they cut across multiple silos talk to me a little bit more about what you mean by centers of excellence I was recently you and I both of work at live fast so we're well versed in that but recently talking to V people of various organizations and that concept is not as common place as it may be for some so can you talk a little bit more about that sure um you know HR has realigned I think a little bit more to the business and in the Eric model you set up centers of expertise for you know specialized areas of HR you may have a benefits a payroll a Retirement Group a group that focuses on employee engagement a leave of absence team um maybe a Communications team so all of these centers of expertise work together to orchestrate the uh HR Service delivery and manage the benefits that are being made available to the employees if it's not being done really effectively the company isn't getting the most value out of the benefits investment sure can you speak a bit about what role service now plays in that service now actually provides the front door to uh the employees through an employee portal where uh they can access any information that they need related to their employment and even some other things other nice benefits and perks depending on the organizational benefits strategy but um it it makes it very easy to find information you can request to speak to somebody if if you wanted to have a person to talk to in the call center but um the information is much easy you know much easier to find and and very relevant for the employees we actually think through you know what the related information might be based on you know an inquiry so it's not just a plain vanilla answer we try to be very interpretive about what the individual may be going through and provide other information that's relevant to them at this time you know of the inquiry I love what you just said you said that we try to be maybe I'm paraphrasing here we try to be proactive so if say an employee comes to the employee portal and they're asking for a bereavement time or some type of change of life what walk me through or tell me a little bit more about what might be some of the predictive uh aspects of what would also be offered to that employee or during that employee experience so we wouldn't just answer their initial question we might we might have some probing intake questions that would help us make sure that we're presenting things to them that that would be helpful for them uh you know think about it when when they're reaching out to HR it's not usually to say thank you for my last raise or you know I really appreciate getting paid time off last week PTO they're usually calling us because they have a challenge or a problem or a concern maybe even a complaint so it's usually a sensitive time and so we want to make sure that we're being as supportive and thoughtful about how we respond to them in that moment and that's what we call a moment that matters a moment that matters I appreciate that Clarity and I appreciate how you framed it around moments that matters and you're right I don't often think of going to HR when you know everything is sunny it's usually some type of problem that's prompted me to to contact HR you're right about that Lynn when you talk about the employee portal and those moments that matter you're talking about engaging with employees in a particularly empathetic way giving them spot-on information I'm thinking of this as being both live agent I'm thinking of this also being a virtual agent and I'm also thinking about this being Amplified with machine learning and generative AI which is top of Mind tip of tongue for everyone can you kind of bridge the gap for me on that sure and and and actually you know I think it's an interesting case study if if you want to share the link to my unintended consequences white paper that we just published but having the the right channels of information that are presented to the employee at the right moment is very critical and making sure that it's consistent and that it's consistently applied to everyone absolutely essential to ensuring that you don't have unintentional consequences of like unintentional discrimination or something like that so um these tools really help improve that and ensure that we are delivering our you know benefits and our information fairly and equitably across the organization at the right time thank you for that I think you may have just answered Russell Zimmer's question he talks he ask how about hrsd and AI working together to provide conversational assistance at a level Beyond virtual chat Bots and a reduction on employees requiring to submit issues or requests that require further assistance obviously AI should also provide workflows for escalation if required Lynn you can speak to that about the escalation point right well and and AI enhancements were released I think in this last upgrade um to Vancouver yeah so as you may know service now does upgrades uh very organically I think they are two a year they constantly push the envelope in in you know getting the most modern technology that that is available and AI was a big push in this last um instance so uh we we do have that functionality and it's very very helpful uh tremendously valuable to HR in particular as we determine what benefits to bring to the organization for the employees I appreciate that so much just recently we were at service now sales kickoff last month in January 2024 and I happened to run into Dave Wright Chief Innovation officer at service now he's been doing and if you don't follow Dave right be sure you do follow him on LinkedIn and if you don't follow Lynn ballerini be sure you also follow her because on her thread on her feet you can find a link to that white paper that she's talking about when I saw Dave write he has been talking about in his writings about the imperative in 2024 with generative AI to take it from just a novelty to really put generative AI to work which is basically like a slogan now within service now so I appreciate how you're talking about generative Ai and how it's accessible in the Here and Now for organizations to take advantage of to find greater employees satisfaction I don't I want to move on because we can go on and actually let's go on to number four so great talking to you Lyn what what is the fourth emerging HR challenges in a post-pandemic world what is number four employee engagement employe engagement take it and you know a lot of what we've been discussing really points to the fact that Employee Engagement is threatened by many factors personal needs that conflict with work demands physical distance fewer inperson meetings frequent if not constant organizational challenges and then the unknown future the political landscape Wars I mean ongoing pandemic fears illness you name it so Employee Engagement um you know is a challenge for organizations pre pandemic or post-pandemic Employee Engagement is always a thing I would love I want to get into the to number five and then after that we're g to talk about a special webinar that you have coming up and folks if you see a QR code on the screen now you can go ahead and scan that and that will take you to a landing page to sign up for Lynn's free webinar and if you're viewing this from your phone you can also grab the link from the description of this video we'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment Lynn tell us what is the fifth emerging challenge in HR Service delivery in a post-pandemic world feedback and morale turnover is very high these days um according to the Gallup survey I think they said that 69% % of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienc their great onboarding a journey so that's and three years is considered to be above the average right three years more yeah because turnover is very high right now having feedback um is very important service now provides a vehicle for getting feedback from you know from our people we could there are surveys but there's also um information that is now accessible to HR B based on what people are looking at uh in you know in the knowledge base what kind of questions they're asking we have a lot more data and analytics available to us today to help us be much more proactive uh with Employee Engagement and morale ly talk to me a little bit about you have a webinar that's coming up end of month February 29th 2024 tell us a little bit about the webinar so it's about understanding the onboarding value proposition onboarding is a critical step in the newcomer experience and once they accept their offer they are at the highest peak of their level of Engagement um as they're preparing to start in you know with the new company onboarding sets the stage for the employee success and too often this process breaks down and makes the newcomer feel unwelcome because there are a lot of activities that need to occur across multiple departments it HR facilities Etc so when those breakdowns happen it's it's very uncomfortable for the newcomer we want to make sure that we deliver a seamless onboarding experience you know get to leverage the value of of that employees level of engagement at the time that they're on board if I may I want to ask you a couple things first thing I want to ask you about is that I remember you just mentioned about retention being at about three years when the unboarding experience is uh uh is seamless right yes when you talk about a seamless onboarding process it makes me think of the cost that organizations incur with turnover and you mentioned the height of Engagement is during that unboarding process can you speak a little bit more about why organizations need to be paying greater attention to what that onboarding process looks like I kind of explained it already but I know in our conversations you've had so much to say about about it and I thought it was be very beneficial for our audience to hear it now well first there is a statistic that is pretty well known in HR circles that the cost of replacing an individual is 150% of their annual compensation so there's real dollars and cents associated with high turnover never mind the intellectual property that leaves with the organization when they you know when the person left or the investment that you've made on training and developing them the disruption to the organization is as well with a very effective onboarding program the individual feels welcome they're engaged they have H A sense of purpose and loyalty and so we do see that it significantly reduces turnover in the organization how does service now support these type of unboarding processes that you talk about from the moment the person accepts their offer we can present to them a um a a version of the new new hire portal that shows them where their office might be it might introduce them to a mentor or a transitional coach it could begin to initiate some of the training pre-boarding even uh so that on the day one they're ready to go um they know the company policies they've already reviewed those they've had resources um to to help support them we make sure that all of their computer equipment is delivered everything's available and ready on time it it can also reduce the time to start so I know in the olden days like before service now it could take weeks to get everything will set up for an individual to start but when you have a very effective and efficient onboarding process you can quickly uh have everything ready to go and reduce that time to start as well which is a statistic that recruiting track um and then when they do start you they they have a level of Engagement that's much higher they feel welcomed by the organization they feel and and so that that reduces the time to competency what we call so you know they're going to be more effective in their role sooner than they would otherwise be listen if you're interested in learning more about L's unboarding webinar be sure that you scan this QR code that's on the screen now Lynn it's been such a pleasure to have you here you are full of so much knowledge when it comes to HR Service delivery and I know that folks are in for such a treat both from this stream and then at the end of the month February 29th 10: a.m. Pacific 100 PM Eastern check your local time for when it actually be available your time and by the way if you're thinking oh man I'm not available at that time no worries the good news is that you can sign up and you will be sent the recording after the webinar so how about that right so we got you you Lynn tell us a little bit more about anything you want to leave us with it's been really a pleasure to join you here today there's so much happening uh at Glide fast and with service now and and you know I've always said that no innovation has transformed how we deliver HR to people more than service now has and it's absolutely true so it's a pleasure to be here and thank you so much for your time absolutely you know Lynn and I both work at Glide fast that there's there's no secret there you know at Glide fast we provide the consistency commitment and expertise that we believe service now customers deserve we are founder Le we are founder and still continue to be founder run and our Founders were former customers so that means that we are in a very unique position to be able to create and develop a spot-on solution because we've been in your shoes so if any of this sounds of interest to you be sure you check the links in the description for more information for how you can meet with me for how you can access ly's white paper and join the webinar so Lyn I want to thank you so much for joining this episode of 100 days of service now thanks klie thanks everybody have a great day bye man her brain is so big with this HR Service delivery you know when I talked to Lynn about HR service delivery I just sit in Marvel because not only does she have historical knowledge about HR Service delivery but she has information to talk about what this will look like in the future so she is such a gem for for our organization and for uh HR Service delivery generally but but don't go anywhere stick around just for a moment I have a few things coming up that I want to invite you to so first coming up and this is a coming soon and I know if you're watching this live it is scheduled to be tomorrow that will be February 21st but we're actually going to reschedule this and I'm really excited about this I'm going to be joined in conversation with Corey CJ Wesley Corey is one of my favorite people and mentors when the service now ecosystem he's going to be talking about a winning mindset and that is going to be a conversation that you don't want to miss and then another conversation that I'm really excited about having is with jbad John bad stubner he is on the service now.org part of the house so I I affectionately call this uh episode doing good with bad we're going to talk about how service now is delivering solutions to nonprofit organizations so if that sounds great to you then you are in the right place be sure you click those links in the description to be notified when we go live because all this is going to be live right here on LinkedIn on 100 days of service now so until next time be kind and stay curious bye [Music]