Boise State People Strategy

Human Resources is fascinated with the Employee Experience. Looking into the universal experiences of every employee there are several things that are true for everyone. Everyone is welcomed into an organization, they grow and develop, and after some time they say farewell.

We are reorganizing our department around the experiences that all employees have in the workplace – a Welcome Experience, Growth Experience, and a Farewell Experience.

The Employee Experience:

• Employee Engagement
• Employee Welcome/Onboarding
• Employee Growth and Development
• Employee Farewell
• Run the Business

In the Welcome Experience, we are focusing on the employee experience from application through onboarding. By starting new employees off on the right foot we have a better chance to retain talented, committed people who drive the university’s mission forward.

We have created a team that is solely responsible for the Welcome Experience that runs the business from recruitment to new hire integration. This enhances our customer focus because this one team can ensure that new employees have wrap-around services provided to them so they truly feel welcomed to the organization and we take care of their needs in the appropriate order – similar to Mazlow’s Hierarchy.

In the Growth Experience, we are focusing on the employee experience from hire through farewell. This includes projects and policies that touch on employee satisfaction, total rewards and initiatives to assist in employee development, participation, and wellbeing. Our goal is to motivate and retain talented, committed people who drive the university’s mission forward.

We are restructuring to create a team that is solely responsible for the Growth Experience. This experience has many focus points and each employee’s growth experience is specifically unique to their trajectory within the organization. Again modeled after Mazlow’s Hierarchy of needs our focus is on career pathing, coaching, compensation and meaningful performance management, to name a few.

In the Farewell Experience, we are focusing on employees leaving the university. Our goal is to make an employee’s exit an experience that honors their time at Boise State. This includes retirement, emeritus and succession planning projects.

We are restructuring to create a team that is solely responsible for the Farewell Experience. This experience can be different for many employees, however, everyone deserves to leave a company with dignity and respect for their time, effort and contribution.  We are working to find ways to celebrate individuals as they move on to the next chapters whether that is retirement or a new organization and cater our services to make sure that each employee leaving Boise State feels appreciated and taken care of as they move on.

My Father worked for the same organization for 36 years. There has been a dramatic shift in views on employment since. 40% of our  Gen Z believes they are going to be entrepreneurs. This incredible shift in attitudes about work becomes more foreboding for employers as the average stay of younger employees hovers around three years. Employers asleep at the wheel regarding these sea changes will pay the price by becoming irrelevant or seeing talented applicant pools dry up. An antidote to these trends is to listen to what employees want – fair pay/benefits, meaningful missions, and a deliberate focus on work environments where everyone can thrive.

The Mercer organization recently released the 2019 Global Talent Trends Report, which is a report outlining the shifts in the workplace. It consists of survey responses from 7,300 leaders in organizations throughout the world. One of the top risks that these individuals identified to their workplaces was low and declining employee engagement. In response to the trends happening in the workplace, the report wisely observes, “Employees are seeking more purpose, inspiration, and connectivity this year. In the modern workplace, success is a team effort and depends on every person’s ability to develop connections within and outside of the company. . . . When this networked model is at its best, a collective sense of inspiration flows throughout, transferring the shock waves of disruption into sparks of brilliance.” This is the work environment we want for everyone in our organization.

A critical step in doing this was the Listening Tour that completed last spring. We have since quantified the data from both the survey and the live listening sessions. Over the summer we met with the Vice Presidents, Deans, and other department leaders to share with them the results of the Listening Tour. We asked these leaders if there were things they could keep doing or begin doing in response to the employee feedback. The response has been incredible as everyone is rolling up their sleeves and putting in place efforts to make this an even more incredible place to work. Likewise, we are partnering with many across campus on initiatives that will benefit the entire University. Many came directly from comments and conversations pulled in the Listening Tour. We are changing our hiring process to a Welcome Experience. Rather than just focus on tactical problems, we are re-examining the Growth Phase of our careers through leadership development, career pathing, and a new philosophy around pay and benefits.

The above efforts are more than just HR tactics. We have a cause. We are on a mission. Our desire is to partner with every area on campus to support them in their efforts to build work environments where all individuals can thrive. Why do we want to do this? The reality of a changing workplace cannot be ignored. But, frankly, the more important reason is that we want these things for ourselves and believe everyone deserves the same.

If you are interested in reading more about the changing workplace, here are a few sources.=

1. 41 Percent of Gen Z-ers Plan to Become Entrepreneurs
2. Millennials: The Job-Hopping Generation
3. 2019 Top Global Workforce Trends

In every organization, there is an aspect of running the business. This covers those necessary tasks that keep all the trains running smoothly. Typically these are the things that if they are doing fine, no one even notices they are happening. We have a lot of that work in Human Resources. To make sure that our business runs smoothly we are dedicated to constant evaluation of our processes to ensure they are efficient and effective for our customer base.