Cloud-based employee experience platforms are revolutionising organisational workforce management and engagement. These platforms integrate business operations and analytics, enhancing organisational efficiency and employee collaboration. Deloitte emphasises the role of cloud technology in enabling agile, innovative strategies and productivity enhancements. Moreover, unified service management platforms, incorporating tools like chatbots and RPA, provide seamless digital experiences, increasing service accuracy and speed. The flexibility of cloud-connected workspaces, essential in modern business environments, supports strategic goals by boosting engagement and productivity and simplifying IT management.
Here, Deepa Param Singhal, Vice President- Applications at Oracle, offers examples of how these advancements contribute to business success.
How are cloud-driven employee experience platforms reshaping the way organizations build relationships with their workforce?
Employees worldwide have been negatively impacted over the past years due to the pandemic. While people in India are on a journey to revive, they are also open to using technology support to navigate their careers successfully. Our AI@Work study, in association with an HR research firm conducted in 2021, suggests that 97% of Indians want technology to help define their future. Moreover, 89% of workers in India feel ‘stuck’ personally and professionally, and 96% of people say their meaning of success has changed since the pandemic started. It also reveals that people are now prioritising work-life balance (52%), flexibility (49%) and mental health (44%) over steady pay.
This behavioural shift has brought broader responsibilities to organizations to connect more closely with their employees. At its core, the employee experience is truly the culmination of every conversation and touchpoint the employee has with the associated organisation. It delves deep into improving employees’ work and home lives and overall productivity. Therefore, an employee’s experience is influenced by every interaction they have with your business, starting with an offer letter and ending on their last day at work. Company culture and interpersonal interactions with colleagues, superiors, and customers factor into the employee experience. An employee experience platform also includes your employees’ tools, technology, and communication systems. Cloud-driven employee experience platforms encompass the processes and activities related to an employee’s job onboarding, ongoing performance management, benefits and compensation, job training, and workplace environment. These platforms are fully equipped to help organisations build and improve relationships with their workforce. They are making it more dynamic, data and insight-driven and user-centric. These platforms foster flexibility by providing remote accessibility, allowing employees to connect and collaborate from anywhere. Additionally, they create a more individualised approach to employee engagement by enabling tailored experiences such as onboarding, training, and benefits information. Cloud-driven platforms also support learning and development through e-learning modules, encouraging continuous skill enhancement. They also promote employee well-being and streamline administrative processes with various tools.
Also read: Oracle’s Shaakun Khanna on Embracing Ethical Moonlighting, ESG, Neurodiversity, Gig Economy in 2023
Can you elaborate on the specific features and capabilities of these platforms that contribute to creating enriching workplaces for employees?
Leaders must ensure their employees feel appreciated and valued in today’s dynamic business environment. The failure to do so may lead to talent loss and decreased productivity. Oracle has recently introduced new employee recognition and rewards features in Oracle ME\ Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM). These updates include Oracle Celebrate, a unique recognition and rewards system designed to enhance performance, engagement, and employee retention by providing the tools and insights needed to create a more personalised and meaningful experience for the workforce.
Oracle Celebrate is seamlessly integrated into Oracle ME, a component of Oracle Cloud HCM. This integration allows HR and business leaders to tailor recognition programs to align with their organisation’s values, seamlessly incorporate peer-to-peer recognition into daily workflows, and aggregate data across the entire employee experience platform.
Explicitly developed for cloud-based operations, Oracle Cloud HCM offers a comprehensive solution that unifies every HR process from hiring to retirement across the entire enterprise through a native employee experience platform. Integrating all employee data onto a single platform provides HR teams with a singular source of truth to inform their people strategy. Additionally, built-in AI functions as an advisor, helping analyse workforce data and offering recommendations to assist HR teams in enhancing business operations.
Could you also share a challenge that was mitigated through these platforms? Please mention how the challenge was identified, the resolution was chalked out, and the outcomes.
Oracle is committed to investing in advanced technologies to address the growing demand of our customers. We know that the top concerns and challenges for CHROs in the remote working paradigm continue to be the knowledge gap, a lack of critical skill sets, employee communication, employee retention, and team engagement and collaboration. Therefore, we update our technologies four times a year to keep our customers updated with the evolving trends and address challenges and the business requirements they face on time. Our Cloud-based application solutions are tailored to provide better integration, creating opportunities for employees and employers to bring maximum productivity. Deploying HCM solutions enhances employee experience.
Our solutions are widely used across sectors, including BFSI, energy, healthcare, etc., leading to full adoption. For example, ESSAR Group, one of India’s leading corporations, has streamlined the HR processes for their entire workforce across platforms using Oracle Human Cloud Management (HCM)Solutions. Quess Corp has a diverse workforce spread across ten countries, serving over 3600 customers – an extensive and strong integrated HR platform was a mandate. With growth expected to double in the future, Quess Corp needed a system that would cater to the end-to-end journey of their core employees.
Oracle HCM became a single source of truth for their employee data globally. Keeping employee data accurate, complete, and all in one place provides consolidated, real-time reports and dashboards for managers, HR and the leadership. With this, evidence-based HR decisions made by tracking, analysing and benchmarking various HR metrics are at the forefront. This would serve as a catalyst for adopting simple and global best processes and practices.
Also read: 5 Times Top Companies Tackled Common problems with Unique Solutions in 2023
What is your perspective on the role of emerging technologies like Generative AI in shaping today’s employee experience, and what actionable steps can organisations take to navigate this transformation successfully? How has Oracle leveraged Generative AI in HR regarding talent acquisition, retention, employee engagement and well-being?
Generative AI has come up in a big way across sectors, and it certainly has the potential to elevate the employee experience by making it more intuitive, responsive, and engaging. Working with Cohere, we are embedding language models in our applications to enable customers to quickly and securely deploy generative AI to solve their most pressing business challenges. At Oracle, we do everything to keep our customers in the centre. Recently, we introduced Generative AI-powered capabilities within Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) solution to enhance efficiency and streamline HR processes for candidates, employees, managers, and recruiters.
These new capabilities can be embedded into existing HR processes to drive faster business value, improve productivity, enhance the candidate and employee experience, and streamline HR processes. Generative AI in HCM gives employees suggestions for goal descriptions to foster greater. Not only this, but it creates a performance review summary by analysing multiple data sources to improve performance conversations and development suggestions. Ultimately, Generative AI can help reduce the time to complete routine tasks, shifting resources for more complex and strategic work. Generative AI-powered authoring in Oracle Cloud HCM enables your workforce to compose content to streamline and simplify day-to-day HR activities such as building knowledgebase articles, developing surveys, and creating job postings.
How are these platforms leading to positive business outcomes?
Cloud-based platforms are playing a role in bringing positive outcomes to businesses by reducing costs, improving scalability, and enhancing agility. They empower work, boosting employee productivity and satisfaction while providing insight-driven analytics supporting management to make informed decisions. The collaboration tools integrated into cloud platforms encourage teamwork and foster innovation, resulting in engaged and efficient workforce development.
Cloud-driven technology enables businesses to leverage cutting-edge innovations like AI, creating quicker, smarter decisions and revenue opportunities. Moreover, digital workspace helps to maximise productivity and satisfaction amongst employees. Investment in personnel development and empowering collaboration in a digital workspace facilitates productivity and satisfaction. Businesses that invest in their employees and help them find opportunities are the ones that will reap the benefits of a productive, engaged workforce. Our new generative AI capabilities bolster existing embedded AI capabilities already in use by thousands of users and will help to transform candidate, employee, manager, and HR team productivity by streamlining processes and automating content generation within a single integrated solution.
Also read: Synchrony’s Flexible Work Model Leads to 17% Reduction in Attrition: Here’s How
Where do you see Oracle’s employee experience platform headed, and what goals do you want to achieve through these initiatives??
Recognising the critical importance of effective communication, especially in a hybrid workforce, Oracle has developed a game-changing solution within the HCM portfolio that revolutionises how HR teams connect, engage, and empower employees with information and insight. Oracle is spearheading a transformation in workforce dynamics, poised to revolutionise the future workplace. By leveraging cutting-edge cloud solutions, Oracle is poised to empower organisations to efficiently and promptly address customer service challenges. Oracle’s Fusion Cloud HCM suite is the broadest and deepest offering, leading to a more productive workforce, happier customers, and a more profitable business. Industry analysts have recognised this innovation as a leader in innovation for cloud HCM. Our goal is to fulfil the demand of customers through our industry-wise approach. We are the only major cloud vendor that provides anywhere near this level of industry-specific technology. The main drivers of adoption are unique to each industry. But common among them is the need for better agility, cost management, and transformation.
Recently at the flagship event, Oracle made significant announcements to address the demand in the healthcare sector and introduced new workforce management capabilities within HCM solutions. With this announcement, we aim to help healthcare organisations adapt to changing labour markets, meet volatile customer demand, and better attract and retain workers.
About the expert: Deepa Param Singhal is the Vice President of Cloud Applications at Oracle India. With nearly two decades of experience in the technology industry, she has a proven track record of building and growing multi-million dollar businesses and coaching large teams. Her expertise spans across the SaaS, web, and security domains, and she has successfully led businesses in various markets, including the US, APAC, and India.
