Earlier this year, with pent-up, post-pandemic energy and a milestone birthday coming up for my wife, we decided to take the family on a trip of a lifetime to Italy. Immediately, we started going online to build our itinerary, but we realized that booking sites assume some prior knowledge and that we already knew where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. Soon after, the social algorithm-invasion kicked in, overwhelming us with every website presenting us with a vast digest of content and ads, flooding us with “must do,” “must see” and “must eat” lists. 

We were flustered and felt pressure, as we knew with the significance of the trip, plus two kids in tow, we had to get this right! Then my wife asked, why don’t we contact a travel agent? At the suggestion, we immediately felt relief. It was the clear, logical choice knowing that a travel agent has dealt with our situation and needs for thousands of clients. And meeting our travel agent did not disappoint; her expertise and execution outshined what we were able to accomplish with just tech, and it was obvious from the very first question she asked, "Can you tell me about your family?"

No website, algorithm or artificial intelligence (AI) had asked that question. Instead of an infinite list of possible activities, her experience, expertise and empathy brought focus back to what’s most important—our family—which naturally led to building our itinerary and us enjoying an amazing, memorable trip. Mission accomplished! 

Similarly, in the world of human resources (HR), there are many can’t miss moments and zero-fail missions that you have to get right the first time, every time, for all employees. From the employee’s perspective, there are important moments that matter and how their employer responds in those moments is crucial. For example, how many first days at a company will an employee experience? Parental leave requests? Separation or retirement from a company? 

As HR, benefits and payroll professionals—or as we like to call them, People Heroes—guiding employees through these and other important moments is a daily task, but for the employee, there’s an expectation to get it right the first time, every time or risk noncompliance, disengagement or worse. 

Of course, like with vacation planning, technology has proven to be helpful for HR. From vendor-provided resources on various compliance and industry topics to engaging with online communities sharing best practices (though with varying degrees of reliability), technology’s enablement is undeniable.

For instance, isolved People Cloud™ is a human capital management (HCM) platform that provides guidance and support along the employee journey through a host of built-in compliance and configurable workflows. isolved People Heroes World™ is made up of the online People Heroes University and People Heroes Community, with resources available to bridge gaps in understanding of how to leverage People Cloud to meet the ever-changing needs of the organization. 

However, like my trip-planning experience, these online resources and systems often require you to already know or have an idea of what you're looking for. The challenge in getting things right the first time, every time is in the unknown—the situations around compliance, policy and employee experience (EX) that either you've never encountered or not at this scale.

This is where an experienced expert can put context around HR decisions and execution in a way that matters most to you and your employees. 

Lest we forget, the H in HCM stands for human, and just as it took a human agent to design our family vacation plans and set us up for success, it will sometimes take a human to come alongside technology to do the same for your organization. 

How do we ensure that not just the first day but the first 30, 60, and 90 days of a new-hire’s experience are focused on setting them up for success? How does a new sick leave mandate in one of the states where we operate affect our leave policy and the employee submitting a parental leave request? How do we provide an employee leaving the organization with a positive experience around continuing benefits that leaves a lasting impression for our alumni? How do we ensure success of a merger or acquisition? 

Answers to these types of questions aren't readily available in a search box, often because any sensible answer would begin with the words, "It depends." And the nuances of the words that follow, in a way that is compliant and meaningful to your situation, demand human expertise. 

Do you have someone who will ask you the questions that no AI chatbot would know to ask? It might make all the difference to you and your employees.

The Perfect Combination of Software and Services: Ensure you’re getting the most out of People Cloud! Click here to discover how Optimization Services can extend the impact of your people strategy.

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