Employee Enablement in 2022: A Landscape Map

In recent times, enterprises worldwide have had to adapt their approach to human resource management in order to stay functional. As a result, perspectives have changed dramatically with regard to how companies strive to achieve efficiency and productivity. More and more businesses are shifting towards a staff-centric paradigm, using innovative tech solutions to train employees and cater to their needs as a means of best serving the organization's larger goals. This is an approach known as employee enablement. 

To give you a better idea we're talking about, we've come up with an employee enablement map and created simple categories to illustrate which organizations are responsible for the latest software innovations in the realm of employee enablement. 

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• Employee Experience
• Workflow Optimization
• Change Management 
• Onboarding & Self-Onboarding
• Collaboration
• Employee Recognition
• Flexible Working
• Continuous Development

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1. Employee Experience

In order to put any kind of employee enablement initiative in place, a company must first assess the needs of its staff members. Traditionally, businesses have used yearly reviews to attempt to gain insight into the employee experience, but this can be inconvenient and time-consuming. Fortunately, there are now a variety of useful platforms within the SaaS industry that enable businesses to gather crucial data and elicit regular feedback from staff. This information can help companies discern the needs of their staff and gauge employee engagement, allowing them to formulate an appropriate enablement strategy going forward.

Some organizations leading research and development in the area of employee experience are:

• Qualtrics: Qualtics XM is an experience management tool that provides a framework for businesses to create and refine employee experiences. It uses advanced listening technology in conjunction with automation to inform and drive improvement at all organizational levels, empowering companies to make changes that enable employees to reach high levels of engagement and performance.

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• Culture Amp: Culture Amp is an employee experience platform that boasts a user-friendly interface that allows for rapid setup and deployment. It allows businesses to keep track of quarterly goals and uses features such as pulse surveys to collect feedback from employees regarding their experience and engagement levels. Culture amp gives employees a voice, allowing them to influence the growth and development within their organizations.

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• PerformYard: PerformYard provides a powerful HR performance management platform that streamlines the review process for businesses. Using the PerformYard platform, companies can create and customize their performance management system using reviews, goal tracking, and employee feedback. This unique software solution lets companies run frequent and efficient review cycles so that internal changes are always informed by the latest and most accurate employee data.

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2. Workflow Optimization

Another major aspect of employee enablement is workflow optimization. Once an organization has ascertained exactly what its employees need to become engaged and perform at work, it must also set about eliminating any obstacles to productivity. Specifically, this means streamlining systems and automating repetitive processes. Doing this enables employees to use their time in ways that can best serve the company, rather than getting bogged down by administrative tasks. This is can be a particularly important consideration in sales sectors.

Some good examples of software that can optimize workflows are:

• Guidde: At Guidde, we offer a unique, next-gen software enablement platform that allows all business employees to easily create and publish video content, including ultra-short how-to guides for software that can benefit both customers and staff. 

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• Kissflow: Kissflow is part of a broader digital platform that offers a range of convenient functions to help businesses to optimize processes in the workplace. It combines simple, no-code workflow forms with visual process design, and includes handy features such as dynamic item routing which help to streamline day-to-day operations for employees.

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• ProcessMaker: ProccessMaker is a software that specializes in process automation for approval-based workflows. It provides useful analysis and reporting tools as well as robust integrations, making it easy to use this software in conjunction with other management tools.

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3. Change Management

Improperly handled changes can be extremely debilitating for employees. Upheaval in the workplace can disrupt day-to-day operations and obscure employees' understanding of what's expected of them. Change management tools help to alleviate the issues associated with internal change initiatives. Utilizing these tools helps to create clarity within an organization and ease transitions that would otherwise be detrimental to employees' productivity.

Some great examples of change management tools are:

• Guidde: Guidde’s platform allows asynchronous communication between teams on product updates. This frictionless channel of communication enables engineers to communicate with product and sales teams so that the most up-to-date product information is always available companywide.

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•  BMC Remedy 9: This software solution facilitates digital change initiatives for businesses while helping to reduce the risks associated with change initiatives. It is supported on both mobile devices and desktops and includes features such as impact analysis, live chat functionality, and a customizable dashboard for user convenience.

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• WalkMe DAP: WalkMe's Digital Adoption Platform is a cloud-based application that enables companies to maximize the value of digital transformations in the workplace. It offers an impressive selection of features including data analysis, survey implementation, and multi-language support.

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5. Onboarding & Self-Onboarding

To properly enable employees, it is essential to properly orientate new hires so that they can hit the ground running as soon as they are integrated into an organization. There are many aspects to onboarding, from familiarising employees with the management structure to setting up a functional workstation. Most importantly, though, employees should be intimately acquainted with the primary processes that comprise the responsibilities of their position. Fortunately, there are software solutions available to make this aspect of employee enablement much simpler for everyone involved, and they can even help employees to engage in self-onboarding.  

Here are a few examples of powerful onboarding tools:

• Guidde: Guidde offers a unique, next-gen software enablement platform that empowers employees to create and publish content easily. Guidde's platform replaces multiple tools used across different departments and unifies their functions into an easy-to-use, purpose-built application. This substantially improves the onboarding experience for employees in remote teams and offers a more streamlined means of communication.
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• Userpilot: This tool has been specially designed to serve the needs of SaaS enterprises so that users can quickly get up to speed with whatever software they are required to use. It includes interactive walkthroughs to behavior-responsive feedback to create an eminently user-friendly experience.
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• Rippling: Rippling is an all-around solution that uses automation to streamline the onboarding process. It provides a full checklist for onboarding, allowing businesses to implement digital training programs and quickly integrate employees into the workplace. It includes reporting capabilities and convenient dashboards, as well as a self-service web portal for employees.

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5. Employee Recognition

One of the more frequently overlooked aspects of employee enablement is employee recognition. Fostering the right mindset is a major part of employee enablement, and recent research indicates that engagement, productivity, and performance are 14% higher at companies that recognize their employees' efforts adequately. That's an enormous difference, especially when it comes to B2B and sales sectors. By developing a solid internal system for employee recognition, businesses can enable their staff to perform to the best of their abilities. 

Some good examples of employee recognition software are:

• Nectar: Nectar is a cloud-based platform designed to help celebrate the hard work of employees by creating a shared, points-based value system within an organization. It has a variety of features including employee rewards and corporate discounts, as well as integrations with workflow management tools like Microsoft Teams.

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• Bonusly: Bonusly is a rewards platform that facilitates peer-to-peer recognition as well as management-employee recognition. It has several notable features including a social feedback portal, reporting capability, and analytics functions to highlight individuals' specific strengths.

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• Guusto: Guusto is a gift-based recognition platform rather than a points-based one. It offers a transparent system that enables employees to choose rewards for themselves from an extensive catalog and supports integrations with popular workflow suites like Trello and Google Workspace.

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6. Employee Collaboration

When trying to enable employees, it's important to consider the team around them. No employee is an island, and research has indicated that employee collaboration plays a major role in driving productivity. Given that fact, it makes sense that businesses should strive to foster collaborative working as much as they can, and digital applications can be extremely useful in this regard.

Some examples of useful collaboration software are:

• Todoist: Todoist is a cloud-based task management platform. It supports collaboration between team members by enabling individuals to share, assign and discuss tasks together. It includes cross-platform support and also offers useful features such as productivity reports and offline functionality.

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• Slack: Slack is a business-oriented messaging application that functions as a collaborative hub for employees. It provides a single workspace that links employees with the colleagues and tools involved in their day-to-day operations. Standout features of slack include advanced search modifiers and the ability to easily sync with file management services like Google Drive and Dropbox.

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• Zoho Projects: Zoho Projects is an affordable project management solution that is suitable for small businesses. Zoho Projects enables teams to collaborate and monitor their progress toward defined goals. Key features of this software include its resource management, hour tracking, and task report functionalities.

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7. Flexible Working

To enable employees to fulfill their roles to the best of their abilities, companies should make efforts to facilitate a sound work-life balance. This is essential as it helps to avoid issues like burnout, which can harm productivity. Flexible working situations play a major role in this, as research suggests that many employees do their best work when provided with flexible working arrangements. Now, an increasing number of applications are being developed to support flexible working for employees.

Here are some examples of software tools that support flexible working arrangements:

• Guidde: Guidde’s unique software enablement platform supports flexible working arrangements with its asynchronous communication capability. This allows colleagues to communicate quickly and easily without requiring real-time responses, enabling teams to continue working efficiently together regardless of individual work schedules.

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• Microsoft Teams: Microsoft teams is a comprehensive workspace platform that enables employees to their work remotely with their teams. It includes a wide array of features such as file sharing, screen sharing, live chats, and audio and meeting coordination functions.

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• Webex: Webex provides a video-conferencing and collaboration suite that enables global teams to work together remotely. Webex is characterized by features such as file transfer support and attendee removal, as well as a wide array of security features that make it a very safe option for business communications.

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8. Continuous Development

Arguably the most important aspect of employee enablement is continuous professional development. The best way to enable employees to tackle the challenges of their jobs is to create an environment that encourages continuous development. By doing this, employees can hone their existing skills and develop new ones so that their abilities can align perfectly with their respective responsibilities. To this end, there is a wide array of software solutions available.

The following are powerful tools for employee development;

• Zavy: Zavy provides training and development options as part of a comprehensive employee enablement platform. Users can take advantage of a three-stage development structure which includes micro courses, 360 feedback, and growth plans.

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• Impraise: Impraise offers an all-around employee performance management platform that strives to foster employee enablement through alignment and development. Standout features of the Impraise platform include in-depth analytics, employee progress tracking, and individual development plans.

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• Leapsome: Leapsome is an all-in-one enablement solution designed to help employees achieve their full potential through engagement and development. Leapsome offers an impressive library of learning resources to take advantage of, as well as a function that allows users to create their own fully customizable personal curriculum. 

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The term 'employee enablement' most commonly refers to the practice of providing employees with the tools require to perform their responsibilities as best they can. Of course, this is true, but employee enablement is also more than that. It comprises a wide variety of factors, such as employee engagement and alignment of vision within an organization. Truly, current research has just begun to scratch the surface when it comes to employee engagement and its potential benefits.

See also our customer enablement map.