In every one of these projects the issue of a pla琀昀orm which comes from a background in global service delivery, has looms large. Where do companies put these “journeys” built a wide range of EX applica琀椀ons and services to make this and “programs” and work昀氀ow business rules so that the easy—more and more companies are going this way. corporate HR and IT team can deploy them while others Microso昀琀 is moving in this direc琀椀on with the Viva family of products. tweak them locally? How do we connect them to the ERP Viva, unlike ServiceNow, is not yet a work昀氀ow management system, system for security and iden琀椀ty management? How do we but eventually it will likely compete with ServiceNow in its leverage data about the employee in the human resources open architecture and ease of applica琀椀on development. management system (HRMS)? And where does the data about the process go? (Employee experience applica琀椀ons In addi琀椀on to giving the EX team a robust pla琀昀orm to generate large amounts of data that does not necessarily 昀椀t build upon, pla琀昀orms like ServiceNow are designed for into the tradi琀椀onal HRMS.) There are a couple of op琀椀ons that “ci琀椀zen developers.” In other words, if Medtronic or C.H. organiza琀椀ons can consider: Robinson wants to build a series of journeys and let local managers personalize them, ServiceNow has a design tool for Op琀椀on 1: Use the ERP (Workday, SuccessFactors, Oracle, nontechnical users to accomplish this. Oracle is moving in this ADP, Ceridian, UKG, or others). The 昀椀rst op琀椀on, which most direc琀椀on with its Oracle Journeys product, but it is s琀椀ll behind companies quickly outgrow, is the a琀琀empt to put these services ServiceNow in its maturity. into the o昀昀-the-shelf tools from the core HCM provider. Where Do the Business Rules Go? Each of the vendors men琀椀oned have employee portal tools, The employee experience pla琀昀orm, in addi琀椀on to being a customizable (to some degree) journeys, and mini-applica琀椀ons place to “plug in” and design EX applica琀椀ons, is also a business that help employees access some of the EX applica琀椀ons. And it makes sense to use these, when possible, since they are rules engine. When a new employee needs a badge, laptop, or leave adjustment, who should approve this? What is the 琀椀ghtly linked to other internal systems, security, and data. process for audi琀椀ng this process and where should the budget The problem most companies run into is that these reside? These and hundreds of other business rules need to be applica琀椀ons are incomplete. ERP vendors spend most of their coded somewhere, but where? R&D on core payroll and technology infrastructure; they are rarely experts on leave management, onboarding, or even In a highly scalable EX team, these decisions must be made corporate training. And when a company wants a highly open strategically. If the company has ServiceNow, they are likely to use it as the “EX business rules pla琀昀orm” and interchange system (enabling lots of third-party vendors to plug in) the IT these rules with the ERP. But these are decisions that should department is dependent on the ERP vendor to do the work. be made deliberately, because if a process step must scale it We do want many business rules ins琀椀tu琀椀onalized in the ERP, may interact with HRMS business rules, business rules in the however. Things like pay, bene昀椀ts, vaca琀椀on, 琀椀me-tracking, corporate learning management system, or even 昀椀nancial rules and other 昀椀nancially relevant EX applica琀椀ons must integrate located elsewhere. 琀椀ghtly with 昀椀nancial systems. But many ERP EX applica琀椀ons Over 琀椀me, as new pla琀昀orms like ServiceNow, Viva, Workday, are new and less 昀氀exible, so companies pick only the ones that work best. Vendors like Workday and Oracle have opened Oracle, and SAP con琀椀nue to evolve, it will become obvious to customers which process goes where. In the last year, their pla琀昀orms for development, but this means hiring an ServiceNow introduced a variety of new func琀椀ons: listening IT contractor to customize the ERP and then living with the posts (scalable surveys and feedback), learning posts custom development for years. (learning programs and learning pathways), employee journey Op琀椀on 2: Use a scalable EXP. The second op琀椀on, which management (journeys and work昀氀ows designed for employee transi琀椀ons), manager hubs (a place for managers to view and is now becoming mainstream, is to invest in a pla琀昀orm like support employee journeys), and employee center (a single ServiceNow (or Microso昀琀 Viva, Applaud, Salesforce Portal, and uni昀椀ed produc琀椀zed portal and mobile app). others) to manage and integrate these solu琀椀ons. ServiceNow, The Rise of the Employee Experience Pla琀昀orm: Essen琀椀al to Business Success | Copyright © 2022 The Josh Bersin Company 9 All rights reserved. Not for distribu琀椀on. Licensed material.