Aren’t we all in love with Netflix’s recommendation algorithm or Amazon’s personalized product suggestions? This is what hyper-personalization throughout the customer journey looks like.
We are all familiar with the power of hyper-personalization in Marketing. A study by Gartner reveals that brands stand at risk of losing 38% of their existing customer base due to poor personalization efforts.
A Deloitte case study cites that a well-executed hyper-personalization can deliver the ROI on marketing spend and lift sales by 10% or more.
Just like the evolution of personalization in marketing has witnessed a significant shift from mass communication to targeted segmentation and now to hyper-personalization, similarly by transforming employee journeys using the same principle of hyper-personalization, leaders can create a workplace where employees feel valued, engaged and empowered to reach their full potential.
With workplaces getting more diverse, dynamic, and digital, hyper-personalization in HR will soon become a competitive differentiator. AI-powered hyper-personalization, curating data-driven journeys, and balancing technology with human touch are going to be the game changers of tomorrow.
This will revolutionize employee experiences and create tailored, meaningful workplace journeys for people. In simple terminology, it will help us understand employee preference, behaviours, and needs, and then tailoring HR processes, messaging and benefits to meet those specific needs.
An article in People Matters outlines a report by ‘The Business Research Company’ which reveals that AI in HR market, valued at $6.05 bn in 2024, is set to grow to $6.99 bn in 2025 at a CAGR of 15.6%. By 2029, the market is projected to reach $14.08 bn, fueled by an impressive CAGR of 19.1%.
As organizations explore the potential to use hyper-personalization and make employee experiences more personalized, it is equally important to gather input from employees throughout the journey about what forms of personalization they find useful and engaging.
It is imperative to understand that hyper-personalization is not a capsule; rather it is a process and not a destination. With technology continuing to advance, it is likely to be impacting HR practices for years to come.
Exploring the Application of Hyper-Personalization in HR
While this is a transformative journey and we are not there yet, a few ways can be explored to understand the application of hyper-personalization to transform employee journeys across different domains of HR.
- Immersive Onboarding: Personalized onboarding schedules with customized welcome messages and buddy instructions, chatbots and virtual assistants for providing real-time support and answering queries, scenarios simulating the work environment or client interactions, evaluating onboarding satisfaction through sentiment analysis and more.
- Curated Learning: Adaptive learning platforms, personalized learning paths, skill-based recommendations, byte sized learning catering to individual learning needs, learning company culture and seeing values in action, gamified learning and real time feedback on learning progress.
- Differentiated Career Pathing and Mentorship: Personalized career trajectories, internal job recommendations based on future aspirations, exploring internal projects based on career aspirations & competencies and pairing of mentors along the journey.
- Managing Performance: Continuous feedback loops, keeping track of goals and real-time performance insights.
- Engagement and Rewards: Trend analysis for actionable insights, chatbots for continuous and anonymous feedback collection and R&R based on individual motivators.
- Unearthing Exit: Identifying employees at risk of leaving, using sentiment analysis to uncover reasons for exit and personalize retention strategies, maintaining personalized engagement with former employees through tailored content and second innings opportunities.
- Wellbeing and Benefits: Analyzing work patterns and tailored breaks, recommendation of benefits like childcare, remote work options, personalized fitness plans, personalized wellness recommendations, mental health chatbots, and real time stress detection.
- Remote Work Management: Collaborative tools to work together for a distributed workforce, risk mitigation tools and tools to build team spirit.
- Compliance and Policies: Automated reminders on compliance and policy updates, compliance gaps and suggesting corrective action.
Challenges in Embedding Hyper-Personalization in HR
Ethical considerations need to be kept in mind such as data privacy, transparency, cultural nuances, preferences of individuals and over-reliance on technology and data.
Hyper-personalization in HR has the potential to revolutionize employee experiences and enhance retention. However, a considerate, compassionate and reflective approach that prioritizes transparency and inclusivity will help companies unleash and decode the complete benefits of hyper-personalization while mitigating its risks.
A few strategies can be adopted to address the challenges in embedding hyper-personalization in HR. Ensuring regulatory compliance and adherence to data protection laws is a must. Clearly communicating what data is being collected and how it is used and seeking consent from employees wherever applicable makes the journey easier.
AI should complement and not replace human decision-making; hence, validation of AI-generated recommendations is preferable before acting on them. Using AI-driven insights to guide the journey rather than fully automating employee interactions will help in smooth implementation.
One can think of commencing the journey with a pilot program, gathering feedback, and then expanding into other HR areas. Training employees on how hyper-personalization works, ensuring transparency and addressing concerns and equipping HR professionals with skills to effectively manage hyper-personalization tools will make a huge difference in this process.
Finally, involving employees in shaping hyper-personalization strategies by conducting regular surveys and focus groups will help in improvisation of the journey.
While AI, ML, Big Data, etc. can be critical tools in enabling hyper-personalization, at the same time, it is important to understand that hyper-personalization in HR isn’t just about technology – it is about nurturing and designing a human-centric data-driven approach that makes a difference in the employee’s journey.
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