Zellis is the largest provider of payroll and HR software and managed services to companies in the UK and Ireland, trusted by 42% of FTSE 100 companies. 

In this final blog of our four-part series, we’ll take a look at their flagship product, Zellis HCM Cloud. Read on to discover how your organisation can benefit from AI-powered payroll solutions that drive efficiencies right across your business.

Modern experiences that navigate challenges 

Organisations and employees are still navigating challenging times in the wake of Covid and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. These macro events have fuelled ongoing legislative change and increased complexity across the board. In today’s fast-moving and often unpredictable world of work, it’s no longer enough to ensure efficient payroll and HR processes. Organisations need the very best AI-driven HCM technology to ensure compliance with complex regulations, unlock data-driven insights, and provide people with modern, digital experiences.  

Zellis has tackled the challenge by providing the most engaging, empowering, and efficient AI-powered HR and payroll solution in the UK and Republic of Ireland markets. 

Delivering award-winning solutions 

Zellis HCM Cloud can help you achieve a lot more than the smooth running of payroll and HR processes. It’s a data-driven, cloud-based, and open HCM software platform, complete with award-winning solutions for payroll, HR, benefits and recognition. Built on Microsoft Azure, Zellis HCM Cloud also connects into the AI-based Microsoft Power Platform – PowerBI for analytics and Power Automate – to create business-wide efficiencies. 

Let’s start with Zellis’ cloud payroll software. It’s automated, accurate and compliant, affording the flexibility and peace of mind that organisations need. You can either use it as a standalone, best-in-class payroll solution, or together with their HR solution. 

Then there’s the HR management software. This empowers your employees, creating process efficiencies via automated AI-driven workflows that free up time for HR to spend on strategic activities. From hire to retire, it supports productivity, enables intelligent reporting, and supports exceptional experiences. 

In addition, the MyView PayNow app is designed to support financial wellbeing. This self-service app, available as an extension to the MyView portal, helps your employees to better understand their pay and benefits, manage their budgeting, choose when to get paid (also known as flexible pay), access free guidance, and save for a rainy day. 

Building innovations of tomorrow 

Leveraging Microsoft technology has enabled Zellis to establish a dedicated Zellis AI Lab to build expertise in AI, exploiting the potential of the Zellis Intelligence Platform combined with Microsoft Azure and OpenAI.  

One of the first products developed in the Zellis AI Lab is a Generative AI-powered chat user interface for use by customers’ colleagues. This is designed to support their engagement and drive HR efficiencies by helping employees to perform HR tasks and understand payslips and employment conditions without needing to raise a ticket.  

This frees up time for the HR and Payroll teams to concentrate on more strategic areas, such as strategy planning by using Zellis AI-driven predictive analytics, instead of spending hours on purely reactive work such as answering employee queries.  

Early indications show that by using AI in this way, customers could reduce the time it takes to respond to employee queries by around 75%.  

Unlock the value of the cloud 

AI software published on the Microsoft marketplace forms a powerful mix of innovation, reliability, security and convenience. If you’re looking for solutions to fuel your cloud transformation and grow your business, it’s the place to shop.   

To move at the speed of business today, many companies prefer buying to building cloud apps. This allows them to offload the associated costs and management onto SaaS partners.  You’re able to use private offers to get exactly what you need, including customised terms and conditions, negotiated pricing, prototypes for proof of concept, and tailor-made solutions.  

Better still, transact in a single, accessible place, reducing procurement complexity, saving time and simplifying billing. Apply 100% of the value of eligible purchases to your organisation’s Azure cloud commitment and get faster time-to-value with solutions that work with your current technology. 

All while enjoying the peace of mind that comes from buying and running solutions on a trusted cloud with industry-leading security.   

Boost your HR and payroll solutions with AI power 

Ready to deploy transformational employee experiences across your organisation? 

Visit the Microsoft marketplace to buy Zellis HCM Cloud now, or contact our team at ISVUK@Microsoft.com.

Other blogs in this series

Blog 1: Driving your AI transformation with the Microsoft marketplace 

Blog 2: Safeguarding your business with AI-powered security solutions 

Blog 3: Optimising business operations through AI-powered solutions 

About the author

James joined Microsoft 15 years ago and has held leadership positions across the Consumer, Enterprise, and the Partner teams at Microsoft. James is currently the ISV Ecosystem Lead and has a passion for people and technology coming together to drive customer success. James has been at the forefront of Cloud & Digital transformation for the last 10 years launching new business models and driving transformation through the Microsoft Partner ecosystem resulting in and contributing to exciting new revenue streams and significantly accelerated growth for Microsoft and Partners.

The post Deliver transformational employee experiences through AI-empowering solutions   appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

At Microsoft, we’re also going through this journey. We’ve seen that giving people the tools to be more productive and collaborative whether in the office or at home is only one piece of the puzzle. An effective culture is one that gives people what they need to succeed. It also encourages everyone to truly be themselves. This drives a more diverse culture, and in turn, more innovation and agility for the future.

During 2020, many employees were working strictly from home. Microsoft had to work differently to extend this culture onto a digital platform. I’ve talked previously about how using this technology, especially in the manufacturing and utilities industries can help drive an innovative culture. From our learnings, we know that with the right tools and leadership, you can successfully have a transparent and collaborative culture.

Centrica also recognised this and began to survey their colleagues more frequently to check in on employee wellbeing. Their people told them that there was a growing sense of isolation. Feedback from employee groups also shared a greater need to focus on inclusivity, addressing barriers to inclusion and creating a workplace where all can thrive.

Creating a platform to share our culture change stories

In November, Centrica invited us to join their first ever Culture Hack which gave their employees a platform to come together, listen to different experiences and discuss ideas for what their culture could grow into. Culture change doesn’t always come from the top down, it can be from the bottom up and the Culture Hack was a great way to uncover the changes that were needed and to start driving them forward.

Here are three learnings from Centrica’s experience of running a Culture Hack to help you with your own culture change revolution as we enter a new world of work.

1.      Use your values to drive your culture change

At Centrica, our values act as a guide to driving this culture change, our business is founded on a 200-year heritage of serving people and our values are central to our success:

Technology helps mobilise productivity and collaboration from anywhere. Our people are already using it effectively in their day-to-day, so we leveraged it to help us start our culture change. We decided the best way for people to come together would be a specific day. Then we would have follow up communications and events designed to keep the ball rolling.

We used Microsoft Teams to host the events. We hosted one main event for keynotes and talks and then created Channels to host smaller breakout groups, based on key topics. These groups were each assigned a Microsoft and Centrica facilitator. We gave clear advice on what we wanted these breakout sessions to achieve. We provided a virtual Whiteboard template, with prepared sticky notes as well as simple guidelines on how to get the best from the session and what we wanted them to discuss.

The most difficult part of running the Culture Hack was the planning and logistical side, but it was worth the extra effort. Our tech worked perfectly. Our people were genuinely excited and engaged. We even had people wanting to join last minute, which showed how enthusiastic the team were to be involved. It was challenging to manage the individual breakout sessions based on employee availability. However, scheduling the Culture Hack as much in advance as possible will definitely help if you’re looking to run your own.

2. Encourage everyone to get involved in the culture change

Our leaders have found that the virtual way of working requires dialling up their emotional intelligence skills to improve online collaboration, demonstrate empathy, model personal resilience and look after their team as well as having the ability to listen to and coach others.

The Culture Hack was something they were completely engaged with. We also encouraged everyone to join and share feedback. It was a very empathetic, collaborative space with people sharing and listening – you truly felt like everything was being taken on board. This is something highly important for culture change. Listening to feedback and ideas is the best way to ensure everyone stays on board with the movement.

Our speakers from Centrica, Microsoft and LinkedIn were well received. They generously shared stories of their own cultural transformation journey. Our people found that it provided inspiration as well as practical tips on how organisations can make a change that matters. When organising your own Culture Hack, be sure to share personal stories. Encourage people to come off mute or use the chat window to share their own ideas.

3. Implement the quick wins and act on the bigger ideas

Following the feedback, we got so many ideas to follow up on. What’s important for our colleagues is to show that we’re hearing them and taking action. So, while some ideas may take some time to develop, we have immediately implemented the ones we could. Sometimes, this is as easy as signposting our people to programmes we already run.

For example, skills was a big topic discussed during the Culture Hack. One of our Responsible Business Ambitions is to inspire and develop 100,000 people with essential STEM skills. So, post-event we shared how to access our Learning Academy, Workday Learning App, and The Career Development Hub with our colleagues so they could start building skills. These resources already existed but employees weren’t necessarily aware of them. Having a central place where resources can be shared can go a long way to alleviating some of the challenges faced by your teams.

We also have suggested people implement a ‘Golden Hour’ – something our Irish team in Bord Gáis does already. This is an hour everyday, blocked out in diaries, around lunch time when people are encouraged to leave their computer and get some screen-free time. A Microsoft Research study found that in the last few months workers experienced reduced boundaries and struggled with work-life balance. In the office, this is normally represented by grabbing lunch with a colleague, or going for a midday walk. We want people to ensure they take their breaks during the day. By implementing this organisational-wide, we can ensure everyone can take their time without feeling guilty, and come back refreshed.

For those ideas that take a little bit longer, we’re looking forward to hosting more discussion groups to develop them. However, we told people if they wanted positive change – don’t wait.

Creating a more transparent, collaborative future

For us, running a Culture Hack in partnership with Microsoft brought people together to co-create our new world of work. We were able to:

• Help our people understand why culture change is critical to delivering Centrica’s strategy and what it looks like.
• Source their feedback/input on the type of organisation we want to be.
• Reflect on how we, as individuals, may need to shift their own mindset, actions and behaviours.
• Commit to pragmatic actions to nudge us towards the desired future culture.

People loved the opportunity to be open. They appreciated our leadership team and Microsoft showing up and genuinely taking part, sharing their culture change experiences. Our speakers were extremely popular. People are already asking us when the next sessions are running. This is just the first stage of our culture change journey.

It’s never been more important to maintain a continuous conversation and ensure that all employees voices are heard, particularly as we begin to navigate a new world of work. Centrica have been on an incredible journey and we hope that the learnings they have shared in this blog provide some helpful inspiration for your organisation’s transformation journey.

Find out more

Learn how to empower employees in the new world of work

Discover more about Centrica’s values

Drive innovation through inclusion

How to have productive and inclusive workplaces in the new normal

Resources for your development team

Discover how a DevOps culture can help high-performing teams perform even better

About the authors

Rik joined Microsoft at the start of 2020, with responsibility for Microsoft’s strategy across manufacturing, energy and resources in the UK. He is Microsoft’s lead when working with regulators, industry bodies, industry partners, and our largest customers to ensure Microsoft enables the needs of industry. Since joining, Rik has become a board member in techUK’s Smart Energy & Utilities working group, techUK’s Digital Twin steering board, UK Research & Innovation Manufacturing Made Smarter board, and the BIM4Water Digital Skills steering group. Prior to Microsoft, Rik worked at Cisco for 13 years, with global lead roles in energy and resource industries, IoT and security, and digital transformation.

He has an MBA in international leadership and is currently studying for a Masters in Green Economy.

Heather joined Centrica in 2020 as HR Director for Centrica’s Digital and Technology Services Division. Here, the focus is on reinforcing strong company culture, creating and leading employee engagement and development programs, and implementing reward and talent management strategies that enable the achievement of business goals and objectives as well as meeting the needs and aspirations of its employees. Prior to her appointment at Centrica, Heather has held senior HR leadership roles including as HR Director UK & Ireland for OTIS. Heather has also served in HR leadership roles at Virgin Media, International SOS, the Telegraph Media Group and BT Plc.

Heather holds a Bachelor of Law degree from Durham University, a Postgraduate Diploma from University of Law and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Tara Keatley joined Centrica in 2011, reporting directly into the CIO of Centrica Energy. After a whirlwind tour of Digital Technology Services (DTS), she moved into the role of DTS Transformation Strategy Manager in 2019. Tara’s main focus is on the people within DTS; ensuring that diversity and inclusion, learning and development, and wellbeing are at the forefront of a strong culture within Centrica. Tara also works closely with the DTS leadership team, concentrating on encouraging employee engagement, improving motivation and morale, and highlighting career development and capability building for our colleagues.

The post How to deliver successful culture change for the new world of work appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

A culture of togetherness

When imagining the structure of Microsoft and attitudes between employees, I presumed it would be hierarchical with a really strict corporate structure. I thought every employee would have their place within the pecking order. But I could not have been more wrong.

The relationships I saw were that of a team, or even a family. Microsoft has adopted a culture which places employee’s comfort centrally. Employees are told to “come as they are and do what they love”. There’s no dress code. Instead, employees have the chance to visualise individualism and are given the freedom to truly be themselves.

I pictured the whole building to be siloed into different departments with each team being very separate. I imagined the HR team to be in an isolated, closed off space due to the sensitivity of the work involved. However, what I saw when arriving on my first day was an open and inviting space. This embodies the message that a space can be both confidential, but without the need for barriers.

As an external visitor, I felt the physicality of the building was reflective of Microsoft’s attitudes and also creates an atmosphere of approachability, enabling me to chat to a range of employees without having to knock on doors.

Having a range of spaces that mix cooperative environments with private spaces for meetings or focus work means that it’s easy to find a place where you feel comfortable to get your work done, while keeping it open enough to help unlock creativity and encourage collaboration.

A diverse and inclusive workforce

I had two beliefs about the requirements needed to secure a job in Microsoft. The first being that to work here you needed a degree to even get you in the door. The second was that that degree would have to be in an area specific to Microsoft or technology.

This couldn’t be further from the reality. During my work experience I spoke to a range of people from across the business and there was a real mix of backgrounds and experiences to get them to their current role.

For instance, I spoke to one apprentice who did not finish her A-Levels prior to joining Microsoft. She knew what her career aspirations were from an early stage  and Microsoft saw that potential in her. I also spoke to an employee, who was once an intern, then came back here to work as a graduate, then has been employed by the company in one department for several years and is now doing an apprenticeship in HR.

The whole experience really opened my eyes to Microsoft’s culture and how they empower their workforce. There’s an open-minded attitude towards talent, where potential is of a higher consideration than credentials. This also means that the workforce is filled with people of diverse backgrounds, of all abilities and experiences. A workforce who are diverse are more likely to be collaborative, innovative, and happier. For Microsoft, this means better business outcomes and an increased retention of their top talent.

Finally, I learned never to volunteer yourself during an all-team meeting as this is what has led to me writing this blog! Or perhaps, I should say volunteering yourself leads you to new experiences and challenges!

Creating opportunities

From my experience, I cannot think of a more amazing place to grow a career. The open ‘come as you are’ culture at Microsoft is reflected not just in the people who work there, but in the spaces as well.

On reflection, my advice to anybody wondering what the Microsoft world is like, would be to check out the Apprentice or Graduate Programmes. Personally, I will certainly be looking into these programmes myself.

At Microsoft, people are given the ability to be their true selves. Together, with spaces that inspire collaboration, ideas and devices that let them work the way they feel best makes for welcoming employees who are more creative and productive.

I really think you will find that behind the preconceptions we may hold about corporations, Microsoft is a company with a nurturing culture and the upmost care about realising potential.

Find out more

Surface your creativity

Discover internships at Microsoft

About the author

I was born and raised in Cornwall, just outside of the small town of Penzance. I spent a year travelling through Europe and North Africa with my family when I was younger which instilled in me a love of travel and enabled me to appreciate other cultures and experiences from a young age.

I enjoyed school but was particularly passionate about English, Media and Dance. Having been immersed in dance from a young age and becoming a member of several youth dance companies, I had always envisaged myself going to a dance conservatoire post A-levels. However, whilst studying for my A-levels, I came to realise that dance was a love of mine but not something I wanted as a profession.

I greatly enjoyed the English and Media but having focussed on Dance for so long could not imagine myself specialising in either of these, which lead me to decide not to go to university and instead focus on finding something that I would inspire me whilst utilising my skillset.

Having worked in the leisure and tourism industry since my first Saturday job, I discovered the enjoyment I found from interacting with the general public. I would consider myself an organised, sociable and intuitive person, which has led me to my current role as an Administrative Supervisor for The Cornish Way – a holiday-letting agency based in West Cornwall, with an eye for detail and focus on the ultimate Cornish escape experience.

The post Changing perceptions: what businesses can learn from Microsoft’s culture appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

And it’s not just my thoughts – research backs it up. According to the recent Microsoft Diversity and Inclusion Report, diverse and inclusive companies are more innovative and profitable. They’re also better at retaining top talent.

My entire professional career has been at Microsoft. I have been incredibly fortunate to work for a company tirelessly working to lead the way when it comes to diversity and inclusion. I have, therefore, always kept an eye peeled for opportunities or projects to weave this into my day job.

Investing in new skills

Over the summer, Microsoft made an exciting investment into the digital skills of our customers through the Enterprise Skills Initiative. As technology advances the importance of skills to leverage new tools and processes grows.

The need for re- and upskilling was highlighted in every single customer engagement I had. The launch of a program of training and certification to help our customers on their cloud journey was music to my ears.

As part of my role on the Women@Microsoft Board I’ve witnessed the incredible impact Ella Cockerell and her team had with the 2019 launch of the data science returners program on International Women’s Day.

This initiative focussed on women who were considering returning to work in the technology industry but lacked the technical skills to land a role. It was aimed at helping women into data roles by supporting their professional development and training them. This program enabled diversity into the workforce. And not of just gender, but of experience from various industries and diversity of thought.

Attracting a diverse and inclusive talent pool

I had been working with Alex Butler, Chief Digital and Information Officer at the University of Bath for a year. Alex was ambitious in the innovative project she wanted to run with us. As with many of our customers, unfortunately the skills and diversity of candidates could limit these ambitions.

Over a few cups of tea and a box of Celebrations, we decided we needed to get creative about how to attract a diverse pool of talent to technology roles within the University.

We considered how the Enterprise Skills Initiative could be used as an asset to develop the skills of new staff. We also thought it could broaden the pipeline of talent beyond those with the typical qualifications. This, in turn would enable the University to attract a more diverse talent pool of individuals.

In October 2019 at the Bath Digital Festival, the University of Bath, in partnership with Microsoft, approached the local community of those looking to return to work with the ambition to fill exciting technology roles. Since then, the University of Bath has already filled two positions within the Digital, Data and Technology Group in User Experience and Business Intelligence roles.

It’s also opened up numerous other conversations with people who are interested in the approach the University is taking. And whilst the right role might not be there now, there’s plenty of interest as their team opens up.

An ongoing journey

Alex knows that this isn’t just a diversity issue. She’s hugely committed to building an inclusive team, but says this is a pragmatic move too:

“We struggle to recruit people with new skills in cloud, data, and programme management for example, but I know they are out there in our local area. It’s just that they might not know what a great place it is to work here at the University. We offer an incredibly flexible package – one that you can almost design yourself, one of the most interesting digital transformation challenges in the area and we’re great fun to work with.

“An inclusive team includes people who have a different lens on the way we work. It’s how we stay creative, pioneering and how we keep things interesting. I believe we have space for anyone who shares our mission, wants to keep learning and wants to contribute in their own way.

“Our collaboration with partners like Microsoft allows us to invest in skills development in those core areas like cloud and data science. We think that’s a real draw for people who want to step back into a tech career.”

It’s important to remember change won’t happen overnight. Becoming more diverse and inclusive as an organisation is a long-term commitment, and it takes effort. But by actively working towards it like Alex, your organisation will slowly not only be more diverse and inclusive, but have a talent pool of highly skilled, innovative employees who can deliver better results..

Find out more

How inclusion is changing the way we think about recruitment

Develop your digital skills

About the author

As an Azure Cloud Specialist, I act as the dedicated lead consultant for a select number of Higher Education and Museum clients. I lead their Microsoft digital strategy creation and implementation, with the support of my team of Azure technical specialists. The primary objective of our team is to help our clients create a transformation strategy leveraging the latest innovations available through cloud technology.

The post Investing in your talent: the journey to a diverse and inclusive workforce appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Women have had a long and proud history in STEM. Female programmers were instrumental in our mission to the moon. Code breaking women were essential to the Bletchley Park war effort. Ada Lovelace is remembered as the world’s first computer programmer. Katie Bouman developed the algorithm that enabled us to see a black hole for the first time. And, much closer to home, Microsoft’s own Jennifer Chayes directs three Research labs, helping the company shape its vision for technologies such as AI and cloud computing.

However, despite this long history, and the amazing work done by #WomenInTech, only 17 percent of the tech industry in the UK is female, with just five percent in leadership roles.

We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, and the very nature of work is changing as we implement AI, IoT, and more into our daily lives. But the UK is facing a digital skills gap. And to stay economically competitive, we need to ensure we have a stream of talented people to fill these roles.

The only way we can do this is to encourage more women to consider a career in STEM.

Gain interest from a young age

Microsoft research shows that girls disengage with STEM careers at around the age 11, stating a lack of ‘role models’ and ‘practical, hands-on experience’ as the main factors. So we need to do a better job of encouraging girls to consider a career in STEM and the tech industry.

“The research reveals that we can’t afford to wait until girls are thinking about university courses to foster their interest in STEM,” said Cindy Rose, Chief Executive of Microsoft UK. “To stop the drop-off in interest in STEM, we’re working with governments, teachers and non-profits to modernise the curriculum and provide better access to mentors.”

It’s important to be involved in programmes that encourage STEM and digital skills from a young age. For example, Microsoft employees get involved with DigiGirlz, a programme designed to inspire girls to consider STEM careers.

We also need to share and celebrate the role models who paved the way for technology, especially those we might know, work with, or interact with online. By sharing the stories of how these inspirational women how have helped shape our future, we can inspire more girls to do the same.

Ways to diversify your talent pool

By putting equality at the heart of your hiring process, you are not only be promoting mental health and well-being, but also making yourself more appealing to the most talented women in tech. (60 percent of girls said they’d be confident in pursuing a digital career with a company that promoted equality.) And according to the European Commission, if we had as many women as men in the digital jobs market, the EU GDP would be boosted by €9 billion.

We want more women from a range of diverse backgrounds and abilities to be inspired by a potential career in technology. And this requires an understanding that not only is it open to them but it can help them achieve their goals, whatever they may be.

– Cindy Rose

By having inclusive hiring programmes you can ensure you get a diverse group of applicants. This can be as simple as the wording on your job description, or supporting women-focussed initiatives and organisations. Offering flexible working will also attract more diverse range of talent – 81 percent of people say a flexible job is more attractive to them. And flexible working and post-maternity support will help women looking to return to work, too. In fact, 70 percent of women returning to the tech sector after a career break believe programmes that include training and mentorships are key to overcoming re-entry challenges.

Creating an environment that welcomes and treats everyone equally is vital to ensure your organisation’s future success. By being the drivers of change, you will enrich the lives of your employees. And you will create an empowering future, where everyone can achieve more.

Find out more

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Technology is fundamentally changing the world around us. New generations who have grown up in our digital world have new expectations of their work environment. There’s a widening digital skills gap, and a shortfall of 900,000 skilled ICT jobs across Europe by 2020. Therefore, attracting good people is only going to get more difficult. But by being inclusive, we can start filling these gaps.

Access more talent by being inclusive

How can we attract and retain the right talent to fill this skills gap? A good place to start is with inclusivity. Having a diverse and inclusive approach to recruitment means you’ll gain access into untapped pool of talent. And as a bonus, diverse companies have happier employees and are more innovative.

Far from being an existential threat, the skills shortage is very real, and 79 percent of UK CEOs say that a lack of skills is one of their top business concerns. One way you can strive to fill this skills gap is to widen your talent pool by looking at untapped sources. And with 73 percent of employers saying diversity encourages creativity and innovation, it’s no wonder why they count increasing diversity as a workplace priority.

Inclusive recruitment

One way you can encourage inclusive hiring is to work with you employee resource groups within the organisation. They’ll help create hiring programmes or advocacy. They will be able to give you feedback on their experiences and how you can improve your organisation.

And another great way to raise awareness is to work directly with non-profits, and schools, to create scholarships, events, and training opportunities. (For example, at Microsoft we have an inclusive hiring program that includes an Autism Programme, ability hiring events, and supported employment. We also run networking and community events, apprenticeships, and more, to ensure we employ diverse talents who can help us innovate.)

Make your organisation accountable

It’s important to tie your diversity and inclusion commitments into your organisation’s values. This will help drive change from the inside out. And whilst attracting diverse talent is important, you also need to ensure that you provide opportunities for everyone in your workplace to do their best work. (For example, by making these commitments a core priority at Microsoft, we have introduced expanded parental leave and training and education.)

Most importantly, we’ve made inclusion a ‘core priority’ for leaders and employees. Leaders are held accountable, by tying a portion of their compensation directly to diversity progress. Diversity and inclusion is also part of an employee’s performance review and growth process, and they are able to deepen their learning about diversity, and make inclusion a daily part of their roles.

Encouraging a culture where everyone is heard, valued and included is vital. This includes having employee programs that help advance inclusion and having partners with shared values. Also, empower employees with flexible work opportunities, and provide them with technology that is built with inclusion in mind.

A long-term commitment to being inclusive

By engaging in different perspectives, you will challenge and stretch your thinking. You will enrich your employee experience. And you will ultimately empower the community around your organisation and the world.

But it’s important to remember: change won’t happen overnight. Diversity and inclusion is a long-term commitment, and it takes effort. But by making it a core priority, tying it into business and leadership KPIs, you’ll increase your organisation’s worth. And your workplace will become an even more creative, attractive, and exciting environment to be in.

Find out more

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According to McKinsey & Co, companies that are more diverse and inclusive drive value creation and performance in four key areas:

1. A diverse and inclusive workplace is central to attracting, developing, and retaining talent. Diverse organisations have broader talent pools to successfully compete in this changing world.
2. Diverse groups make faster, better quality decisions, which in turn, pushes better business performance.
3. Inclusive and diverse teams are more creative and innovative. They can give a better customer insight into diverse customer markets, serving the community better and increasing value.
4. It improves employee satisfaction, collaboration, and loyalty, creating an environment that’s more attractive to high performers.

At Microsoft, we’ve been taking part in this journey to become more diverse and inclusive—not only to grow our talent pool, but also to be more innovative and creative, and build a better future for all. An important part of this is creating an open culture and ensuring everyone feels like they belong and contributes with their authentic self.

Here are 10 behaviours we’ve identified from our own journey that will help you create a more inclusive workplace.

1.      Include and seek input from people across a wide variety of backgrounds

At Microsoft, we design products and services for all human experiences and needs so we need to hear from a wide variety of people. You may too. Or perhaps you want to improve customer relationships. Cognitively diverse teams solve problems 60 percent faster. So, whatever work you do, having a diverse input will give you a better, more well-rounded result, at a much faster rate.

You will cater to a broader set of customers if you build your product or service with diverse input. Not only will this increase profitability, but it will also boost innovation. Your employees will be empowered and excited to be part of a positive, supportive environment.

Tip: take advantage of employee resource groups when starting a new project and include them from the early stages.

2.      Listen carefully to the person speaking until they feel understood

Listening is an active process you undertake to make sure you understand what the speaker is saying. It’s also important to respond appropriately to what they’re saying.

Remain impartial as you listen. Remember that a natural part of speaking includes pauses, so leave any questions, clarifications, or comments until the speaker has finished. Use verbal and non-verbal cues to show you’re actively listening.

Don’t forget to leverage technology. Both Skype and PowerPoint now feature live captions and subtitles. This will make it easier for those who are hard of hearing, in a noisy office, or speak another language to actively listen or be heard.

Tip: active listening is a skill that can be learnt. Remember:

• Pay attention
• Show that you’re listening
• Provide verbal and non-verbal feedback
• Remain impartial
• Respond appropriately

3.      Make a habit of asking questions

Questions are key to learning. That’s how detectives solve cases and how inventors invent. It also opens the floor for discussion and innovation. Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to. Ask questions to broaden your mind and deepen your understanding. This will help you gain knowledge and learn from new experiences.

Tip: start with open-ended questions before delving deeper to gain a better understanding.

4.      If you have a strong reaction to someone, ask yourself why

The best way to deal with someone who causes a strong reaction in yourself is to turn inward. Pinpoint these triggers and address them. After all, they didn’t create those triggers. Doing this will help show you why you have this response so you can anticipate, soften, or alter your reaction.

Tip: we can’t all get along all of the time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all work productively together in a professional, supportive environment.

5.      Address misunderstandings and resolve disagreements

Everyone has a different point of view. There’s often no right or wrong, just different life experiences that create different opinions. Active listening will reduce misunderstandings in the office. It will also make disagreements easier to resolve in a mature, communicative way.

Try to think of the situation from the other person’s—or an outsider’s—point of view. Be professional in your response and try to address the issue directly and once it’s resolved, move on.

Tip: remember that we’re all working towards a common goal and have the same values at heart.

6.      Act to reduce stressful situations

Sometimes stress is unavoidable, but we can change how we react to defuse the situation. Identify what is causing the stress and see if there are ways to reduce the triggers. Is there a practical solution, or is it only a temporary feeling? Even if you can’t do anything about it, sometimes just acknowledging the feeling helps.

If you see an employee under stress, offer them support. They could be taking on too much or they might need help on an urgent project. They might need a break, or even just a kind ear to vent to. Supporting your employees with their work-life balance will not only minimise stress, but it will also maximise their ability to contribute to the business.

Tip: offer well-being resources and create a culture where employees know it’s OK to talk about stress.

7.      Understand each person’s contribution

A big part of working in a team is understanding everyone’s role. No matter how big or small, each employee is a piece of the jigsaw that completes the puzzle. You won’t be able to innovate unless you have a great team ethic and a common goal to work towards.

It’s important to keep communication lines open. Apps like Microsoft Teams make it easy to collaborate and communicate together no matter where employees are located.

Tip: know everyone’s role and skill set so you can use their talents to get the best out of them.

8.      Examine your assumptions

When we understand how assumptions and bias influence our behaviour, we can act to create an inclusive culture. We compiled a set of learning resources to help our employees at Microsoft understand the impact of bias. These might also help you empower your employees to create a more inclusive environment in your business.

Our unconscious bias training will help you understand what it is. We also show how to counter it to support a diverse and inclusive culture.

Tip: changing assumptions doesn’t happen overnight—it requires continuous and proactive attention. Try to spend 10 minutes a week using these tools to stay familiar with them.

9.      Ensure all voices are heard

The softer spoken, quieter members of our team can contribute just as much as the more extroverted employees. It’s important to recognise the different ways employees contribute to the conversation, and make sure their voices are heard. This could involve following up on conversations via email or in Teams, or perhaps having smaller meetings or one-to-ones.

Tip: ensure you keep the lines of communication open for employees and assure them you’re taking their thoughts and opinions seriously.

10. Be brave

Something we’ve learnt from our own journey is that it doesn’t end. We’re committed to continuous improvement and learning. Key to this is making inclusion a core priority. In fact, it’s built-in to our employee KPIs—all employees are expected to play an active role in creating inclusive environments.

We know that being diverse and inclusive is better for business. It helps us attract and retain top talent. And, more importantly, it’s helping us build a better future for all.

Find out more

Re-imagine Accessibility

Our journey to an inclusive workplace: 

The post 10 inclusive behaviours appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

High employee engagement makes for a productive workforce. They are also generally happier, less stressed, and are more likely to stay. You’ll read a lot about engaging employees, but what you really should be focussing on is inspiring them.

Sure, engaged staff are 44 percent more productive than satisfied staff. But inspired employees are 125 percent more productive than satisfied staff, according to a 2017 Raconteur report.

How do you do this? It’s a basic ingredient list – a pinch of culture change, a dash of transparency, and a cup of the right technology and devices.

1. Make it easy to work

Work reflects life in the sense there will be challenges, busy times, and difficult projects. What can make this easy are the tools used.
Based in London, Wavemaker is a global advertising company. It was formed from the merging of two companies, meaning there were two different IT systems and ways of working coming together.

“We cannot continue to deliver work in old ways and sustain our profits, our margins, and the quality of work we deliver to customers. We have to change,” says David Kaganovsky, Global Chief Technology Officer.

They decided to move everything to the cloud. “It gives us a level of agility we didn’t have before. If we want to transfer a 100-megabyte file, we just put it in OneDrive—we’re not running around with thumb drives, or, worse yet, using unsecured free file-transfer methods on the internet,” says Kaganovsky.

They took the opportunity to encourage new ways of working and do things more efficiently. Moving to the cloud, they leveraged Office 365 and saw the potential of OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, and Teams to establish new and collaborative ways of working. By making it easier to work, they’ve positively impacting their employee engagement.

“We’re making work more meaningful and that’s making our people happier. And making them happier makes them more creative, more productive, and more excited to be part of Wavemaker. That’s a great thing to be able to give them,” says Kaganovsky.

2. Talk isn’t cheap

You may think team communication is harder now as mobile working is getting more popular. But with collaboration tools such as Teams or Skype, it’s easier than ever to send a quick message, have an online meeting, or collaborate which is what Three discovered.

“The real advantage of Microsoft Teams is that you’re more productive because you don’t have to constantly switch between productivity apps,” says Gary Walker, Head of People Digital Tools at Three. “With Microsoft Teams, it’s contextually evident when to use the different Office 365 services—Skype for Business Online to start a meeting, OneNote to organise meeting minutes, and SharePoint Online or Microsoft OneDrive for Business to save your document.”

One of the easiest ways to increase employee engagement is to have a culture of open communication. Be communicative in your business goals and values. Listen to and reward for feedback and ideas from all parts of the company. It might even help your bottom line, as Centrica, an energy and services company discovered.

Using Yammer as their social media platform, any Centrica employee can post an idea. One employee suggested allowing customers to text back during complaint processes. Once implemented, it has a projected saving of £5 million from call reduction, and a rise in customer satisfaction.

“We’ve seen a lot of success with about 100 ideas implemented since the start of last year. This is much higher than any previous schemes and just goes to show that it really works,” stated Jenny Jarvis, Employee Insight Analyst.

3. Encourage creativity

Most workplaces are open plan–which is great for collaborating, but bad for concentration. It’s important, if you want a creative workforce, to encourage everyone’s individual way of working.

A creative workplace is a multi-functional, tech-ready space. It will have space for that open plan communication, break-out rooms for focus work, meeting rooms, and even a relaxation area. The best thing to do is listen to your employees. Do some need a standing desk? Who prefers a window seat?

Have great place to work and your employees will want to do great work.

Landsec completely reimagined their workplace, creating variety of spaces with Surface Hubs and equipping their staff with the Surface Pro. They enable and trust people to work where they want. Employee engagement and productivity have skyrocketed as a result, and staff retention and acquisition are higher than ever.

“We’re very mobile within our own space. We can work where we want to work, and we can work in spaces that match the activity we’re doing at the time,” says Danny Nicholson, Solutions Architect. “We can meet and collide on a more dynamic basis and the ideas shared in that moment are captured immediately on the Surface.”

4. Work-life balance

12.5 million working days were lost last year due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety. Therefore, a poor work-life balance affects more than just work productivity and employee engagement. According to the Mental Health Foundation, 40 percent of employees are neglecting other aspects of their life.

While encouraging flexibility is important, it won’t work if you don’t have an open, communicative, and supportive organisation with flexible tools and devices that make it easy to work and collaborate.

“We want our people to have a good work-life balance,” says Kaganovsky. “This project is giving us the flexibility—and Office 365 is enabling the mobility—so they can find that balance. People can now work from home, or a coffee shop, or an art gallery, or wherever they want to be. They couldn’t do that before, and it helps them be more creative.”

Find out more

Hear from the experts on employee engagement
Empowering ways to keep your business productive
Drive collaboration in your modern workplace
8 tips for a less stressful work-life balance

The post 4 ways to improve your employee engagement appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Every year, employees take part in a global tradition – the employee engagement survey. It could be a series of questions answered in longhand, or a bunch of statements scored from 1 to 10. Whatever format yours is in, the outcome is usually the same, no matter what business you sit in.

Once the results from the survey come in, business leaders will usually gather in a meeting room to review the responses. They identify what the business is doing well and what needs to change. Between them, they try to figure out what’s causing the issues and come up with ways to fix them…

“The office is boring, but it wouldn’t be if we had a ping pong table.”

“People are too busy to get away from their desks, so let’s give them free lunches.”

“The work life balance is lopsided, so we should have a bring your dog to work day.”

Despite their best intentions, business leaders can find it challenging to affect significant change. With only the problem, and not the data to understand the why or how, the actions they put in place do not necessarily address the root cause.

Employee engagement surveys are a very important and valuable way to get information. But with plenty of assumptions and biases from leaders and employees alike, they can’t be the single source. You need real data from your business processes to back up your plans for improving employee engagement.

That’s where Workplace Analytics comes in.

Data leads to understanding

Look at the data already in your business. Data that deals with productivity, communication, and collaboration. The ways your people work every day – and how they might be getting in the way of employee engagement.

Workplace Analytics pulls meta-data from your collaboration systems – like your emails, calendar, and instant messages – and turns them into a set of behavioural metrics. With them, you can build a clearer view of how everyone spends their time, and understand the big trends that are happening in your business.

With Workplace Analytics you can:

• Spot the links between survey results and collaboration data. So you can understand exactly what is hindering employee engagement in your business.
• See which teams are working well together, as well as identify potential organisational silos.
• Identify management best practices that are driving higher engagement scores and better outcomes.
• Make better data-driven decisions in your business.

In short, Workplace Analytics helps you see exactly what your employee engagement challenges are. And how you can fix them. If that’s something you think could help you boost employee engagement in your business, let’s talk.

Learn more

The real driver of employee engagement

The key to measuring employee engagement

About the author

Having previously worked in Office 365 product marketing and within the Microsoft 365 business group, Stefano is now the Workplace Analytics Lead at Microsoft UK. His role is to help organisations get the most out of the data they already have access to within their business, so they can make smarter, more informed decisions.

The post How do you solve the employee engagement challenge? appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

You never really know what someone is thinking.

That was the thought photographer and artist Gillian Wearing had in 1992. So she took to the streets of London to begin a new project she called Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say. She approached members of the public and asked them to write down on a sign what they were thinking. Then she snapped a photo.

When the series premiered at the City Racing gallery, then later appeared at the Tate, it was praised for juxtaposing what people look like and what they think. One photo especially stood out. A well-dressed businessman holding an unexpected sign saying: I’m desperate.

It’s easy to make snap judgements about individuals or entire groups of people. Especially at work, when you’re trying to deal with lots of people and keep them all happy. And we know it’s wrong. Unfortunately, though, business leaders still do it when trying to engage millennials.

Many people think millennials are changing the way we work because they’re completely different to any generation that’s come before. They must require a completely different approach to engagement.

But if you want to truly engage someone, you have to truly understand them first.

What’s the difference?

Ian MacRae is a workplace psychologist and author of the book Myths at Work. He’s also a millennial. And as a millennial, he knows just how wrong the assumptions about his generation are. I sat down with him to find out why.

“There’s actually been a huge amount of scientific research,” Ian tells me. “And the research finds there’s no difference. Millennials vary as widely within them as any other generation. Whether it’s Gen X, Gen Y, Baby Boomers…”

Yes, it’s true that we may have up to five generations in the workplace. And millennials are contributing to a changing workplace. But what Ian has found is that there are as many differences within groups of employees as there are between groups of employees.

Like the ways they prefer to work.

The stage they’re at in their career.

Their ambitions for the future.

So it’s not just millennials. Everyone in your business is contributing to a changing workplace. And as Ian points out, “If you use stereotypes about broad groups, you’re not going to manage people effectively. You’re going to get it wrong about most people.”

When it comes to leading and engaging people, you never really know how someone responds best. Until you ask them.

Ask a millennial

When I asked Ian how he defines employee engagement, he told me, “It’s feeling passionate and really putting yourself into the work.” It made me think that, for employees, millennials or not, to put themselves into their work, they need to be able to be themselves. To not hide behind some generalisation. To be able to work how they want to work, and not how someone else thinks they should work.

Leaders have to stop trying to guess what their people are thinking. Stop treating everyone in a group the same way. And, dare I say it, stop reading blog posts about how to engage millennials at work.

Instead, engage your people as individuals. Ask what they want from their workplace, how they prefer to work, and what they’re really thinking. Like Gillian Wearing, you might be surprised at what they tell you.

I sat down with Ian MacRae, workplace psychologist and author of Myths at Work, to find out more about how generational stereotypes can get in the way of effective employee engagement. You can join the conversation here.

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