Breathing Life into the Employee Experience

“I don’t think experience is something that can be worked on. I think it’s a fluid living, breathing entity. And I like to ask a question from our core team in HR and marketing, ‘What will bring more life to the employee experience?’”

Marija Zivanovic-Smith is the Executive Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs at NCR Corporation. Among Marija’s many responsibilities are the global brand strategy and execution, sales enablement, digital marketing, public affairs and communicating with NCR’s 38,000 employees. In this episode, she talks about celebrating employee stories, engaging them with the NCR intranet, “Bridge,” and understanding employees’ emotional responses through machine learning and neuroscience.

“How do we get the engagement of 38,000 people so they feel connected? Engagement that is ongoing? Engagement that makes them an active participant in our brand, in our vision, in our story, in our strategy? This is about being human. Yes, tools and technology. They play a role. But this is about connection, communication, empathy. It’s about understanding each other.”

• How to foster brand loyalty among employees
• What to build into your company’s intranet to encourage engagement
• The importance of including an element of social impact in your EX

“The beauty of our employee experience is in our global nature. We operate in over 100 countries, so that global nature creates cultural richness. But at the same time, we’re constantly trying to figure out how to create a customized experience that is locally relevant. And that might be different from someone in a smaller town in Asia versus someone who’s operating in one of our larger campuses in Belgrade or in Atlanta. It is a real challenge because you have to think about how to preserve brand consistency and brand experience that is fair and engaging for all.”