Why a Good Employee Experience is Vital with Lila Nazef, Neocase

In HRchat episode 475, we ask what did the Great Resignation do to place extra emphasis on the need to keep employees happy? Listen too as we consider some lessons businesses can take from good customer experience to improve the employee experience.

Our guest today is Lila Nazef, Vice President of Sales & Marketing (North America) at Neocase, a pioneering Saas platform for automating HR Service Delivery. 

Questions For Lila Include: 

• What are some emerging trends within technology that you are seeing in the HR industry?
• What do you think are some of the impacts and future implications that these trends will have? 
• What is Neocase doing to prepare and support organizations through these changes? 
• What is the latest product/projects that Neocase is focusing on?
• You talk a lot about employee experience. Why is employee experience so important at the moment?
• What did the Great Resignation do to place extra emphasis on the need to keep employees happy? Do you think things could change if we enter a recession?
• What are some lessons businesses can take from a system that ensures a positive customer experience in order to improve the employee experience?

About Neocase

Neocase is the pioneering Saas platform for automating HR Service Delivery. Their clients use Neocase to achieve faster time to value through reduced implementation costs and make real productivity gains by reducing the time spent on administrative tasks through processes automation and workflow efficiencies. Their HR digital platform includes collaborative Case Management, Business Process Automation, Electronic Document Management, Personalized Knowledge Base, Self-Service Portal, Pre/Onboarding, Transitioning, and Off-boarding workflows and Analytics. Delivered in the cloud and leveraging the latest technological innovations, the Neocase® solutions integrate with core HR platforms including Workday (Certified Partner), SAP/SF, Oracle, Talentsoft and other third-party applications to achieve seamless user experience and automation.

 Recognized by industry analysts and currently supporting over 6 million employees across 180 countries, Neocase is used daily by industry leaders including MGM Resorts, Bank of New York-Mellon, Smiths Group, Merck, Société Générale, Baker Hughes, World Bank, Thales Group, Renault, Air France, Canadian Tire, MAIF, Harrods, UCB, AXA, PSA Peugeot Citroën and many more. Learn mor

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the HR Chat podcast, bringing the best of the HR talent and leadership communities to you. For more episodes and the latest articles covering what's new in the world of work, visit hr gazette.com. Subscribe and follow us on social media.

Speaker 2: 0:21

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. I'm your host today, Bill Bannum, and in this HR Chat episode, we're gonna ask, what did the great resignation do to place extra emphasis on the need to keep employees happy? Listen to, as we consider some lessons businesses can take from good customer experience to improve their employee experience. My guest today is Lela naf, Vice President of Sales and Marketing North America at Neo Case, a pioneering SaaS platform for automating HR service delivery. Hey, Lela, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the HR Chat Show today.

Speaker 3: 1:00

Hey, good morning, Phil. I'm so happy and excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: 1:06

So, beyond my reintroduction there, Lela, please take a minute and tell our listeners a bit about yourself, your career background and, and what you get up to. But don't tell them too much about Neo Case yet. We'll get into that in just a moment.

Speaker 3: 1:19

All right. So, um, introducing myself in a minute. Uh, well, I'm dla I've been working in the HR space for the last 14 years. Uh, uh, I would say bit by accident or chance, like to see a chance. Uh, um, I really like to help, uh, people and, uh, and talk to people. So from, uh, a background in engineering, I had a chance to work, um, to work in hr. I discovered the fabulous world of HR and HR transformation. How can you impact, uh, a company and, uh, all that path of people and do better, be happier, service better? And I've been doing that for the last 14 years in various capacities. Uh, I think, uh, one of my favorite roles was the, uh, customer happiness, uh, uh, director, um, before moving to my current role.

Speaker 2: 2:20

Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much. Now, tell, tell me all about Neo Case. Tell me about the, the company and how it helps HR pros and leaders.

Speaker 3: 2:29

Neo Case is, um, originally a French based company, but we all, we have a big presence in, uh, United States. Uh, uh, we've been on the market for the last 20 years. Um, uh, mainly focusing on, uh, more than just hr, I would say the entire employee experience. Um, everything that revolves around the employee, uh, making sure that they have an awesome experience, um, from the day that they hear about the company in an interview, and, uh, they accept an offer, they've been extended an offer, they accept an offer truly on entire onboarding, pre-boarding journey, and what we call the employee life cycle to the, uh, to the end of the employment. That can be retirement, uh, or an exit, voluntary and voluntary exits. And, uh, what happens after, You know, it's all about, uh, really that experience and, um, how do we service people, as we all know? Well, um, if you offer to your employees the same service as you offer to your clients, that makes you a fantastic company to work for and a thriving one.

Speaker 2: 3:42

Perfect. Thank you very much. Le So tell me now, what are some emerging trends within technology that you are seeing within the HR industry?

Speaker 3: 3:51

Well, I would say very interesting question because if you have asked me the question couple years ago, my answer would have been, I would say completely different. Uh, but I hear a lot, uh, talking to my clients, my prospect, or how I like to call them my partners, is that, um, employees now, they wanna have an impact on the company they work for. So it's not just about a position, it's not just about a job. It's really about the value that, uh, they will have, uh, um, within the company. What does that mean? That means that if you wanna attract an employee, well, you have to offer more than just a competitive salary. You have really to offer a vision, you have to offer an experience. Employees are expecting the same experience that they have on, um, on Amazon when they go shopping on Netflix, when they watch a movie, then when they are within their company. So they, they are accustomed to that type of treatment, so they expect the same thing. So that makes some the HR task, Yeah, I will say even more interesting because they have to adjust and transform and find different ways to attract talents and after we attract the right talents, when we have to keep them, and how do we keep these talents by offering that experience. Um, so we have really to work around, uh, um, all these, uh, HR struggles. Um, no one wants to be doing onboarding forever. No one's, no one likes to be filling papers, uh, forever. If I'm an engineer, I wanna have an impact. I don't spend my time doing administration that had a big impact into the industry. And, uh, having access to the information right away is one of the, the trends. So no one wants to go to an office and look for Bill's file and in a cabinet and spent 10, uh, 10 hours looking for the right file. No, they wanna go online. They wanna go to a portal, look for Bill's name, and find all his history and all the informations so they can service him right away and better. So really big transformation to, to the big pandemic and, um, the impact that the pandemic had on people and, um, directly on companies.

Speaker 2: 6:25

So let's carry that forward a little bit then. What do you think are some of the impacts and future implications that these trends will have?

Speaker 3: 6:34

Big one. Um, so if we take a study from the, uh, grant research in 2022, the HR management market is valued to about 16 billion. What does that mean? That means that we are investing in, into HR and, uh, let's see how technology can help shape, uh, the future of hr. Um, mobile, definitely people are expecting, as I say, the same experience they have from their vendors. Um, they expect the same thing from their employers. So hr, um, directly at your fingertip, if I can say that. Um, mobile experience, amazing employee journey. And, uh, uh, if I take it from the other way around, companies to thrive, they need to attract the right talents. So they need to get away from all these, uh, administrative tasks and offer something that has more value so their employees can also deliver value and thrive together.

Speaker 2: 7:49

Okay. So what, what do you guys fit in Lela? What is Neo case doing to prepare and support organizations through these changes?

Speaker 3: 7:57

Well, Neo Case is very agile company. Um, I've could experience that really firsthand. I've been with New Case for the last 14 years, and, um, we've seen the market change and the response was really fantastic. Um, new case delivers on what we call an employee journey that really supports these entire experience. As I said, your experience with the company starts from the day you accept an offer and, uh, through the entire pre-boarding, onboarding, transitions, what we call the employee life events. Um, because you know, when you join a company, well, you get a new house, you get a new car, maybe you extending your family, maybe you wanna go and, uh, take classes and or go on a sabbatical. All these, uh, things that happens within what we call your employee life cycle new case offers a platform that really supports, um, the employee in terms of experience, but also the company, um, on supporting the employee journey. Um, we streamline the processes, we make them really easy and fast. I would just take an example of one of my clients, uh, big company in the gas, um, oil industry. They're about 50,000 or more. They said, Well, the old fashioned way of, uh, doing an onboarding, they said, Well, we have to create, uh, a contract, we have to print it, we have to send it. And, uh, by the time the person gets it, they have to sign it and send it back. It takes 20 days. They said, Well, when we have technology, all of that takes two days. What does that mean? That means that, uh, we are getting our employees to the workforce faster. By, on the same time we're improving the experience and also reducing our costs. I call that a win-win. So this is what Neil Case delivers.

Speaker 2: 10:05

I'd also call that a win-win. Well done. Good work. Okay. Um, so have you got any exclusives for me, Lela, anything that you,<laugh> you could share with the audience today in terms of, uh, latest products or projects that do Case is, is currently focusing on and is about the shout about?

Speaker 3: 10:23

Absolutely. So New Case is all about innovation, and it's really all about, uh, that experience that we add to the employees. So we have, uh, um, in our portal that is available on mobile and a, um, what we call the Netflix experience. Uh, so typically when you go do, remember when you go to, when you watch a movie on Netflix that everyone watches Netflix, including me, didn't have TV for four years. So it says, Lea, you watch a, a show, it's called abc. We think that you might like this show one and this show two, because they got to know me well with hr. Um, the way that what we deliver, we have artificial intelligence that says, Well, Nina, we've seen you that, um, you are looking, you're having a baby, and, uh, we think that, uh, you might be interested in learning about what the company offers as benefits. Uh, how, how does that work when you, uh, return back from maternity leave? Um, um, do we offer anything for your baby? Um, we can take care of that. So proactively, the, the system gets to know me or gets to know what's happening in my life. We call the employee events all the life cycle and then suggest information. So as an employee, I don't have to wonder or go and just have all these unanswered questions, I am guided in a path. Um, so I know I'm not so wondering, should I really call my manager and see how that works? Um, do I get any benefits? How do I struggle? Do I get an an hour extra to fit my baby? No, the system knows me proactively suggest informations that really, um, helps shapes the experience. And, um, this is really based on who I am, me personally, if you build, you're going on sabbatical for other reasons, will it give you another experience? And if there are things happening to the company that will impact me, would proactively also give me all these informations. So, so a lot of AI and uh, really it's all about the employee, um, experience. And, um, just going back to my favorite words, the win-win, our clients, uh, reported that, uh, by using, um, these proactive informations, well, the questions that are coming to what we call the tier one of the HR generalist have been, uh, reduced between 50 to 90% because employees find the information proactively by themselves on the portal. Um, happy customer, happy employee, and uh, um, HR on the other in the other hand where they can focus on more added value tasks instead of sitting there to respond to hr, uh, questions where the information is already there and available. So they can really work on adding value To me, li as an employee, that would be the trend, um, on what we're working on these days.

Speaker 2: 13:48

Okay, Thanks Li. So you talk a lot about employee experience. I mean, I, I found loads by you on, on LinkedIn and elsewhere, uh, specifically focused on how important it is, is to get it right. Why is employee experience so important at the moment? And they're gonna challenge you, uh, to answer in 60 seconds or less

Speaker 3: 14:09

Challenge accepted. Why when we talk about the employee experience, because we cannot stress it enough, Um, employees are your greatest assets and, um, you have to get the experience right really, uh, off the bat. You don't get the second chance. Uh, um, how many no-show, uh, are recorded by companies, no-show or employees dropping within the first month, the first year are direct, I would say losses to the company. And, um, that's why we really stress it. It's the employee experience starts even before the employee joins you. So if they have an awful on a pre boarding, they will be like, I'm I sure, uh, about my decision. If it's already starting this way, how is it gonna be when I will be there? So this is all the questions that are very human, that people an ask themselves. And, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the response is very easy. Make a good impression cause you get only one chance to make a good first impression and keep it going the same way employee experience. Employees are your most valuable assets. Make it right and, um, you can make it all right with nail case. Just a tip for you. I think I did it in 60 seconds, Phil,

Speaker 2: 15:40

With a cheeky little plug right at the end there. Love it. Love it. Okay, um,<laugh>, let, let's, uh, let's talk a bit about the great resignation. Well, what did the great resignation do to place extra emphasis on the need to keep employees happy? And maybe as part of that answer, Lela, you can also suggest what you think things or how things could change if we enter a recession. I mean, typic, or technically right now in the US it is a recession, uh, as we record this in early August, Although, uh, the way the government is defining it and, uh, rightfully, wrongfully, because, you know, there were 258,000 more jobs created in the month of July in the us. So that doesn't sound like any recession that we've seen before. Um, but you know, if, if we do go into recession, how could things change?

Speaker 3: 16:26

Very good point. So we start with the resignation. So what happened, uh, the last, uh, the last year, I can, I hear it all the time from my partners, uh, my clients, they say, Well, we are expecting a high, uh, turnover. And, uh, our talents are living, they're living for various reasons. And the first reason is they want purpose. They want more money for sure, because everything is getting like, so expensive, but they want purpose. And, um, the two years of pandemic really reshaped that. So with the impact on companies, they have to be smarter, um, more agile and adapt and see how they can get all these talents to work for them and to keep them. Because, you know, when you lose a talent, well, you're losing, um, you're losing money, you're losing your value, you're losing your assets, and, uh, the cause of replacing that is tremendous. Um, I went to, um, conference, it's called the Irresistible. And uh, honestly 80% of the subject was were about, uh, talent acquisition and how we keep them. So we talk about this great resignation because people are like, Okay, I wanna have purpose in my life. And now we talk about, um, the, um, how do we call it the recession. So companies, when it comes to hard times like recession, um, it's even more important to keep your talent be more, um, attractive. And so you can be more competitive when you have the right assets, the right talent, you are producing more value to your, um, cus consumers customers, makes you more, uh, competitive on the market. So you will not just survive a recession, you will thrive. How many companies, you know, Bill did thrive through recessions a lot and, uh, why or how? Well it's by being adaptive and the getting the right assets to deliver the right value to their consumers and keep them more than competitive, uh, in this market. I hope that answers your question, Bill.

Speaker 2: 18:54

It certainly does. It certainly does. Um, over the last couple of weeks, Leila<laugh>, the, the topic of the recession has, has been coming up more and more. And I feel like it will be over, over more and more episodes over the next few weeks. Um, some people keep telling me, Bill, you, you're helping everyone else talk, talk us talk ourselves into a recession by publicizing it. Don't do it, Bill, don't talk about it. But I dunno, I think it's important to, to give it some attention cuz things are uncertain at the moment, that's for sure. Uh, Lela, before we wrap up, we've just got two more questions for you. I can't believe it, things are going very quickly. Um, next one. What, what are some lessons that businesses can take from a system that ensures a positive customer experience so it they, they can then improve their employee experience?

Speaker 3: 19:41

Really good point. So, so businesses can learn from the most thriving companies. The most thriving companies are the companies where employees are happy. They feel like they are part of something bigger and they feel like almost they're invested by your mission. So businesses can really learn from that, treat your employees the same way that you want them to treat your consumers. That's, that's a secret. And, uh, how do we do that? Well be open, go learn about the technology that can help you. Technology is here to serve you because of technology. We are doing better, we are doing amazing things. And, uh, um, just, uh, don't be afraid of a change. Um, you know what I noticed, uh, when my 14 years of experience with HR is that the, um, the biggest challenge is really the change. How do I, um, change my way of thinking as a company is saying, Well, I need to embrace new things. I need to embrace technology, I need to embrace, uh, new way of thinking. Um, well embrace it because if you don't change, if you don't evolve when others will come ahead of you and you won't have your, your partner anymore in the, uh, on the market. So a neo case can help you with that.

Speaker 2: 21:14

Okay. And if folk like, Okay, well let's check out Neo, okay, see what, see what they can do and how they can help me. Um, maybe now's the time to tell them how they can learn more, how they can check out the case. And also, of course, how can they connect with you, Lela, Um, perhaps you wanna share your email address, your LinkedIn profile, maybe you are really cool and you're all over Instagram and TikTok and elsewhere,

Speaker 3: 21:38

<laugh>, that's really a good point. So how to learn about Neo case? I would be sharing, uh, our website to go to neo case software.com. There is a get, uh, get in touch, um, robot. You, Evan can see my photo there as an avatar. You click there, you book time with me, we'd be happy to talk to you. You have access to my calendar. Um, I'm available anytime I live in beautiful California, but trust me, I'm up at four in the morning just to talk to people. This is how much I love people. I would love to share my Instagram, but that would be really for foodie because the only thing you can find on my Instagram is food and pastries because on top of HR I love cooking and baking, just going back to the, uh, loving people. So my LinkedIn is available as well. Um, lillan na uh, you will find me with always smiling on LinkedIn. Uh, just get in touch there, connect with me. Um, I always respond to people happy to chat, um, and just see how we can be a good fit and uh, how we can really, really help you. So that will be my pleasure.

Speaker 2: 22:51

Excellent. Well that just leads me to say for today, Lela, thank you so much for being my guest on this episode of the HR Chat Show.

Speaker 3: 22:58

Thank you, Bill. Pleasure was all mine, so I hope to be back.

Speaker 2: 23:02

Absolutely. We're gonna get you back on very soon. I'll hold you to that. But for now, that just leads me to say as always, listeners, until next time, happy working.

Speaker 1: 23:13

Thanks for listening to this episode of vh our Chat podcast. There are hundreds of conversations with business experts available for free on the h or Gazette website, Apple, Spotify, and all the main platforms. And remember to like, subscribe and follow us on social media.