Every business depends on its people. Whether you run a five-person start-up or a 300,000-strong conglomerate, without the right talent in the right positions you stand little chance of growing, innovating and succeeding. 

Unfortunately, for many businesses, attracting and retaining this talent has never been more difficult.

The signs are everywhere – employees are less trusting, loyalty is falling and more people are freelancing than ever before.

The big question is, what’s changed?

Well, the simple answer is employee expectations.

The typical employee now wants insight into how their businesses is run, they want opportunities to learn and they want their voice to be heard.

They also expect businesses to be responsive to their needs. If they have a question, they expect an answer immediately. If they need a certain document, they want it at their fingertips. And if they need a new laptop, they don’t want to wait weeks to receive it. 

Few organizations are agile enough to meet these new standards and as a result the job market has become more transient, with more people moving between jobs in the search of personal gratification.

So, what can you do if you’re struggling with this challenge?

We believe the answer is to start treating employees more like customers. This means understanding their needs and making every interaction they have with your business as slick, intuitive and rewarding as possible.

This is something we’re trying to do right now. 

We’re using the tech that our Trailblazer customers use to engage with their customers, to engage our employees.

1. Collaboration

For example, we’re using our enterprise social network tool, Chatter, to make it easier for our people to work together. Users can swap messages, share files and create personalised newsfeeds as they would on Facebook or Twitter. And as the platform is intuitive and familiar, there’s little need for user training.

2. Intranet. Reinvented. 

Another homegrown tool, Concierge, is helping us improve our on-boarding process. Users enter HR-related questions into a search engine and are directed towards relevant resources based on their location. This means they can get to the information they need as quickly as possible. For example, if someone wants to see our policy on parental leave they don’t have to send an email to HR, they can access it there and then on their mobile.   

3. Guided learning

Finally, Trailhead is making training more accessible to our staff. This app helps anyone in the business learn new skills and improve their product knowledge through online courses on subjects like leadership and management. Completely free and accessible on mobile, it represents a whole new learning model for us. 

And fresh off the press, just announced at this week's Dreamforce conference is myTrailhead. With myTrailhead, we are extending the Trailhead platform to enable companies to customise the learning environment with their own content and branding, from custom onboarding trails to company-specific enablement skills. 

These are the kinds of tools our employees want and expect. They make it easier for them to engage the right people, access crucial information and complete key tasks, all at precisely the right time.

Crucially, they provide the kind of experience they expect – a rewarding, frictionless, satisfying experience. 

And isn’t that something worth sticking around for? 

Want to learn about how you can transform the employee experience in your organisation? Email innovate@salesforce.com today.

To find out more about how we're treating employees like customers, check out ths on-demand webinar to see how Salesforce's CIO partnered with HR to transform the employee experience.