Do you work in field of employee experience and/or engagement? And if you do, how did you get there? Chances are, it was more of a happy accident than a planned career path. Most of us who end up doing this for a living have landed here via the ‘squiggly’ route. And this is certainly what we’re finding in our recent research with EX and engagement practitioners. It’s really fascinating to hear ‘career stories’ and appreciate the weird and wonderful ways people discovered working in EX and engagement was their calling.
We’ve got HR professionals, internal communicators, psychologists, OD experts, PAs, PROs. People who have come to EX and engagement via customer experience, user experience, external comms, IT, branding, project management, facilities management, data science and many more! Like I said, it’s been a happy accident for most of us. But now it’s time to get serious. We heard loud and clear in our research that you want to understand the skills and capabilities that make up a brilliant EX/engagement professional. You want to know what your career path could look like, and how you can develop and grow in this space. And we’ll have all the answers, coming very soon!!
But one thing is clear; a traditional competency model isn’t going to cut it. In last weeks blog, we called out the broad and diverse range of things we will get involved in. And argued that perhaps the most useful skill is emotional intelligence – which enables us to be clear about our strengths, and secure enough to ask for help.
We have to avoid pulling together a big old check list of competencies accompanied by a complex list of behaviours.
So what do we need?
- A simple and clear profession map for EX and engagement
- Clarity on what it is that you can do to make the difference
- Accessible guidance on the how to deliver the outputs and outcomes required
- Recognition of the EX and engagement ‘eco-system’ as a critical contributing factor to success
We want to be crystal clear, that no-one, no matter how amazing and brilliant they are, is going to be able to bring everything to the table that’s required to design experiences that deliver engagement. And that’s ok. In fact it’s more than ok – it’s welcomed!
The work we’re doing in partnership with practitioners (who have been very generous with their time and ideas) is really shaping up now, and we’re excited – we can’t wait to share it with you!
If you’d like to be among the first to hear all about our research findings, and the profession map we’re developing, you can register your interest here.
We have some exciting developments in the pipeline, and we want passionate practitioners to join us on this journey and contribute to what comes next!
