Most (if not all) organizations understand the value of employee experience, and many are developing an integrated focus on employee experience.
Investing in employee experience has many benefits:
- Happy employees are 20% more productive at work and more engaged with their work. In fact, it costs US employers $450 billion to $550 billion annually in lost revenues from disengaged employees.
- Organizations with the best employee experience achieve twice the customer satisfaction and innovation, and generate 25% higher profits.
- The heaviest investors in employee experience are 5x more likely to appear in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work. They are also 4.4x more often included in LinkedIn’s list of North America’s Most In-Demand Employers.
Despite the evidence that work culture and employee experience can have significant impacts on employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction, 64% of employees do not believe their organizations have a strong work culture. With the right employee experience strategy, you can increase your ability to attract, engage, and develop high performing talent. Here we list ways to improve the employee experience in your organization.
1) Treat employees like customers
Your people are the most important asset in your company. Understand what drives your employees, what they care about, and their pain points. Design great workforce experiences that match their needs, and find solutions to any pain points. Not only will engaged and happy employees be more productive at work, they also act as your brand ambassadors. When people love where they work, they feel valued and empowered and will talk about their job to family and friends.
Important note: treating your employees like customers is critical at offboarding as well (check out our podcast about how to fill the gaps in employee experience)! Remember that employee experience is not just focused on the current environment at the workplace, but rather it’s about creating an overall environment that improves the experience that someone has before, during, and after the job. Ex-employees act as potential business partners, potential future employees, and a source point for referrals. Ensuring that employees have a great offboarding experience as well as some sort of alumni program is critical (check out our podcast and blog about the importance of alumni programs).
“The employee experience does not end at the exit interview.” – Josh Bersin, Deloitte
2) Develop and train your employees
Ensure that your employees are trained in the tools and have the skills that they need to perform their jobs well – this will reduce friction and frustration in daily work. Offer learning opportunities to your employees – this is of particular importance to the millennials in your workforce.
Some ideas for learning opportunities include regular lunch-and-learns, giving people an annual learning stipend, and/or creating education programs for future leaders. Moreover, do not underestimate feedback as a way to develop and train your employee – providing effective feedback will not only develop your employees, but when done right, feedback can be very motivating.
3) Offer frequent recognition
Employees want to know when they have done a good job, and you want to ensure that they continue to do their job well. Recognize and celebrate jobs well done! And remember to praise wisely – value learning, perseverance, and development (not just ready-made genius or talent).
4) Ask for feedback and adapt as needed
Employee experience is not a one-and-done investment. It is a continuous effort by all employees in the organization not just HR. Remember that everybody has a role in making employees feel like they are part of the workforce community. Talk to your employees often to see how you can help create a great workplace for them.
“We have to get it out of our heads that employee experience is for HR only. We all own it regardless of what seat we sit in. We all have the opportunity to make a difference in employee experience.” John Vasellina, WWP podcast #15
How do you create a great employee experience? Let us know.
