Employee experience is considered to be the overall experience an employee has encountered, observed and felt while being a part of an organization. It encompasses of professional and personal relationships an employee builds over the years.
These experiences shape the health of your organization. If you value customer experience in your organization then you ought to understand the importance of employee experience, because it’s your employees help you provide the right customer experience to your clients and customers.
If you are serious about employee experience and how to find the perfect employee experience strategy to implement at your workplace, ask the following questions to yourself:
- How do employees view the overall workplace culture?
- Are they happy with the policies and procedures?
- Do they relate to the leadership of the organization?
- Are they engaged enough at the workplace?
- Are they likely to refer their friends and family to the organization?
These are a few questions that will give you that initial push to understand what your employees are feeling and experiencing. These questions are introspective and a good way to start thinking about changing your strategy if needed.
One more question that keeps popping in my mind is, why are so many leaders beginning to take a more holistic approach to the workplace? The answer is simple, workplaces are more transparent now than ever!
Employers prefer not to hide behind the flashy “stuff” they provide to the employees (like free snacks or Fussball) they want employees to experience a culture that not only facilitates professional but also personal growth. What happens at a workplace can go public quickly and potential job seekers are paying attention.
Attracting the right talent is very important. These are the people who are going to stay longer in your organization it will only help elevate or improve employee retention. If employees experience good things at work they are more likely to recommend the organization as a suitable workplace to their family and friends. In short, the emotional experience of employees can no longer be taken for granted.
So now you must be asking yourself, how do I create a stellar organization that provides the most conducive atmosphere to my employees? First of all, you have to provide the same experience to your employees as you may want them to provide to your customers.
This may even require redesigning your company policies and even the age-old strategies that you think are working. This may sound overwhelming to start with. I am here to help, in the next section, I have listed down the top 10 ways to perfect employee experience strategy that will help you create a foolproof employee experience.
Top 10 ways to perfect employee experience strategy
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Keep job application simple
A common misconception that I would like to bust right now is employee experience begins when your employees walk into your office doors on day one. Delete! This experience begins when they start filling out the job application.
Your employee experience starts with your potential candidates and how satisfied are they with the experience provided to them right from the very beginning. The best way to win over your competition is if you are able to provide these future employees with a flawless application system.
One very important thing that most organizations fail to do is acknowledge the receipt of the job application. Most organization fail to revert to a candidate if their candidature is not suitable for the advertised position and this is a big no-no! If they don’t fit they need to know, so they can try elsewhere. Make it simple for them.
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Hire the right talent
Competition to hire the top talent is fierce as a result even the applicants are weighing their options and their expectations are higher than ever. In this race, it is bound that you will be tensed, what if you miss out on hiring the right talent?
One way to attract and hire the right talent is to give them an experience above and beyond their expectations. Once you hire them, make sure your Human Resources team is in touch with them on a regular basis, make sure their concerns are attended to immediately. Ask what more can you do for them and not vice versa.
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Know your “WHY”
Simon Sinek is inspiring great leaders to think differently, in his legendary TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, he discussed what differentiates organizations that are inspired from those who are not.
According to Sinek, organizations that know their “why” lead from the front and when your leadership is inspired enough it the same energy that penetrated within the organization, right from the mailroom to the CEO’s chamber.
Top talent is not inspired by paychecks and simple perks or free snacks, they need inspired leadership. So don’t hold back from experiencing and expressing your why. Tout your organization’s mission and inspire confidence amongst your employees.
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Amazing onboarding experience
Research has shown that an amazing onboarding experience significantly increases employee engagement and employee retention. If you want your new employees to achieve long-term success in your organization make sure to give them an amazing experience right from the very beginning.
You need to openly talk about the organization’s culture, the unspoken rules and the associations he/she needs to make. Here are a few things you can do to make new employees comfortable early on:
- Share with them login credentials, make sure their desk is set up in advance.
- Brief them about company history, make sure they understand the vision, mission, and goals of the organization.
- Introduce your new hire to his/her teammates, organize an ice-breaking session if that helps.
- Set the tone right from day one. They need to know what is expected of them.
- Make sure to arrange a one-on-one meeting with the manager so his/her KRA and responsibilities are clear.
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Celebrate your employees
Your employees are your assets. Take some time to acknowledge their hard work and the efforts they put in on a regular basis to make sure the organization achieves success year over year. In some organizations, they get together on Fridays to give a shoutout to an employee who has been exceptional with work over that particular week.
Some might argue and say it is an extravagant use of the organization’s time and resources. But I feel a little good deed can take you far. Your employees value the simplest gesture, it doesn’t have to be as grand as buying them a new car (although I know organizations who go that extra mile), a simple trophy or winner badge handed to them will make their day.
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Get frequent employee feedback
When working on improving employee experience it is important you know the greatest resource that we talking about here are the employees. Take frequent employee feedback, as them what is working and what’s not working.
Keep a tab on the pulse of the organization, see how your organization is evolving. Meet with your employees outside the four walls of the office, encourage your managers to talk to the employees in a more informal setup. Give your employees the confidence their feedback is valuable and will not be used against them.
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Implement feedback
Collecting feedback is not enough, you need to be intentional about it. Sometimes employee experience is improving upon the things that your company is already doing well. Other days it is about addressing issues or redesigning the experience altogether.
Whatever you decide to do make sure you implement the feedback. Don’t just collect feedback because other organizations are doing it, remember no two organizations can be identical. You will need to do things differently for your organization in order to achieve success.
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Communicate (regularly)
Nobody likes to keep speculating. As an organization, your first step to achieving effective communication is communicating on a regular basis. There are many tools in the market that facilitate business communication.
Invest in some of these good tools and software which will enable you to regularly communicate with the entire organization. Make your managers responsible, ask them to speak to their teams, send out company information on email, if you are multi-locational make sure to conduct weekly meetings that involve the entire organization.
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Evaluate
According to a study conducted by Gallup, nearly 60% of employees said they need feedback on a regular basis to help them improve their working style. Millennials look forward to feedback, Be transparent with your employees.
There is a difference between constructive feedback and criticism, as rightly pointed by Dale Carnegie. Be clear on what basis and attribute their performance will be evaluated and whether their progress is where it is supposed to be.
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Be flexible
There is nothing more putting off than a micromanaging manager. Give your employees the liberty to think out of the box, trust your employees. If they need to work from home, give them that option or let them sit wherever they want within the office space.
This not only facilitates a happy and positive atmosphere at work but also brings more autonomy to the workplace. Your employees start owning up things and this ultimately leads to employee loyalty.
Interested in knowing more?
Amazing! We’d love to help you improve or elevate employee experience in your organization. To learn more write to us at success@questionpro.com or book a demo.
