An employee’s journey from hire to exit takes them through a variety of behaviors and experiences. Many of them could be positive but you can’t always expect all to be that. You can, however, learn from these and improve the employee experience.
Why is an effective employee experience important?
Good employee experience is crucial, for it not only determines the intent of an employee to stay with the organization but also their productivity and engagement. Organizations with engaged employees are bound to make twice the amount of revenue than organizations with disengaged employees.
Key ideas for improving the employee experience at work
This is a continuous process and organizations need to keep their eyes and ears open to better deliver on the employee experience. Here are a few ideas to improve employee experience in your organization.
- Improve your communication channels
Employees need to feel safe about communicating what they feel to their managers, HR reps, even management. Not only is it important to establish proper communication channels but also monitoring them, improving them, and opening new ones if need be. There should be ways to address all employee concerns and let them know about the resolutions. - Career pathing
An employee needs to know clearly where their efforts will take them, what phase in their journey they are and what’s next. They need to feel confident about their future, this crucial for it determines their intent to stay. - Wow them at onboarding
Onboarding experience for employees has to be spot on for it’s their first impression about the organization. According to a study, 33% of candidates with new jobs switch in the first six months. While it may not all be about onboarding, it’s safe to say a majority of that could be about that. Employees, when they join, can be extremely nervous, all you have do is make them feel welcome, make them feel like a part of the family. - Conduct one-on-ones
It’s quite necessary for managers to have regular meetings with their subordinates on a frequent basis. Regular check-ups help avoid any bottlenecks and address issues at the right time. Regular one-on-ones help build trust in employees, a key reason why employees stay back with organizations. - Employee wellness. Health and finance
With organizations having global offices and various teams, it’s hard to keep your standard working hours. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is imperative, it affects the individual and the company. You can start by inviting health experts to deliver talks, conduct sessions, run programs on Friday. An initiative like this can work wonders, be sure to involve everybody.Financial wellness is equally important, managing finances is not easy and certainly, not everyone is good at it. Do sessions on how to better manage your student loans, finances, make them vigilant of their expenses and savings. A financial guide at the workplace is a dream come true for employees. - Conduct surveys
We can’t stress on this enough, conduct regular surveys! This is a powerful tool, not only does it give you insights on what the employees think and feel but also data that can help you make decisions and improve employee-related processes. A survey doesn’t have to be long, does not need to have 100 questions, keep it simple. Try and connect with your employees. You will get honest replies, data that will help you improve the employee experience. - Customer communication
Efforts of all employees are directed towards one thing – making your customers happy. This means all customer feedback, good or bad, should be shared with your employees. This makes them feel involved, lets them know their efforts are bearing fruit, and avoid any future missteps. - Give working parents the relief they need
Managing work and kids is quite the task, even more so for single parents. Aid them with whatever flexibility you can offer, be it work timings or work from home. This helps their trust the organization, prioritize their preferences better, and manage time wisely. - Work-life balance
This never gets old, for some, it’s more difficult than others. Help them manage work-life better, arrange some talks, get some experts to the organization for sessions. This balance will help employees stay focussed at their work, improve productivity and engagement. - Celebrate achievements
Internal or external, big or small, no matter what the achievements are, they need to be celebrated. This can be as simple as sending out an organization-wide email, announcing via your social media channels, handing out small badges, or an on-the-floor announcement. Employees feel good knowing their achievements are recognized and awarded. - Have a diverse workforce
Every employee is unique, be it their approach to work, their strengths, or their knowledge. When teams have diverse members, it adds to that team’s strengths. Teammates learn from each other, share knowledge, and help their peers making them better professionals and team players. Hire or compose teams that have members with distinct abilities and strengths; the more your employees learn, the longer they tend to stay. - Salary and other benefits
Not all employees care about only salary, for some benefits hold an equal amount of importance. This could be training, employee wellness programs, health insurance, or flexibility among other things. Whatever it may be, you have to be and stay current. Speaking directly to employees about this is a good idea and managers should make notes of these during meetings. - Empathize
Whatever experience your employees go through in their tenure, you too have gone through some of them, if not all. Bank on these experiences to improve the employee experience, make changes that you think would make the experience better. Talk to employees directly, ask for their honest opinion, let them know about the positive changes they can bring about. They will be more than happy to share.
What did you do recently to improve the employee experience at your organization?
