Delivering an Exceptional Employee Experience
The employee experience encapsulates what people encounter, observe and experience at an organisation throughout their journey as an employee.
Delivering an exceptional employee experience has been shown to have many positive flow-on effects for employees, organisations, and customers alike.
So, what are these benefits, and how can you, as a small business owner, best cultivate this to the advantage of all involved?
Milestones in the Employee Experience
The employee experience covers every stage in an employee’s lifecycle, from recruitment to retirement. Consciously cultivating your employee experience at each of these milestones will create a productive, engaged team and has been shown to impact the following areas:
Recruitment
In today's technology-rich world, people will often know a lot about your company before they even step through the door. Ex-employees can now leave reviews of their employee experience on sites such as Indeed and Seek. Negative reviews may stop quality candidates from applying for or accepting a position.
How you handle your recruitment process, from the interview to providing feedback, is all a part of the employee experience. Effective communication at this stage can make all the difference in the type of team members you attract and ultimately retain.
Staff Retention
Ensuring that new staff have a positive experience in their first few months will go a long way to retaining quality team members.
A thorough introduction to your company, including a positive onboarding process, ensures staff feel welcome, involved and can contribute to productivity long-term.
Employee Engagement
While employee experience and employee engagement are strongly intertwined, they are not the same thing.
Employee engagement is one of the puzzle pieces that contributes to a positive experience, and it represents how connected people feel to their workplace. Employee engagement is driven by learning and development opportunities, strong leadership and a focus on constant improvement.
Staff who work in a culture which fosters active engagement have been shown to contribute more to the company long-term.
The Harvard Business Review has also highlighted the connection between employee engagement and success in customer experience, which will ultimately affect your bottom line.
The Bottom Line
A good employee experience throughout all stages of your staff's journey has been proven to have an extraordinary impact on an organisation’s bottom line.
Companies who prioritise the employee experience have been shown to have four times higher average profits, two times higher average revenues, and a 40 per cent lower staff turnover.
Cultivating a Positive Employee Experience
While evaluating and honing the above areas will contribute to a positive employee experience, there are three major factors you can cultivate in your workplace to further enhance this.
In Jacob Morgan’s 2017 book, The Employee Experience Advantage he examines 250 global organisations to determine what best creates an environment where people want to show up to work, are involved and go above and beyond for their employer.
He found the following elements contribute most significantly to an exceptional employee experience:
Culture
Organisational Culture is perhaps the most essential element in delivering an excellent employee experience. While difficult to define, corporate culture can be the determining factor in whether staff are driven or drained, empowered or overrun. Company culture starts at the top with positive leadership and a people-first strategy.
Technology
In most workplaces today, technology is the central nervous system of the organisation.
Making sure any apps, software, and central management systems are user-friendly, well explained and conducive to employee communication is a vital part of an enjoyable day to day experience for your employees.
Physical Workplace
A relaxing, aesthetically pleasing workplace environment goes a long way to affecting workers productivity and peace of mind.
From the artwork on the walls to a relaxing staff lounge, from weekly catered lunches to an onsite gym or yoga classes, all these elements contribute to a positive employee experience and happier, healthier staff.
Investing in these key areas throughout all stages of an employee's experience will guarantee your company recruits and retains exemplary staff who remain engaged and committed to delivering the best outcomes for their co-workers, company and customers.
At Infinity HR we work with SMEs across the manufacturing and construction sectors to help create exceptional employee experiences. Contact Iolanda today at iolanda@infinityhr.com.au or call 0400 489 743 to learn more.
References:
Design Your Employee Experience as Thoughtfully as You Design Your Customer Experience
Jacob Morgan, 2017, Wiley, The Employee Experience Advantage