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- The overall experience every employee has with their job.
- Employee engagement from recruiting the employee to the employee having the exit interview.
- An opportunity to increase external company reputation.
You work so hard to keep your employees engaged. You have parties, you have company wide events, or even just do things like donut day. Anything you can think of that will keep your employees engaged. And if you’re having a hard time with employee engagement, check out Megan Sheridan’s recent blog; 9 Fun Summer Office Party Ideas. But what if parties and events just aren’t enough? Because I’m here to tell you…you may need to start doing more.
What The Employee Experience Is
It’s never fun to hear that what you’re doing isn’t enough. It’s like when you were in school and would finish the front side of the worksheet only to learn that there’s more to do on the other side. Gosh middle school sucked. But the return you can get from implementing the employee experience just might make it worth it.
So before we get ahead of ourselves lets go over what the employee experience is. The employee experience is the totality of everything an employee observes, comes in contact with, and participates in throughout their time with a company. I’m talking from the first point of contact as a potential employee to the last second in their exit interview. All that and everything in between is the employee experience.
You have everything for what the employee experience is, but this is a new concept, so lets also go over everything that the employee experience is not.
- Treating Employees Like Clients – Treating your employees like your clients or customers can be a start for understanding the employee experience, but the relationship and value between employer and employee is a little different than company and client. So with that being said, viewing the employee experience as treating your employees like clients is more of an incomplete approach to the employee experience. For your employee you have to dig deeper. Go farther with the relationship and experience. A lot of companies stop with their clients or consumers once the sale has been made, but you can’t have that same thought process when it comes to your employees. You have to continue the experience and making it great for your employees even after they’ve become engaged with the company.
- Awesome Parties and Cool Perks – Cool perks like ping pong tables in the breakroom or holiday parties are just that. Sure those things are great, but remember what we talked about at the start of the blog…it’s more than just occasional fun in the office. The employee experience should be treated as a strategy with the purpose of creating an experience that aligns overall with the company culture you have or aspire to have. Focus on the everyday experiences that your employees have. Ensure that your employees are aligned with the organization’s mission and promote quality leadership throughout.
- Employee Engagement – The definition for employee engagement goes as follows:
So what does that mean? It’s pretty much saying getting your employees engaged is getting your employees to commit to your company and their jobs. That’s the end goal, but having a quality employee experience is the means to reaching that goal. You have to create and manage an employee experience that will make for better engagement.
- A New and Better HR – Yes, a new and improved HR would play a large role when focusing on the employee experience (on-boarding, recruiting, creating company culture). But that won’t just do it. That only improves one part of the employee experience. But I’ve said it multiple times, the employee experience is so much more than that. It’s the overall experience from start to finish for every employee.
- Company/Employer Branding – There is a war for making sure you get the best talent for your organization. You have to make sure that you can compete. Most companies try to create an external reputation for their brand to attract that great talent. But it’s not about trying to brand your company, it’s having an employee experience where employees enjoy their day-to-day experiences that creates an authentic positive reputation for your organization.
The Benefits of the Employee Experience
The employee experience, the employee experience. I keep talking about it, but still haven’t gone over the benefits. So without further ado…lets get into the benefits of building an engaging employee experience for your organization. Research founded by Jacob Morgan, author of “The Employee Experience Advantage”, found that companies that focused on their employee experience were:
- Named 11 times as often in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work
- Listed 4 times as often in LinkedIn’s list of North America’s Most In-Demand Employers
- 28 times more often listed on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies
- Listed 2 times as often on the Forbes list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies
- 2 times as often found in the American Customer Satisfaction Index
Now those are some strong stats.
But why do they matter?
It’s Not Broke…Why Fix It?
You’ve been hearing about employee engagement forever. Heck, we even preach it. Focusing on employee engagement can be impactful for your company, but it’s sort of like having a flip phone. “A flip phone?! Robert, what the heck are you talking about?” Yes you read that right, a flip phone. Only focusing on the employee engagement is like having a flip phone. It’s going to work and still make phone calls and even send some text messages, but that’s about it. But building a full employee experience is like popping open the box for a brand new smartphone! It’s the sleek new phone on the market, and it does a lot more than just make phone calls and send text. And trust me when I say this, just like the smartphone, having an entire employee experience will be a lot more attractive to millennials and that young talent that your company is going to need. Because if you didn’t know…there’s a lot of jobs but not a lot of available talent at the moment.
The job market is currently filled with positions, but not enough talent to fill it. What does that mean? Employers need talent more than talent needs employers. So don’t you think it would make sense to position your company as one of the best companies to work for? You don’t want to be seen as just the flip phone that can only makes calls and can send text messages. Aspire to be a smartphone! Because it’s so much more.
Will This Be The Future?
Will the employee experience be the future…I sure hope so! But it’s not up to me, that’s up to you! Doubling down on your employee experience could provide huge returns, and help attract the best talent. And in times where employers must do more to attract the best talent…the employee experience could be the best thing for you and your employees.
Closing Thoughts
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