What is Employee Experience And Why is it Important?
Employee experience has been a topic of concern for many organizations, especially after the outbreak of COVID-19, where most employees have been working from home.
Striking a perfect balance between work and personal life and attending hours of Zoom calls have been concerning for most employees. Though the overall employee productivity of your organization may have increased, the emotional disconnect may also have increased.
This is why it is high time to work on improving employee experience in your company. A 2020 HR sentiment survey done by Future Workplace shows that 50% of business leaders and HR feel the need to make the employee experience their top priority.
If you’re wondering why employee experience is important and what measures you can take to improve it, then this guide will help you with just that.
What is Employee Experience?
Employee experience refers to everything an employee experiences at work – starting from the onboarding, interactions with superiors, teamwork, work culture, etc. It is a holistic term that takes into account all the experiences of an employee in your organization.
Why is Employee Experience Important?
Employee experience plays a key role in the growth and development of any organization.
Simply focusing on productivity and quality of work wouldn’t suffice. It is important that your employees have a pleasant overall experience within your organization.
Here are a few reasons why employee experience is very important:
1. Better engagement – Improving employee experience leads to better employee engagement. When employees are better engaged and invested, it automatically leads to better productivity and lowered absences. Disengaged employees can lead to huge monetary losses for any company.
2. Increased productivity and quality of work – With good employee experience and engagement, you’ll automatically see increased productivity amongst employees.
They’ll have a better sense of belonging and will genuinely want to contribute to the growth of your company. This leads to a better quality of work and improvement in employee performance.
3. Increased employee retention – When employees feel more satisfied and happy at work, the likelihood of employee churn will also reduce. Hence, a better employee experience leads to higher employee retention rates.
4. Attract better talent – By offering good employee experience and good work culture, your company will attract better and more qualified talent. Word of mouth and better awareness will help you attract high-performing employees into your organization.
5. Better customer relations – Happy employees equal happy customers. Better engaged employees will ensure that they put in the best performance to ensure that your company has better customer relations.
6. Higher profitability for your company – Increased employee engagement, better productivity, better customer relations – all these factors ultimately lead to improved profitability for your company.
How to Improve Employee Experience?
Now that you understand the importance of improving employee experience let’s look at some actionable tips that will help you improve your company’s employee experience.
1. Invest in the Right Software
Investing in the right tools can be a game-changer for employee experience in your organization. The right set of tools can ease the communication with your employees, streamline processes, ensure increased productivity, and lead to better employee engagement.
Ensure that you invest in good communication tools that enable hassle-free communication with your employees. Better communication with your employees will lead to increased engagement and a better employee experience.
It is also important to invest in good workplace management software that enables you to maximize workplace efficiency, ensure accurate payroll, and leads to an amazing workplace experience by keeping your employees more engaged.
2. Improve Communications
It is vital to ensure healthy 2-way communication between you and your employees. Having honest conversations about your employees’ goals and expectations from the company will lead to better employee satisfaction.
It is also important to communicate your expectations with your employees. You should set goals and enable a continuous feedback system that will keep your employees motivated to learn and grow more.
3. Take a Holistic Approach
Simply focusing on the quality of work and performance is definitely not the point of employee experience. The mental and emotional well-being of your employees also matter. This should especially be a crucial area of focus when your employees are working from home.
To keep your employees engaged, you can encourage recreational team activities that encourage healthy competition and allow your employees to open up more. You can also have one-on-one connections with your employees to understand their emotional and mental well-being and take measures to work on the feedback.
4. Understand Your Employees’ Goals
Employee experience requires you to take an interest in your employees’ needs and expectations. Your employees should be able to grow and achieve their goals while working towards your organization’s goals.
Hence, you must ensure that you understand the goals and objectives of your employees. You should take an active interest in their interests and take measures to ensure that your employees are getting closer to their professional goals.
Final Thoughts
Employee experience is a very important aspect of any company’s growth, and it’s high time you take steps to improve employee experience, if not already.
Using the tips provided in the guide, you’ll be able to bring about positive changes in the employee experience. By taking these measures, you’ll soon notice better employee engagement, employee retention, and profitability of your organization.
