Elevate Business Performance Through Employee Experience

What Is the Employee Experience?

Companies are strongly invested in maximizing the customer experience by investing in strategies, tactics, and overall actions that are focused on delivering such an experience. This approach can also be focused on employees since they’re arguably a company’s greatest assets. 

The employee experience encompasses what people feel, encounter, and observe throughout their time with a company. This includes their interactions with coworkers, your company policies, and their workspace, whether it’s physical or virtual.

Each employee’s experience is subjective. Their well-being and experience are affected by how they feel at work and how much potential they believe they have to excel within your company. 

The employee experience is personal and you can’t directly control it, but your company’s policies, processes, working conditions, and overall culture play a role in influencing their experience. 

The tech company NVIDIA, for example, has an employee-based culture that focuses on its employees’ well–being. They support a positive working experience and have implemented policies that encourage employees to prioritize their families and a healthy work-life balance. Employees have the opportunity to advance in their roles within the company, which most people would consider to be a positive experience. 

What may seem like minor factors will also influence the employee experience. If your employee is constantly using outdated video conferencing software that freezes or is slow, this will negatively impact their employee experience. 

Why? Because your employee won’t be able to effectively communicate with their teammates, which could make it harder to get work done or exchange information. 

Why Employee Experience Matters

The customer experience has long been the focus of many companies, but it’s not all that determines whether your business fails or succeeds. 

Rapid social and economic changes impact how work is performed and organized and make employee experiences as important as customer experiences. The employee experience has emerged as a vital aspect of sustained business success with entire roles and departments within a company dedicated to it. 

In fact, according to the  Harvard Business Review, companies with better employee experiences tend to perform well in areas like customer experience. 

An improved employee experience is also the driving force behind subsequent revenue. Companies with great employee experiences have more successful innovations that derive higher amounts of revenue. They also have Net Promoter Scores that are twice as high compared to those scores from companies that lack a positive employee experience. 

A positive employee experience impacts business performance metrics. When your employees feel valued and rewarded, have a strong connection with you, and are satisfied with their work environment, they’re more likely to be engaged throughout their time with your company. 

Work engagement is directly influenced by the employee experience. More-engaged employees achieve higher performance on positive business outcomes while significantly lessening negative outcomes.

According to Gallup, highly engaged employees have:

• 43% less turnover (in a low-turnover organization)
• 18% less turnover (in a high-turnover organization)
• 41% fewer defects in quality measures
• 81% less absenteeism
• 23% higher profitability
• 18% higher sales productivity
• And 10% higher customer engagement

Your employees’ experiences will determine whether they’re satisfied and happy with their work. Those with positive experiences are more engaged and likely to stay with your company. With the shifts in the labor market, employees are now redefining what they find acceptable for workplace experience. 

For the general employee experience to be improved within your company, strategies must move beyond a focus on providing competitive pay and benefits. Employees now value opportunities for growth, learning, and flexible work experiences. They also prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Negative experiences can make a difference in an employee staying with your company or moving elsewhere. Employee experience is a metric that can’t be ignored. 

Designing creative employee experiences supports greater engagement and retention and is a critical part of accomplishing your company’s goals and objectives. 

How To Improve Employee Experience

Improving employee experience is a dynamic process. Even if your company has a department or strategy in place, it’s still important to evaluate your strategy to match what employees value. 

There’s no uniform approach to improving employee experience, but there are some general considerations. 

View the employee experience as a collection of moments that matter to employees and design a workplace for these key moments. You are uniquely positioned to listen and mentor employees on what matters right now and what will matter in the future. 

Employees want trust, social cohesion, and purpose in the workplace. They need to know that their contributions are recognized by their peers and leaders as helping their company reach its goals. They want clear responsibilities and opportunities to learn and grow with your company. Employees seek a workplace environment that gives them the flexibility to have a healthy work-life balance. 

To curate a workplace that promotes positive experiences, consider these strategies. 

Take time to understand how the workplace feels and what resources employees can access. Ensuring the company values are consistently and prominently displayed, keeping an up-to-date and functional infrastructure, and having a people-friendly workplace design will also influence how your employees perceive their experience. 

Pay attention to operational data such as employee information, pay, training, and other performance metrics. These metrics provide a solid foundation for analyzing employee experience and collecting experiential data. This data can come from surveys or interviews where employees have opportunities to share their experiences. 

Be clear on employee roles. Job responsibilities are often developed before an employee is hired and should be continually redefined through ongoing involvement in goal setting, meaningful feedback, and consistent reviews. 

Prioritize employee satisfaction. Be creative in identifying ways to change the workplace to support your employees and also give raises and promotions. 

A key factor in a positive employee experience is the manager-employee relationship. Managers affect employees’ work experience, how an employee engages in their work, and how employees develop in their role. You should continually support employees by showing that they’re valued and have a future at the company. 

An employee experience strategy must also prioritize the identification and development of great managers. 

Companies have faced an exodus of exhausted employees who questioned what their work meant to them. Offering an excellent employee experience by listening to your employees’ needs and feelings will positively influence retention and success while improving your overall business outcomes.