To be successful in employee experience, industry leaders need to understand the importance of culture. High employee satisfaction attracts top talent, drives performance, and strengthens employment brand. This article will focus on ways to create positive employee experience within an organization.
Understanding Critical Moments
Pay attention to an employees life cycle. Organizations have the opportunity to intervene at any moment to make a more positive experience.
According to Gallup, there are seven key stages that employees experience in which managers have the greatest influence on how their employees perceive them. Through these critical stages, employers can make targeted efforts and apply best practices to affect employee engagement, employee performance and talent acquisition — the ability to hire great talent in the future.
The most important part of these stages in the employee experience, are the moments. How an organization interacts with the employees during each cycle, can greatly affect the outcome.
Infuse Your Culture
At every point in the employees cycle, you want to align your organizations purpose, brand, and culture. Building culture drives performance. The workplace and team environment is a necessity for getting work done, which involves support and freedom to work in ways employees feel best.
Keep in mind the spaces; ones that involve collaboration or ones that work independently. How are the lights and temperature? Are there any distractions or noises? Look for any factors within the environment that could effect the experience.
Not only is the physical environment important, but the cultural one too. It’s the feeling or vibe employees get when entering their workplace. This involves the style of leadership, the team they are surrounded by, and the structure of the organization.
Measure The Process
Keeping a track of each moment within an employees cycle can help measure the employee’s stages. How was the manager-employee relationship? Was their job role aligned with their job description? How were they valued as a teammate? Do they feel purposeful?
When employees feel a high level of well-being, they are more likely to be engaged, less likely to leave, more loyal to their teams and more likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work.
Successful programs foster participation and help people build habits that improve their well-being. This impacts how people feel and perform at work, which leads to better business results. Measuring the success of your program requires you to find the real value behind the overall employee experience. –Council Post: Five Ways To Measure The Impact Of A Great Employee Experience (forbes.com)
Prioritize Managers
Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. A good manager is always aware of their employees, not micromanaging, coaching and guiding their employees to success. They know when to step in, and when to allow mistakes to happen for employees to learn from. The balancing act of a manager is incredibly important in the opportunity for employees to learn and grow within the company.
Employee engagement improves productivity, encourages collaboration and communication, builds trust, and offers a sense of well-being. With managers being the heart of employee engagement, it’s key to prioritize managers.
The Right Investment
An employee’s experience is much more than pay, it includes the workplace environment, the technology they use, the manager relationship, and development opportunities. It involves keeping a keen eye on the process, and paying attention to the moments that truly matter. When organizations strive to create great employee experience, it will create an engaged workforce which leads to a more successful business.
For more information on employee experience and employee retention strategies, check out these articles:
The Employee Experience: What It Is and Why It Matters | Inc.com