Millennials are entitled, lazy and impatient.
This is a perception that’s been widely accepted of this digital-savvy generation, but one that’s not as accurate as we’ve come to believe.
Millennials are set to make up 75% of the workforce by 2025. The economy definitely cannot handle a lazy generation.
It’s therefore time to understand what this generation actually wants from their working experience.
We’ve addressed the definition of the employee experience in some depth already, so we’re not going to tackle that. You can find out more here.
EX expert, Jacob Morgan believes that we need a holistic employee experience. This experience comprises of three environments: cultural, technological and physical.
In this blog, we show you why it’s important to create a holistic employee experience for not only your millennial employees but your entire workforce.
So let’s dive in:
The cultural employee experience.
According to Morgan, the cultural employee experience can be defined by the way your employees “feel” at work. From the moment they’re greeted by their colleagues to their working experiences with their teams, their manager and executive leadership.
Have you ever experienced a company culture where you’ve been greeted, shown the kitchen and offered a coffee? If you have, this is no accident. Creating a great company culture like that is strategic and intentional.
The Centre for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition described culture like this:
“shared patterns of behaviours and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialisation. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group.”
If you’ve not yet defined your culture, we’ve written a nifty how-to just for you.
A study conducted by Deloitte found that 82% of executives believe culture is a potential competitive advantage. But only 12% of executives believe they are driving the “right culture”.
A recent study by Gartner reported that employee retention was set to increase to 10% by 2020 for organisations who have a “choose your own work style” culture.
Let’s take a look at a company like Dropbox, their culture promotes innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. Dropbox empowers their employees to just “figure it out”. Their co-founder, Arash Ferdowski takes time to understand what his employees are good at and empowers them to do it. He is a great proponent of trusting in the talent of his employees.
As of August 2018, Dropbox is worth $12 billion.
Your company’s cultural experience is definitely worth investing in.
The technological employee experience.
We’re in a state of constant technological evolution. This evolution has transformed the way we access information, the way employees communicate and interact with each other to the way in which tasks are completed.
What does this mean?
It’s time to deploy the collaboration and project management tools:
- Slack is used as a central communication tool that has the ability to send and receive messages, documents and meeting requests. Slack is easy-to-use, it’s well designed and you can even promote office fun through their nifty GIF tool. You can integrate it with a variety of other tools like Trello, which enables transparency into team activities. Take a look here for a more in-depth review.
- Trello is an easy-to-use project management tool. It makes use of boards, lists and tasks that enable you to organise your projects in a way that makes sense for your team or department. One glance at your Trello board will allow you to see who’s currently working on a particular project to understanding what the progress of a particular task is. If you integrate Slack and Trello it has the potential to provide you with clarity and insight into each task or project.
Understanding the employee experience from a digital perspective will allow your employees to operate within an environment that fosters innovation, collaboration, creativity and a high-performance culture amongst internal teams.
Now it’s time to consider the role tech plays in engaging your employees.
Technology has become and will continue to be an incredible driving force behind effective social recognition efforts.
There are currently 3.03 billion active social media users across the globe with only 29% of Millennials currently engaged at work! That number is staggering, it then comes as no surprise that technology will continue to play a significant role in driving a great experience.
Let’s take a look at the recently launched employee recognition and engagement platform, bountiXP. They’re a cloud-based platform that is human-centric by design. The platform uses real-time recognition and engagement which by design, enables management to accurately measure behaviour change in order to drive effective business results.
Through effective recognition, rewards and the accessibility to analytics, companies are able to lower staff turnover, engage a diverse workforce and track measurable results.
Recognition and engagement tools like bountiXP allow your company continuous insights into employee productivity and motivation. Your company no longer needs to wait for the annual employee engagement survey to find out how your employees really feel.
bountiXP is mobile friendly. This adds instant on-the-go recognition as the perfect ingredient to driving a culture of engagement amongst your millennial workforce.
The physical employee experience.
The third element that makes up the total employee experience is the physical working environment that your employees spend so much of their time in.
The office is no longer a place where your employees’ come to do their work and then leave. It’s everything in between that makes up their entire experience with your company.
So it’s time to consider the physical elements of your office space.
It’s important to focus on creating a physical environment that promotes employee well-being. You might want to consider the use of standing desks and fatigue mats, along with good lighting and some desk plants for some greenery. These are elements that not only make Millennials happy but your entire workforce.
Did you know that you can increase overall productivity by 20% with a well-designed office space?
Many companies are beginning to leverage their physical spaces as a competitive advantage. Companies like Airbnb have created a space that harnesses many design techniques to promote productivity, innovation and collaboration. They have created a physical space that also embodies their company culture and their values.
The physical space in which your employees work is an essential ingredient in creating a great employee experience. An experience that your employees boast about.
Key takeaways:
Patagonia is a great example of how optimising all three work environments can produce happy, productive employees:
The company makes sure that their employees have enough time for family, friends and the outdoors. They have an office environment that promotes health and well-being. All the while the family-owned enterprise tripled its profits in 2013. Their employees are known to be extremely loyal with minimal turnover rates.
Neil Blumenthal, founder of Warby Parker says “they’ve shown that you can build a profitable business while thinking about the environment and thinking about your team and community.”
We can conclude by saying that creating a holistic people-centred employee experience, is not just for your millennial employees; it is for your entire workforce.