What is the employee experience at your company like?
Employee experience you may ask…Yes, employee experience!
And no, this is not just another HR fad of the moment; it is a real thing that will help you and your business ultimately delight your customers.
You see, the job landscape has changed.
Now, it’s the employees who are in the driver’s seat.
“Why do you want to work for us?”
This used to be a question that candidates were asked at interviews.
In today’s market, it’s up to you to give candidates a reason to want to work for your company.
Furthermore, it’s up to you to keep giving them reasons to wake up every day and continue coming back to work for you!
In the age of the internet, nothing is the same anymore…employees are now well aware of what their counterparts are earning, what benefits they’re receiving and most importantly, what their experience at other companies is like.
It’s no longer good enough to sell your company as a great place to work.
For your company to ever stand a chance of being competitive you have to create an extremely positive employee experience.
The employee experience is essentially a series of moments that happen daily that form either positive, neutral or negative memories.
Every moment leaves an impression on your employees minds and moulds their perception of what life is like at your company!
This dictates whether their overall employee experience is an awful or a fantastic one.
But unfortunately for you, your employees don’t see life as a series of checks and balances, so one bad experience can immediately cancel out all the months of positive experiences.
Employees who have a fulfilling and rewarding work experience will achieve more and will take the initiative when it comes to doing activities that bring more value to your organisation.
The employee experience helps organisations attract and retain top talent and reveals secrets for building a deeply engaged workforce.
Organisations with engaged workforces are more profitable, they enjoy greater growth and they win the battle to keep the most talented personnel.
So, with all this in mind, we’ll rephrase the question:
Is your employee experience retaining your top talent? Because it should!
If you are noticing your turnover rates beginning to tick upwards, a good place to start investigating would be with determining how your employees perceive your workplace.
Here are 5 top tips that with will help get you on the path to building a positive employee experience:
1. Begin with the end in mind:
Your goal is to create a positive employee experience but this has to start from the interview process. The interview is the first time that you interact with a potential employee. It’s where they will form their first impression of your company. This will set the stage for their experience and could potentially determine their journey throughout their time of employment with you.
2. Build a work environment that encourages co-worker support, connectivity and collaboration:
Liking the people that we work with can be key to having a good employee experience. Most people spend at least as much time with their co-workers as they do with their families. Try to build an environment where your employees feel connected with their co-workers. This doesn’t mean you have to take everyone out for drinks every day. Focus on building an environment where your employees feel valued and know that they can support each other professionally.
3. Communicate:
Good communication fosters trust and creates a sense of openness. Plus, it helps employees feel more aligned with the overall mission of the company. Gone are the days where reviews were done annually. Learn to provide your employees with consistent and constructive feedback. Continuous feedback closes the feedback loop faster and allows for an extremely fast iterative process; therefore allowing your employees to grow and develop within the company more rapidly.
4. Provide ongoing education and map out a path for internal mobility:
Extremely talented people will never be satisfied sitting in one role until they retire. They want to advance their job-related skills, get certifications and train to further their careers. Along with providing opportunities for continued learning, you must also consider the opportunities for advancement within your organisation. If you aren’t providing clear paths for your employees, they’ll begin looking elsewhere. When organisations prioritise internal career mobility, they inspire dedication and loyalty, preserve legacy knowledge and drive employee retention.
5. Provide a good physical space:
Everything from the office floor plan to the equipment your employees use will shape their daily experience. Make sure the environment you build fosters productivity, is comfortable and shows you value your employees. Prioritising the employee experience boosts business.
One last tip that will help you retain your top talent:
CARE!
You see, what works for one employee does not necessarily work for the other, so what’s the secret?
When you start caring about your employees, you demonstrate that they’re important and that you respect the role that they play in representing your brand and building your business.
Articulate clear performance strategies to recruits and new hires. Let them know from the beginning about the organisation’s commitments to its workers, their well-being and ultimately their success.
Establishing a clear set of expectations and promises and then going on to uphold them consistently, you will build the essential trust that leads to powerful employee engagement.
In creating an intuitive, seamless end-to-end experience, from talent acquisition and on-boarding through to performance management, retention, learning and career development, you will give your company a competitive edge when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent.
And lastly, when you give talented people the space to achieve and thrive, they’ll give your customers an experience that your competitors can’t replicate.