Creating a positive employee experience is one of the most important functions of HR specialists as it directly relates to the employee's life cycle, engagement, interest, and loyalty.
Experience comes from what an employee encounters in communication, solving work tasks, achieving goals, development, team activities, and so on. If healthy relationships are built between employees, between manager and employee, and between different departments and teams, the employee's experience will be enriched with positive situations that provide opportunities for learning and growth.
Conversely, if more negative situations occur during an employee's time at a company, their experience will be characterized by stress, communication obstacles, and misunderstandings. This, in turn, threatens not only the current development of the organization but also its reputation.
So how do we properly weigh the impact of employee experience? Why is it important for top management and HR specialists? Let's consider this in more detail.
Here are a few examples of how employee experience directly shapes working conditions:
So it’s clear that improving employee experience is extremely important for creating a positive working environment, one that leads to growth. That’s the what, let’s explore the how of improving employee experiences.
Start by defining your employee life cycle and its stages. The standard life cycle includes hiring, development, retention, and separation, but there are nuances:
You also need to determine the ideal touch points at each stage. For example, in the case of onboarding, touch points may include:
The employee life cycle stages are just the beginning of understanding the entire experience that impacts them. The next step is understanding the needs of your employees.
Your organization can easily find ways to improve employee experience, and there are five ways to achieve this successfully.
Access to learning and development opportunities is critically important as its overall contribution to the life cycle model is 31% of the process.
The pandemic has allowed employees to look at their own career as they have never done before. Growth-oriented employees require access to additional opportunities, and without developing them, they will look for work elsewhere.
Managers have an incredible impact on the employee experience. Inclusive leaders, those who are truly interested in the employee's life at work, invest the most in it.
Provide managers with opportunities to develop the skills needed to create lasting change. If your managers are not engaged in work and growth, your employees are unlikely to be engaged either.
Access to coaching opportunities goes hand in hand with professional development. When employees are given the opportunity to learn and develop, your business wins too.
Consider providing your employees with access to coaching. With individual help, your employees will become more self-aware, resilient and psychologically healthy.
We are only just beginning to see the impact of COVID-19 on mental health. However, it is already known that burnout levels are rising, and employees report higher levels of stress and anxiety.
To solve this problem, organizations need to prioritize wellness programs. Think about how you can support the mental health of your employees as much as possible, for example, by providing free mental health counseling.
If we learned anything from COVID-19 it's that flexibility wins everywhere and always. You can support your employees by offering them more flexibility, as this has been proven to make them more productive and psychologically healthy.
To understand if you are on the right track with employee experience, make sure you’re using the right tools and methods.
Performance management to evaluate the development and achievements of employees.
360-degree feedback to gather feedback from managers, colleagues, subordinates, and others to get a complete picture of the employee experience.
1-on-1 meetings for communication and feedback gathering.
Although employees are not your customers or end consumers it is wise to treat their experience with the same level of attention and care. Just as a satisfied customer will return to you after good service, so too employees will stay if they have a good work experience.
In order for employee experience to positively impact on your business strategy you must listen to your employees and take action. Creating an optimal employee experience may not be easy, but it is one of the most important tasks that an organization can undertake, one that has the potential to deliver great results.
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