Employee experience encompasses far more than just one-off perks, like foosball tables and free lunches. It should be an organization-wide effort to make sure your employees are happy, healthy, and are truly engaged in their work and feel satisfied with the company as a whole. One way to do this? Building an employee experience strategy that encapsulates everything from personal development to team culture to environmental sustainability. Here’s how you can start building an employee experience strategy that meets the needs of your employees today—and sets them up for success down the road.
Every company has an employee experience, which can be defined as an employee’s perceived level of trust and engagement within their organization. This experience encompasses three core areas: The degree of trust employees have in leadership and management, how aligned they feel with company values, and whether or not they feel as though they are able to use their skills on meaningful work. These three elements have been found to have a direct impact on key organizational metrics such as productivity, customer loyalty, retention rates, employee referrals and even stock performance.
Effective company culture is not created by allowing anyone and everyone to make decisions, but rather by employing leaders who are willing to act as decision makers. We must work with them so they do it right. A strong leader doesn’t let workers decide how things should be done without influence, but neither does he or she micromanage their employees into being robot-like in their process. Good culture creates an employee experience that will keep your best employees working for you for a long time. So build great company culture today!
There’s been a lot of talk about company culture in recent years. Some companies go so far as to put foosball tables and video games in their break rooms; others talk about offering on-site massage, sabbaticals for volunteer work, or unlimited paid time off. Yet there’s research that suggests these aren’t just frivolities—they are indications of deeper employee experience problems. What happens at small companies is an indicator of what will happen at larger ones as well.
But perhaps you’re thinking, No way! We care about our employees, and we have foosball tables and catered lunches. Really? I doubt it. (And if you do have these things, bravo.) The problem with company culture is that it’s hard to tell what actually makes for an engaged workplace because there are so many factors at play. you need to be acutely focused on your team’s emotional connection to their contribution.
When you’re building your company culture, remember that people are different and what motivates one employee may not motivate another. It’s up to you as a leader to build an employee experience that best reflects your organization’s values and goals. When you hire new employees, sit down with them and find out what they want out of their job. Sometimes it takes getting hired for someone before he or she knows what he or she really wants in an employer.
Check out what Forbes has to say about strong employee experiences here.
Do you want to keep your best employee? Of course you do. Check out this article on how to Retain Great Talent.