It is a management model based on the experience of employees. The company’s actions are designed taking into account what each employee experiences and feels.
Taking into account how much competition there is currently to attract talent, companies are increasingly deciding to design an employee experience that makes a difference.
In this post we talk about the benefits of relying on an employee experience management model as a source of competitive advantage for companies, and how to design the perfect employee experience.
This post is also available in Spanish.
In the study Global Trends in Human Resources 2016, Deloitte pointed out that the goal of the Human Resources director is no longer to be a “talent director”.
Today, the head of a Human Resources department should be a “Director of the Employee Experience”. And his/her mission is to promote the following:
The main change from the traditional focus is that the solutions to employees’ needs are asked to those same employees: their testimonies will be the base to build the organization's plans, based on the value of people and their experience.
In short, it is a question of developing a talent management model that provides value to companies. It is easier for those companies that start by improving their own employee’s experience to improve their client’s experience.
The benefit of a good employee experience, which creates an inspiring environment where people can improve themselves, is triple:
An impeccable employee experience translates into a physical, culture and technological environment where workers happily develop their work.
To achieve this, you need to develop a strategy that allows to understand the conscious and unconscious needs of people. This will allow you to establish measures and implement changes that will improve the happiness and productivity of your company.
A great employee experience is tied to a great customer experience. Satisfied employees at work are less likely to leave, which improves the turnover rate and saves costs in hiring and training, and also reduces the learning curve for new hirees.
This in turn favors the organization’s culture, which will be more strong and stable. Thus, one of the main arguments to implement this management model is that employee's experience directly affects clients and improves the organization's profitability.
This third advantage is additionally doubly important in a context in which digital professionals are increasingly more demanding, and the number of people adopting a digital nomad lifestyle is increasing. The goal is to destroy the general perception that working in an office is unmotivating and underestimates talent.
A positive employee experience contributes to staying longer in an organization and people end up recommending the company to friends and contacts.
We offer you our basic guide to build an employee experience that encourages participation, improves satisfaction and increases productivity.
Basically, any good employee experience is based on three key actions:
Active listening serves to pinpoint where is the starting point for employee experience. For that it's essential to listen in order to know how to motivate your team.
There is a wide variety of channels to this active listening - suggestion boxes, satisfaction surveys, interviews with employees that represent different departments and sensitivities within the organization, etc. - but do not neglect the simple act of having a conversation.
Casual conversations are often the most effective way to discover the opinion of those around you.
Technology can be a good means of two-way internal communication, and there are many tools that make it easier to listen to your employees. You must go beyond the typical monthly newsletter, which is a only a one-directional email: company >> employee.
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Then, group your employees in categories based on their motivations, goals, attitudes and preferences. This classification will serve to identify different groups and will help you to adjust the experience for each category, using different strategies.
It is often useful to put a name and a face to each one of these categories, to develop better empathy and be more effective in meeting their expectations.
In this step it's about knowing how employees see the company. This will help you change this vision: how do you want them to think and feel about it?
To change your employee’s vision, you need to document the employee life cycle. You can do this easily by using all the information gathered in the previous phase.
The employee life cyle is a diagram that includes all the phases of the employee’ relationship with the organization. This diagram covers how to:
Providing an adequate response to each one of these situations or critical moments is crucial to provide an unforgettable employee experience.
The main goal of an innovative company must be retaining its main “customer”: the employee. Once a strategy has been implemented to improve the employee experience, a good way to measure your success is if employees respond “yes” to the following question: “Would you recommend your company as a good place to work?”
To achieve a good employee experience it's not necessary to spend a lot, but to invest more time in listening to emotions and visualizing attitudes. This will translate into a positive work experience and, at the same time, greater revenues, benefits and an excellent reputation for the company.
We will not debate whether the experience of the customer is more important than the employee experience or the other way around. We believe that the feedback of both of these as “mirror experiences” will be necessary in the strategy of any company, regardless of which is developed and implemented first.
This post is also available in Spanish.
