The employee experience is the journey an employee takes with your organization. It includes every interaction that happens along the employee life cycle, plus the experiences that involve an employee’s role, workspace, manager and wellbeing.
Milestones in Employee Experience
1. Attraction/ Recruitment
This stage is critical because it’s the first chance you have to introduce your company culture and establish trust with a potential hire. The candidate experience is also the perfect opportunity to ensure people become advocates for your organization. Regardless of whether they join your organization or not. Getting feedback at this stage is a great opportunity to improve both the process and experience of applying to work at your organization.
Capturing the candidate experience means talking to both those who were offered a role, as well as those who weren’t. While the exact nature of your candidate survey depends on your hiring process, the questions you ask in a candidate survey should generally revolve around feedback on the application process. It should involve the interview content, the demeanor of individuals they met with, and the speediness of response.
2. Onboarding
The onboarding program, which is meant to get new hires up and running smoothly, is critical. Because it can have a significant impact on an employee’s tenure. It starts when a new hire accepts your offer and continues through a new employee’s first week to an year on the job. Getting feedback at this stage not only helps improve your onboarding process but also identifies any gaps or inconsistencies in knowledge and training.
With so much on a new hire’s plate when they join your company, asking the right onboarding survey questions provides a systematic way to check in with people. It also gives you valuable information about the new hire experience. Later you can use it to improve this stage of the employee experience moving forward.
3. Exit
Even with your best efforts, you can assume that most employees will leave your organization at some point. Especially given that average tenure at organizations is on the decline, it’s more important than ever to stay engaged with employees. Even when they’re on their way out. An exit survey allows you to do that by understanding the reasons behind an employee’s decision. So you can make necessary adjustments to reduce turnover in the future and also show that their feedback is valued.
As we mentioned, exit surveys are a great way to capture and understand an employee’s reasons for leaving. Whether that’s because they were unhappy or for personal reasons outside the purview of your company. The survey results can reveal what you as an employer might do better, think about differently, or continue pursuing. Getting candid feedback from all exiting employees can be invaluable. You will understand what you need to do better to keep your key employees engaged as long as possible
Tips to improve employee experience
As a new hire travels along their employee journey to their eventual exit from your organization, there are a few things that will shape their employee experience. Jacob Morgan, author of The Employee Experience Advantage, highlights three basic environments. No matter how large or small your organization, that make up employee experience.
Culture
Culture is something that is difficult to define as each one is different. A company’s culture may be what the C-suite tells you it is. Or it can be that you understand from its mission, values, practices and attitudes. It is a mixture of leadership style and organizational structure, sense of purpose and the mixture of personalities who work with you. Corporate culture is the vibe that you feel when you come in to work. It can motivate or stifle, energize or drain, empower or discourage its employees.
Technology environment
Imagine firing up a desktop computer on your first day and discovering you’ll be working on Windows XP. Forward-thinking organizations invest in suitable tools for employees to get their work done efficiently, with future developments in mind. The technology landscape is so vast, that it’s easier than ever to give employees the tools they need to maximize their efficiency and make them feel more confident in their role.
Physical workspace
Employees who work 9 to 5 in a windowless, air-conditioned basement will have a very different experience from those who work flex-time in an airy new glass building with an on-site gym, subsidized canteen and chill-out lounges. Employees who are happy in their work environment will concentrate better, have improved well-being and will be more productive. And the physical workspace is not necessarily always in the office. Autonomy to work from home or in multiple workspaces can also contribute to a positive employee experience.
Why is it relevant now?
The shift from old-school employee engagement to a more holistic approach to employee experience has been driven by a number of factors. This includes social media, changing demographics, and more volatile economic conditions.
- The Current Generation wants more say in their opportunities, so the companies need to get a deeper understanding of their needs and voices
- The war of talent is fiercer than ever leading to candidates choosing workplaces that offer better experience.
- Digitalization, disruption and other economic forces are causing companies to shrink and expand at a more rapid pace.
- Employees now expect they’ll be treated as a unique person, just like they are when they interact with leading B2C brands as a consumer.
- The explosion of social media and the potential for damaging reviews to go viral has meant workplaces have become more transparent to protect company and brand reputation.
