Raise your hand if you’ve ever been in a bad relationship. No, not the romantic kind, but the relationship between a customer and a business. Perhaps you encountered some shocking customer service, had to navigate around an archaic website, or were hit with a crooked Return Policy. After a poor Customer Experience, chances are you got out of that relationship and never looked back.
Now imagine that disastrous relationship, but instead, it’s between your organization and your employees. Delivering a poor Employee Experience (EX) puts your company at risk of housing unhappy, unengaged teams on the verge of a break up. But aligning your staff’s work experiences with their personal, professional, and cultural needs can ensure a healthy relationship between your employees and your business.
With a positive Employee Experience, your staff are more productive, satisfied, and engaged, translating into increased business success. So how can you design and manage your EX to ensure it’s a positive one? Here are 4 ways to enhance the Employee Experience in your organization.
1. Strategic Employee Onboarding
The Employee Experience begins before an employee joins a new company. Prospective employees envision what working for a company will be like even before landing their first phone interview. From the first steps of recruiting all the way through an employee’s life-cycle, the Employee Experience must be managed. Deliver an exceptional one from the very start with Strategic Employee Onboarding.
Getting your employees engaged with company history, culture, team, and environment from the beginning of employment is the foundation of Employee Experience success. Focus your onboarding program on accommodating, assimilating, and accelerating new hires.
When building an employee onboarding plan, incorporate strategies such as Buddy Programs, scheduled check-ins, roadmaps, and structured workflows to optimize their onboarding experience.
2. Employee Wellness
For a comprehensive Employee Experience, prioritize your employees’ wellbeing. How do your employees feel at work? On evenings? On weekends? At the core of the Employee Experience is employee wellness, so promoting healthy working and living is essential for EX management.
Physical, social, and mental wellness can have a substantial impact on your employees’ daily experience. First, figure out what wellness means to your company, and then map out your wellness initiatives accordingly.
Wellness initiatives might include fitness sessions, healthy eating programs, wellness workshops, or on-site flu shots. Concentrating on your employees’ health and wellbeing needs can help you offer them a more meaningful Employee Experience.
3. Employee Development
87% of Millennials — the largest generation in the US labor force — report professional development or career growth opportunities as very important in a career. Ignoring your employees’ demand for development would be neglecting a fundamental part of their Employee Experience.
Mapping out important learning experiences can give employees a sense of purpose while driving individual and overall business performance. Through Employee Development you can increase Employee Engagement and loyalty while retaining your talent — preventing employees from searching for opportunities to progress elsewhere.
Employee-owned Development Plans align employee interests and areas for growth with business objectives while giving them a sense of value within the company. Managers and employees should co-create Development Plans during onboarding to help employees visualize and stay motivated towards their development, enjoying a positive EX along the way.
4. Communication and Candid Feedback
With strategic communication and surveying, you can continuously measure engagement and satisfaction to ensure you’re delivering a great Employee Experience. Keeping employees in-the-loop and communicating how they’re contributing to the company’s mission will also help them feel like valued team members.
Checking in with staff and receiving candid feedback gives you the opportunity to learn about real employee experiences. This feedback can help you understand how actual experiences are impacting Employee Engagement and workplace happiness. Open communication and honest feedback are key in improving your EX management strategy to deliver the best experience to your employees.
Author Bio:
Jeni Fahy is a Content Specialist at Sapling, a culture-first organization helping People Ops deliver employee onboarding programs with consistency, visibility and analytics. If you’re interested in enhancing your Employee Experience with Strategic Employee Onboarding, reach out to schedule a demo with the Sapling team.
