What Is Employee Experience And Why Is It So Important?

Dianne Stefanko, Director, Employee Relations & Safety, The North West Company

The employee experience is an important career journey, and there’s a lot bundled into those two important words. There are five stages of the employee experience, from recruitment to exit, but there are three areas of the experience that are critical.

• Workplace Environment o Flexibility, resources, and a trusting culture are the bases for a good work environment.

• Company Culture o Beliefs support how the employees think and engage

• Technology o This allows the employees to work efficiently, supporting productivity

We know the employee experience is throughout the life cycle or an employee’s journey. Whether the experience is positive, negative, trusting or broken, it will decide the level of engagement and talent that will stick around and be invested in your organization.

In order to create the optimum employee experience, we know that listening and communicating with employees, not at or to employees, throughout their life cycle is critical: ‘Everyone needs something different.’ Now, that’s a tough job for businesses today, trying to keep Millennials, Gen Z and the upcoming Gen Alpha and Gen Beta engaged.

Let’s talk about why the employee experience is important.

First, if our employees aren’t engaging, our bottom line is affected, and we know productivity increases with engaged employees. Unhappy employees can disrupt the employee experience that stretches beyond a team; it can run throughout an organization. We know it will show up in turnover, engagement, productivity and culture. All of these things affect the journey of an employee.

“Be the reason your people are excited to work for you, stand out as that employer of choice, not because you won an award but because the life cycle and journey of an employee is the top priority to the organization from attraction to exit”

Employees who don’t feel they belong won’t invest their time or energy into the organization. Let’s look at the employee life cycle.

The organization’s reputation is how we attract top talent; it’s the part that the exit feedback supports. The perception of how candidates, customers, and stakeholders view the organization, what it stands for, and what the company brand is are very important to the job seeker. What was the employee’s experience before the employee exited the business? Today, it’s easy because of technology for job seekers to check on organizations’ employee experience scores online, and it can damage your reputation and leave top talent turning the other way.

Recruitment is the beginning of the onboarding experience; they have a tough job selling the employee experience because job seekers aren’t enticed solely by pay any more, every candidate wants something different, and they’re not willing to settle. Recruitment today needs to stay on top of the ‘what’s’ new and what the Millennials and Gen Z’s are looking for; falling behind puts the organization at risk of losing top talent. Your recruitment team should be that initial positive interaction for the candidate with the organization, setting the foundation for the beginning of the employee experience. Cost to hire, time to hire, rate of acceptance, recruitment satisfaction survey, and, of course, the quality of hire all play a part in the employee’s onboarding experience.

So, recruitment made the connection. Now, how do you retain the new employees and provide an engaging journey for them? Many organizations believe the way to a great culture is to develop, mentor, reward, and gain recognition that will help retain the employee, but it only provides part of the experience.

To be clear, you can pay top salaries and bonuses and reward employees milestones, but if you don’t communicate and listen to your people, make them feel a part of something big, provide them with a sense of purpose, engage them, you’ll lose them despite all the rewards you’ve put in place.

Be the reason your people are excited to work for you and stand out as that employer of choice, not because you won an award but because the life cycle and journey of an employee is the top priority to the organization from attraction to exit.

Develop exit and stay interviews, and put listening sessions in place so your people know their opinions and voices are important. Be a part of creating a culture that supports a positive employee experience. When an employee exits the business, they speak highly and recommend your organization to family and friends.

Today, some organizations have an office policy while others have a three-day workweek; what’s important is finding what works and being flexible to support your organization’s employee experience. I would challenge you to look at your employee experience score. Is it where you want it to be? If not, lucky for you, you can change it!

Whatever core principles you have in place, whatever you’re doing to better the employee’s life cycle, if it includes listening and communicating to your employees, it will support the ‘why’ because the employee experience/ journey/life cycle is critical., the ‘what’ supports engaged teams, and ‘who’ the talent will be that drives your culture to create that positive employee life cycle.

As leaders, be consistent with your communication and messaging, which is true for verbal and nonverbal communication. Be a trusting partner for your people, and help them develop skills that will support your organization to be the best it can be for the employee experience!