What is an employee experience strategy?
An employee experience strategy is a company's plan for how they want employees to interact with the company and each other, as well as how they want employees to feel about their jobs. Think of it as a blueprint for victory mapped out by the brightest brains in the darkest halls of HR; a strategic plan that will make your company the most desired workplace among all competitors, rivaling Google, Zappos, and other employee experience unicorns.
Today, employee experience is a top priority for companies that want to set themselves apart from the competition. By 2022, employee experience will be the main driver of employee engagement and, by extension, customer satisfaction. Here are some actionable insights that will help you improve the overall employee experience for every worker at your firm.
Key components of an employee experience strategy
Companies should consider employee feedback when mapping out their employee experience strategy. The key components that make up a good employee experience strategy are:
- A winning workplace environment. It's here that your employees spend the bulk of every day, and it's here that employee experience is made or broken. Work on curating a workplace environment that encourages creativity, boosts productivity, and helps each of your employees to feel their best. Get feedback from your employees on what changes should be made to get from where you are now to where you want to be.
- An employee benefits plan that goes above and beyond the standard employee benefits plan. Your employee experience strategy should include making sure that your employees are happy with the employee benefits they receive, both tangible ones like free gym memberships, Netflix subscriptions, or generous paternity leave allowances as well as intangible employee benefits like flexible work schedules and relaxed dress codes.
- A culture that encourages collaboration and teamwork. After all, employee experience is about more than employee happiness; employee experience has a direct impact on your employees’ ability to do their jobs well.
- Clear job descriptions, well-defined expectations, and a stellar onboarding process. You want to ensure a positive employee experience through the entire employee lifecycle. Be sure to define your employee expectations clearly, including what they should expect for their responsibilities, how they can go about doing their jobs well, and what you expect from them in return. Also make sure that there is excellence on the other end of the employee-employer relationship; it's not enough that employees receive clear job descriptions; you should be sure that you're hiring employees who are the best at what they do, and giving them a clear path to success.
Implementing your employee experience strategy effectively
Once you have a strong employee experience strategy in place, it's time to think about how you will implement it! That means choosing a platform for employee feedback and turning your employee experience strategy into employee experience programs. This is the fun part, where employee experience management starts to show actual results.
Make sure you're using employee feedback to inform your employee experience strategy. No employee experience platform is complete without employee feedback; not only does employee feedback help you to pinpoint problems in your employee experience strategy, it can also clue you into areas of employee experience where your organization has the potential to really excel. Many organizations use employee experience software to run a regular employee survey and get actionable insights that can inform HR decisions throughout the employee experience journey.
When you've got employee feedback down pat, make your employee experience strategy real by starting your employee experience programs. If you're delivering on every component of your employee experience framework, then just keep on keeping on; employee happiness will continue to flow in, employee satisfaction levels will continue to rise, and employee performance is bound to improve. Keep tabs on your progress with employee engagement surveys and employee experience evaluations. For some companies, it might be time to launch employee experience programs that are specific to certain employee groups or individuals at a specific place in their employee journey. For example, your employee experience program could focus on millennials or people of color or new hires or managers.
An employee experience strategy for your remote team
If you're like many companies these days, a good percentage of your workforce is working remotely, from kitchen tables, cafes, or Caribbean beaches. A hybrid workforce may have you wondering what company culture really means. The principles of your employee experience strategy are the same no matter where your employees are located, but the actual details and implementation will be a little different. With an employee experience strategy that takes into account your remote team, you can keep employee engagement high and employee productivity high too!
People work best when they're working where they feel the most comfortable. When you're designing employee benefits for your remote team, make their work-from-home experience as seamless and comfortable as possible. Co-working space, Starbucks credit, or membership at a gym are just a few of the ways you can influence your employees' remote work environment even it's thousands of miles away.
Keep up with the appreciation for your remote team too! This is crucial to the digital employee experience. The employee experience is all about employee engagement and employee happiness, and it's hard to be happy in the digital workplace when you feel like your efforts aren't valued. Use social media for grateful shout-outs to stellar remote employees, and set up the free Slack app Matter so that your remote team can give and receive constructive feedback and kudos. Employee morale will go straight up!
Seeing the benefits of your employee experience strategy
Why go through all this trouble? What's the benefit of better employee experience strategies?
The employee experience is a PR war zone, and employee engagement is a key part of winning it. The happier your employees are, the better they will perform at work. A happy engaged employee performs better in their role, and gives you a higher return on your investment. Employee performance can also spread to the rest of the workplace, influencing employee culture in positive ways.
From a company perspective, employee happiness can bring major cost savings to your company when employee turnover is kept low, employee productivity is high, and you are likely to make more money. Employee experience strategies are good for morale too! Employees with happy coworkers are more productive at work, which means employee experience strategies are good for the company's bottom line too.
All in all, a great employee experience a win-win situation for companies and employees alike. Happy employees bring more compatibility to your workplace culture while increasing employee engagement. As employee retention is high, employee costs are lowered, putting money back into your company. On top of employee happiness, employee experience strategies also make your company a success and give your name all the good vibes in public spaces.
