It is no longer a secret that a positive "Employee Experience" is the breeding ground for committed and motivated employees. We'll tell you what it means to listen in the digital world and how you can become an active creator of positive experiences. From the first click on the careers page to the last working day before retirement - there are many opportunities to positively shape the employer's image.
The first day at work, an often-cited experience
Quick question: Can you remember your first day at your current employer? Imagine if your inbox contained the following recommendation for the first big get-together with your new colleagues: "You'll be going for a walk during the introductory meeting. We therefore recommend that you bring good shoes for gravel paths." Over hill and dale, packed with stories about the company, I went for a walk through the hilly Zurich Oberland on my first day at HR Campus. It was a different kind of experience, one that was the most frequently quoted anecdote in the family and among colleagues over the next few weeks. Being down-to-earth as a lived value would probably have made less of an impression within the walls of the office building with a PowerPoint presentation.
It is tempting to cite countless studies that show the positive influence between targeted "Employee Experience Management" and relevant key figures such as staff turnover, productivity, employee engagement, customer satisfaction and innovation (a good collection can be found here Forbes ). For the time being, I will stick to my personal example and focus on the question of how rather than why.
What matters on the employee journey
On the employee journey, there are a huge number of experiences that together shape the image of the employer - in other words: an enormous number of opportunities. What if HR consciously utilised these opportunities to make a positive impression and thus increase employee engagement?
In the specialist literature, the "Employee Experience" is divided into three dimensions: the physical, technological and cultural environment. Let's take three concrete examples:
- the modern furnished room at the job interview (physical environment),
- the completely digitalised and smoothly functioning onboarding process (technological environment),
- appreciation dialogue when leaving the company (cultural environment).
An investment in the physical, technological and cultural environment of employees means a "YES" to a place where employees want to work and don't have to. Our appeal: As HR, make positive experiences the maxim of your actions. Easier said than done - let's walk the talk.
Designing the Employee Experience in four steps
The following steps have proven to be a successful recipe when it comes to putting the employee experience at the centre:
1. Define the touchpoints between HR and employees
Maybe it's the click on the careers page or the phone call with the recruitment partner - first impressions count. But if you only make an initial impression, you will miss out on the countless design options that HR has at its disposal. Recording the "employee journey" can help to recognise the points of contact that are relevant to success. HR takes on the role of accompanying and shaping the employee's journey. The first step is therefore to consider which moments ("moments that matter") are important and where HR has opportunities to shape the journey.
2. Listen properly, especially in the digital world
Once the decisive moments are known, the next step is to listen:
- How is the career site received by candidates (technological environment)?
- Where is the potential for improvement in the onboarding process from the newcomers' perspective (cultural environment)?
- Why are the offices on the 1st floor the most popular among employees (physical environment)?
Whoever asks the right questions wins. In addition to direct feedback discussions with employees, more and more companies are turning to digital solutions to measure the Employee Experience and initiate employee-centred improvements. One advantage: thanks to the anonymous digital collection of feedback, more honest opinions are gathered. The acquisition of Qualtrics by Software giant SAP was a groundbreaking event for the digitisation of the Employee Experience. The new SAP branding "Human Experience Management (HXM)" already shows where the digital HR of tomorrow is heading. Since the acquisition of Qualtrics, the SAP SuccessFactors HR Suite has been gradually enriched with options for collecting valuable feedback.
3. Try to understand your employees
At 08:00 in the morning by the coffee machine: the HR manager of an industrial company with 2,000 employees meets her two colleagues. The topic: the selection of new benefits for employees. Sipping coffee, the HR manager wants to hear the opinions of her two colleagues. What if the two colleagues mentioned the "insurance discount"? In the firm belief that this is the most cost-effective and therefore favoured choice of their direct superiors? No matter what the answer is. The fact remains: Two voices set the pace, and the remaining 99.9 % of the workforce's voices remain unheard. There is no trace of a representative and promising decision-making basis for a positive Employee Experience. In this case, the participation of all employees in the form of a survey would probably have led to a different benefit - conversely, this would also have boosted employee engagement.
To stay with my introductory example, the first working day: No question - I would have taken part in the automatically generated mini-survey without hesitation.
4. Shape and act based on facts
Thanks to Digitization, valuable opinions can be collected and interpreted in real time. Fact-based foundations are the breeding ground for effective action and the common language of management. Are you ready to play an active role in shaping the employee journey and champion employee wellbeing? Our appeal: Be aware of the physical, technological and cultural environment of your employees. Recognise the decisive moments. Listen to them. Understand and act.
Sources
- https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article183672694/SAP-kauft-US-Firma-Qualtrics-fuer-acht-Milliarden-Dollar.html
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/03/31/why-invest-in-employee-experience-six-proven-reasons/#67b025fd7d42
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2015/12/15/the-three-environments-that-create-every-employee-experience/#496bdea466c6
The importance of Employee Experience
The importance of Employee Experience
The importance of Employee Experience
Author
Nicole Kuonen
HR Strategies
Nicole Kuonen has been working in HR for more than 10 years and has extensive experience from national and international companies. She is passionate about designing sustainable and modern HR from the ground up - from the foundations to the finishing touches. As a strategy consultant at HR Campus, her focus is on Talent Management. She accompanies her customers on their way to becoming attractive employers that are characterised by high employee engagement, healthy turnover and an inspiring Employee Experience.