“In a digital world with increasing transparency and the growing influence of Millennials, employees expect a productive, engaging, enjoyable work experience. Rather than focus narrowly on employee engagement and culture, organizations are developing an integrated focus on the entire employee experience, bringing together all the workplace, HR, and management practices that impact people on the job.”
On the subject Millennial and Generation Z speaker Ryan Jenkins echoed this sentiment when he said:
“A major contributor to the rise and relevance of employee experience is the growing representation of Millennials in the workplace… Previous generations learned to keep silent about the change they wanted, but Millennials are vocalizing the change they want.”
A shift from engagement to employee experience will accelerate when Millennials account for 50 percent of the global workforce by 2020 according to Jenkins, who also said:
“More experience-seeking Millennials in the workplace means that a shift to experience-centric organizations is needed to attract, retain, and engage the Millennial worker.”
Elevate a sense of purpose with business transparency
“Clarity of expectations is perhaps the most basic of employee needs and is vital to performance.” Gallup
Having a sense of purpose at work is hugely important if you want to create an exceptional employee experience and transparency is key to achieving it. Even big brands are having to learn that no amount of remuneration, benefits or free company perks make up for business transparency. That is clearly communicating what is going on with the business and helping employees understand the part they play in that picture. In an article on the importance of transparency Author and futurist Jacob Morgan said:
“Big organizations had cash and brand power, which translated to being able to attract the best talent. Brand power today ain't what it used to be. You don't automatically want to work for a company like Starbucks, Disney, or Ford just because of the name. These organizations are having to try much harder to get the people they need and want, and transparency is the key.”
Just like any relationship, being honest and open builds trust and with that trust comes loyalty and engagement, which in turn improves experience. Employees no longer want to clock in and clock out, they want to be involved, they want to care - all you have to do is let them in. Be completely honest, own up to your mistakes and give employees credit when they deserve it.
No matter the size of your business, the most effective and scalable way to implement and maintain this level of transparency is to implement the right communication tools. Tools that are easy to use, accessible and connected to existing software, so they are likely to see it, use it and always remain connected to the business and along with it with a heightened sense of purpose.
Create a connected and collaborative environment
Of course that level of business transparency won’t mean a thing if employees don’t feel like they are part of a team. No matter the personality type, humans are a social species. Employees need interaction and the sense that they are working with others towards a common goals.
This all links back to creating a healthy company culture and the best way to do that is to foster collaboration not just with breakout areas and adjustments to their physical environment, but also enhancing collaboration across global or remote teams with digital collaboration tools. While there are many free tools that departments may be using in siloes collaboration needs to be encouraged business-wide. Employees have so many channels of communication they end up disconnected and overwhelmed. Discussing the importance of collaboration CEO of Saberr.com Tom Marsden said:
“Learning to collaborate with the rest of your team and compromise on ideas can be the most challenging part of a job, but it’s also the most rewarding. Collaboration can make or break a team’s performance, and in today’s ‘knowledge economy’ the vast majority of jobs require high degrees of collaboration between team members. Quality team collaboration isn’t simply a ‘nice to have’ or something that will happen on its own: it’s something we’ve got to stop treating with a laissez-faire attitude and start taking it seriously.”
The best way to implement collaboration tools successfully across teams and guarantee user adoption is to implement connected working portals that include collaborative tools and messaging streams. Channels that will also allow you to measure their success and help you keep track of how teams are collaborating alongside your wider HR objectives.
Be more agile - listen, adapt and support
This is where the reversed concept of employee experience vs employee engagement comes in. In order to help your employees thrive and have an exceptional employee experience you need to apply agile working concepts and consider:
- What do they need to improve their employee experience?
- How do we need to adapt to get the best out of this employee?
- Are we doing everything we can to make their job more enjoyable?
Just like your businesses customer experience efforts, creating the best employee experience stems from your employees and what they need to have a better experience. You really can’t do better than finding out what that is and making the relevant adjustments they need to thrive. For large companies this may seem like an overwhelming task but their are robust employee survey platforms available that can help you get to the route of those issues and, most importantly, take action.
One of our partners for instance WeThrive have created a survey that includes psychological intelligence to help uncover both conscious and subconscious factors impacting the employees experience, then offering actionable tips for managers to use in their next one2one or team meetings. A platform that can be integrated with our connected working solution Access Workspace, a self-serve connected working platform that integrates business-wide software.
Make their jobs easier to do with the right tools
There is nothing more frustrating than trying to do your job without the resources and tools you need to do it well. Even worse if you’re juggling a range of tools that you don’t have enough training to use effectively and ‘blagging it’. Inefficiency and excess admin was highlighted as a top challenge by HR professionals in our Reality of HR report, but it's not just HR struggling. Business-wide employees are likely overwhelmed with unnecessary admin, duplication of work, wasting time due to lack of resources or training on how to use a vast amount of internal systems.
HR magazine also reported that 76% employees said having access to the latest technology and digital tools was crucial, with 33% embarrassed to work anywhere without them and 21% leaving a job because they didn’t have access to remain competitive. Yet conversely the same survey found that:
- 31% felt new digital tools made their jobs more stressful
- 23% of employees did not understand how to use new digital tools
- 24% couldn’t make the most of their digital tools
- 34% were not given enough or any training to get the most out of the tools
Access to resources is a key ingredient to a productive and thriving workplace environment, something Head of Human Resources and Compliance for GardaWorld U.S. Cash Services Ivelices Thomas is passionate about, he said:
“When your workplace is devoid of appreciation, competent management or the provision of necessary resources, the quality of the employee experience deteriorates. For instance, if your employees do not have the proper tools and resources to perform their job, the inevitable result will be poor work product.”
Access to resources is really about unblocking employees pathway to getting the best out of their experience as an employee, thus improving employee experience. The greatest blocker to resources is often the fact they are all so disconnected with separate logins and access points. This is why so many businesses are now focusing on becoming hyper-connected - helping break down department siloes and enabling business-wide use of the latest digital tools along with FAQs and How To guides on how to use those tools.
Enhance employee experience through connectivity
“Employee Experience is the sum of the various perceptions employees have about their interactions with the organisation in which they work.” Tracy Maylett and Matthew Wride.
There are many facets to employee experience all of which point back to employees being connected. Connected with each other, the wider business, their colleagues and connected to their own sense of purpose and belonging in the company. Through connected working your business can put the right processes, systems and support mechanisms in place to foster collaboration, efficiency, agility and engagement. All elements that will help you build an exceptional employee experience.
Find out more about top HR challenges and trends in our Reality of HR Report.