What is employee experience

Employee experience covers how a person feels about their time with a company throughout their employee lifecycle.

The employee experience is completely opinion-based, and like any opinion, it can fluctuate depending on where someone is in the employee journey. For example, someone may have a great onboarding experience, but after being with the company for a while, they may become less engaged and may start to think that they could find a better job elsewhere.

Since feelings drive employee experience, your company should do its part to ensure a positive work environment that will improve employee satisfaction, leading to engaged employees. 

Critical touchpoints in the employee experience

To help more employees have a positive experience with your company, it’s essential to analyze your business’ actions and strategies at each milestone of the employee lifecycle, from selecting your newest team member to their exit interview.

Recruitment

When you think about employee experience, recruitment probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind since you’re looking for people who have the potential to become employees. But recruitment is your company’s first impression with many of these candidates, and the employee experience begins here.

The hiring process is when you introduce applicants to your company culture and show them how you plan to give them a positive employee experience. Job boards are where companies set potential employees’ expectations —and it’s where employees will return to negatively review your company if you don’t live up to those expectations. Not every candidate will read the employee feedback sections on Glassdoor, but why take the chance of making a negative impression on top talent?

Onboarding

Onboarding is the new hire’s introduction to your workspace and sets the foundation for their tenure in the company. Your human resources team needs to set these new employees up for success right off the bat.

The onboarding process directly correlates to an employee’s engagement, especially with a new generation of workers who have no problem quitting a job if they don’t feel like it’s a good fit.

Performance

The bulk of the employee experience comes from day-to-day work experience. Once an employee is onboarded and immersed into the workplace culture, they continue to develop their opinion of the company.

For many team members, their relationship with other employees, available perks, and work-life balance can influence their overall experience. Conducting performance reviews allows you to check in with your employees, but it also gives your managers a chance to touch base with how your team member feels about their job.

Blending employee experience check-ins and performance management can help you identify why an employee may perform less strongly. Suppose you suddenly receive reports of poor customer experience or customer satisfaction from this person’s clients. In that case, it may indicate someone is unsatisfied with their job and has decided to “quiet quit.”

Exit

The last touchpoint in the employee experience is their exit from the company. Your top priority in the employee’s exit should be identifying why they’re leaving the company in their exit interview if they don’t tell you when they submit their notice.

If they’re leaving for another job, it’s essential to ask why they chose the new job over their current one, as their answer may help you improve your retention metrics.

Employee experience vs. employee engagement

While employee experience and employee engagement go hand in hand, they are slightly different. Employee experience focuses on how an employee feels throughout their tenure at a company. In contrast, employee engagement is centered around how invested an employee is in a company. 

Although employee engagement can directly impact an employee’s experience (and ultimately employee retention), only 15% of the global workforce feels engaged with their job, according to a Gallup poll. Focusing on initiatives to boost employee engagement can significantly help your overall employee experience and give your company a competitive advantage.

Build an employee experience strategy

Ensuring a good employee experience requires connecting with your employees and ensuring they feel comfortable enough to give you honest feedback. 

Let’s break down some tactics you can use to build your employee experience strategy.

Utilize employee experience surveys

Direct feedback is the best way to gauge your team members’ feelings in real-time. You may use anonymous surveys to ensure employees speak freely instead of saying what they think you want to hear.

Conduct regular pulse surveys and employee engagement surveys to better understand your employees’ well-being, needs, and feelings.

Improve global mobility

In light of the rise in remote work because of the pandemic, global mobility has become an increasingly important component of the employee experience. Global mobility provides worker’s location flexibility which improves employee satisfaction.

See what people are saying online

Don’t be afraid to keep tabs on what people say about your company online, whether it’s Glassdoor, social media, LinkedIn, or something else. Online reputations have become essential to stakeholders, and people have no problem getting online to say what they feel about something.

Start at the top

Boosting employee engagement begins with your business leaders—from your HR leaders conducting recruitment to your everyday managers overseeing business performance. Stressing the importance of employee experience to business outcomes and profitability to your higher-ups can ensure that they take the necessary steps to prioritize employee experience.

Ensuring a great employee experience

The bottom line: you have to actively work to ensure that your team members have an incredible employee experience.

HR teams should consider adopting a global HR platform to benefit from integrations and apps that optimize employee experience and engagement.