Employee experience as a competitive advantage

7 of June, 2022

In the last few years, the employee experience (EX) movement has gained momentum. With dreadful pandemics and global disruptions of supply chains, companies are focusing more on their people and their experiences. 

If done right, this approach could be a competitive advantage, given that businesses these days face powerful headwinds requiring sufficient incentive for employees to go the extra mile. Stay with us and find out how employee experience can benefit your company through employee survey. 

What is employee experience?

Employee experience is the human resources measure assessing the positive and negative qualities of the relationship between employees and organizations. 

Positive employee experience not only involves engagement, but also how much effort employees put into their work to achieve organizational goals. Regardless of the challenges, your most valuable asset is a workforce that finds pleasure in coming to work and leaves feeling accomplished. 

Shaping the new possible through employee experience is a sure way HR Departments can future-proof organizations, and thereby make them resilient in a fast-changing and complex business environment to come. 

For that reason, employers need to manage employee experience and guide employee behaviors in a positive and productive direction. This imperative is true of any period, though with very different emphasis.

The evolution of employee satisfaction

There was a time, when it was possible to start in an old-fashioned company, say as an office boy, and end life as its president. The culture, though, paid little heed to how their workers experienced the working day. At least until the growth of industry brought the unionization, great labor battles and a compromise at last.

The management of employee satisfaction mattered very little when HR resources addressed organizational goals, allowing ever-increasing wages and benefits to be the rewards for achieving production and service objectives. 

A period of intense competition and globalization from the Nineties followed, along with repeated economic crises and financial stress that put an end to governments devising social programs and financial incentives to motivate their workforce.

The focus on productivity shifted to promoting engagement and motivation by other means. There was a time when visionaries in the high-tech sector could bring a work-environment which motivated techno-nerds. Well-stocked fridges, joints passed around the office and the devotion to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs provided engagement and motivation. At least until the core start-up grouping became a major corporation. 

How did the management of employee experience (EX) become such a hot topic in HR? 

In the 21^st century, COVID-19 triggered the Great Resignation or also known as the Great Reshuffle, where employees have recognized what’s important to them and resigned in mass their jobs. This event, showed employers how badly they need a motivated workforce to contribute to organizational success.

The employment experience strategy is not a “feel-good initiative” from HR, but a proven strategy that drives business results. A study conducted by MIT, states that organizations that promote employee experience had very good customer satisfaction scores, and increased profits compared to organizations that paid no attention to employment experience.

How to improve employee experience in your company?

“The Employee Experience Index,” a research from IBM®, advances five important factors for the management of positive experiences in the workplace:

• belonging
• purpose
• achievement
• happiness
• vigor

Of those who implemented hr management programs promoting positive workplace experiences had a considerable success. In fact, 84% of respondents to the Deloitte Human Capital Trends survey indicated that improving the employee experience was important. With 28% HR managers sharing that it is among the top three most urgent issues facing their organizations.

Developing a company culture is the solution to this issue. Culture is actually a form of branding, which distinguishes qualities and brings out what is best in any organization. Establishing what the company commits to as work experience raises employee satisfaction, motivation, and engagement.

The Internet is a powerful platform in which work experiences are shared, influencing whether employees are attracted by new jobs. The trend to focus management strategy on employee experience is still new, but will be a hot topic for many years to come.

Employee Experience Surveys 

There is a large and ever-growing body of scholarly literature and assessment instruments that measure employee experience. From recruitment to exit, giving management real-time insights where to focus efforts to increase employee engagement and performance. Despite many generic surveys, it is best to tailor the employee experience assessment to specific areas, asking for example if:

• A company’s actual experience matches its advertised claims.
• Employees experience fairness in their performance evaluations. 
• Line-managers respond well to criticism and suggestions.
• Employees and the team they work with value each other’s support.
• Workers receive all the information and tools needed to do their assigned tasks.
• Employees feel that they had been treated with dignity, sensitivity and consideration.
• Daily interactions reflect the values and culture promoted by the company as its specific brand.
• Expectations are in line with the actual experience in the workplace.
• The company provides growth and development abilities.

Building a strong and reputable brand requires the active engagement of employees. Ultimately, their experiences, positive or negative,  impacts how much they collaborate in building successful workplace teams and whether they are invested in improving organizational performance. 

A final thought

During our time of crisis and uncertainty, many employees question their work choices, especially if working in a company that is insensitive to their needs. Poor employee experience can make the employee take the decision to leave for other opportunities, which results in companies losing talent that may be difficult to replace, and first-hand experience and customer knowledge that is lost when they are most needed.

That is why managing employment experience should be added to the human resources toolbox of any firm with urgency.

There are many digital solutions out there to measure employee satisfaction. For example, with a survey software like Sesame HR you can create surveys in just 5 minutes and get real time feedback!