Organizations can shape the way people work and live, from productivity to wellbeing and everything in between. This is how we must define employee experience going forward. People spend a third of our lives at work and the pandemic has increased that amount for many people, with 68% of remote professionals now working on the weekend and 45% reporting regularly working more than eight hours a day, according to a survey by global staffing firm Robert Half.
Employees have long been lectured about maintaining work-life balance and finding creative ways to fit life into the space around work, but that’s finally shifting. Work-life balance, or work-life integration as some are more accurately describing it, has become a component of team culture. Business leaders are embracing the need to focus on the whole life of an employee and not just their work-life, and the business case for fostering employees’ sense of belonging has been proven many times over.
Harvard Business Review reports a high sense of belonging in the workplace increases employee performance 56%, reduces turnover risk 50%, and decreases sick days 75%.
Why employers must prioritize the employee experience
This year has seen record high quit numbers month after month, and the “Great Resignation” is likely to continue as studies report up to 55% of workers plan to quit their jobs within the next year. The reasons people are changing jobs vary widely but many have to do with a poor employee experience and simply being unhappy at work due to being micromanaged, disrespected, underpaid, and so on.
Technology, and the circumstances that stemmed from the pandemic, have given organizations a peek into the personal lives of their employees. Now, business leaders have more intelligence than ever on each employee, which they can leverage to inform employee engagement strategies and improve employee experience. From social media posts and “listening” to surveys, to engagement platform usage data, employers are beginning to connect all the dots to shape what employees want from their employee journey.
Employee experience repeatedly appears on lists of 2022 HR trends. Organizations that fail to prioritize and improve the employee experience will struggle to retain the employees they have now and will continue to face challenges in hiring to fill open positions. Developers of HR technology are already on board with the notion of centering the employee experience and creating solutions that help integrate work, life, and organizational goals. “The number one issue in HR is engaging, supporting, and caring for people,” said Josh Bersin, global research analyst. “And the new dimensions of remote work, hybrid work, and contingent work are on everyone’s plate.” Organizational leaders need to commit to this mindset to remain competitive — not just in the labor market, but within their industry as well.
How data can enhance the employee experience
Using data to understand, and then improve, the employee experience extends to the entire employee journey. Some forward-thinking organizations are tying employee data to organizational values and leveraging that data to gain insights into how to motivate employees into replicating behaviors that align with the organization’s values. Making data-informed decisions about how best to support employees at work and at home, while also fostering a more engaged and productive work culture, means organizations can enjoy many different benefits stemming from a single effort.
The first step in using data to elevate the employee experience involves looking for opportunities to effect change. Map out the employee journey to identify stages, then use data to confirm touchpoints and ways to enhance the employee experience.
Next, create an inclusive, personalized onboarding experience that starts building trust from day one. A well-crafted onboarding program sets expectations for new hires and helps people feel supported in their new role, as well as helps them feel included and accepted in your organization. Implementing a comprehensive onboarding program, and making sure new hires go through it sooner than later, also means you’ll be able to collect more data to help you down the road.
The next step in bringing your employee engagement ideas to life is about putting your money where your mouth is. Delivering a custom, branded rewards and recognition program that speaks to your employees’ personal values, can motivate, and inspire them. How you recognize employees can vary, depending on what behaviors you’re acknowledging and the employees’ preferences. But if you solicit employee feedback, you can craft meaningful, relevant programs that show employees how much they value and appreciate not only their work, but everything they bring to the organization as a human being.
It’s not enough just to have a rewards and recognition program. Employers need to make sure employees are not only aware of it but engaged in it, that it’s baked into your team culture and is part of the everyday employee experience. Higher utilization means you can capture a lot more data, making your reports a true reflection of the employee experience, and not just a sampling. Craft personalized and relevant messages that you can reuse throughout your program, and don’t overlook training for managers on how to deliver these messages to employees and keep the lines of communication open.
Data is driving the future of employee experience
Data is at the heart of every facet of business, and the insights data reveals about the employee experience offer business leaders a unique opportunity to learn and grow. Leveraging data can uncover potential, help leaders better support employees, and lead to higher productivity, better employee engagement and retention, and enhance overall employee wellbeing. With quit rates still rising, leaders can’t afford to wait a minute longer to invest in the employee experience.
Employee engagement platforms that make it easy for employees to get the information they need to do their jobs is paramount. If an employee must go to various software platforms to get the information they need to do their job, their level of frustration will go up and they will be far less likely to use the “tools” available to them. This means that the data you collect on the employee portals will be faulty since they will be used less.
Intellective’s Employee Experience Pack sits on top of ServiceNow to deliver a personalized and unified employee engagement experience where you can integrate data across software platforms to deliver a world class employee experience. You can leverage the analytics inside of ServiceNow to gain insights on employee engagement since team members will be using the portals to get the information they need since it is now so simply.
Below are some of the benefits you get from the Employee Experience Pack:
- Replace legacy or expensive intranets in a matter of days or weeks
- A built-in kudos app that makes it easy to recognize employees
- Access information across the entire organization in one place using the Employee Experience Pack tools for ServiceNow
- AI driven recommendations to personalize the experience
- Contextual search to make it easy for employee to find what they need in one click
