What is Employee Experience?
When we talk about employee experience, it refers to everything an employee thinks, feels, and does during their employment with an organization. Think of onboarding, training, the use of internal tools and digital platforms, interaction with customers, colleagues, managers, and of course, their daily job activities. All these different moments and touchpoints give the complete picture of an employee’s experience at an organization.
Such a picture must, of course, strive to be positive. Happy employees make happy customers, and strong employer branding helps attract new talents. That is why it is vital to invest significantly in your employee experience, especially for non-desk employees. Because these employees do not sit behind a large desk and do not have a business email address, they are often difficult to reach. The goal here is to improve cooperation across the entire organization by connecting, training and engaging your deskless workforce.
4 examples that contribute to a better employee experience
- Start on time
Employee experience starts from the first moment of contact with your new employee. And it is precisely at that moment that you as an organization can make a difference. Take the invitation for a job interview: you can do this with an (automated) standard message or a personal, friendly message instead. Using the latter, the new employee immediately sees what kind of organization they are dealing with and how (new) employees are being treated and valued.
- Share your goals
Did you hire someone? During the onboarding, ensure that you share enough information about your brand, company values, and future vision. Of course, it is fundamental that a new employee receives enough information to do their job well. Still, it has been proven that an employee makes a better contribution early on if they feel committed to the organization’s goals and values.
- Invest in digital tools
Deskless employees often do not have a corporate email address and work in different locations. That makes it difficult to reach them and keep them up to date with all the engaging initiatives. In that case, a mobile platform for your internal communication can come in handy. It is more straightforward and convenient than other internal communication tools, such as a social intranet or Whatsapp group. Thanks to an internal communication platform, you can easily reach all colleagues, departments, and locations and better facilitate collaboration.
In addition to internal communication, you can also use digital tools for onboarding, digital training, surveys, and more. In this way, you contribute to the development of your employees and cooperation – all essential parts of a positive employee experience.
- Evaluate and provide feedback
You may have built a good onboarding program or e-learning program, but you must be able to check whether your employees truly start to benefit from it. Make sure you have the right tools to collect data to evaluate your programs. This way, you can change course along the way if you notice that something is not quite working as you planned.
Of course, this also applies to the performance of your employees. Giving them constructive feedback with regularity helps them better acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses. If they do something right, your positive feedback is a token of appreciation. And do you see points for improvements? Then the employee can work on it, thanks to your observations. By maintaining an active feedback loop instead of limiting it to an annual appraisal interview, the bond with your employees becomes more robust and constructive.
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4 benefits of a good employee experience
1. Higher productivity
Good employee experience ensures more productivity. And it pays off: organizations with engaged employees are 21% more profitable than organizations with low employee engagement. Plus, engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave to work elsewhere.
2. Higher Customer Satisfaction
Employees who feel at home and connected to their workplace become valuable ambassadors of their organization. It’s really not a surprise and very logical: if someone enjoys their work, it also radiates on their daily job activities. Therefore, ensuring that your employees feel good about their work automatically affects your customers’ experiences.
3. Lower absenteeism
Did you know that low employee engagement leads to an average of 7 days of absence per employee per year? If your organization has 1000 employees, that means already 7000 days of absenteeism per year. And that, as you may have guessed, it’s costly.
4. Better employer branding
The employee experience determines the image that your organization has as an employer. Just think: suppose there are all kinds of negative reviews from your (former) employees on Glassdoor, it will undoubtedly have a permanent effect on your reputation. When you provide an attractive workplace where employees want to continue working, your employer branding becomes stronger: your organization can distinguish itself from others based on positive experiences and stories, thus attracting potential new talent faster.
Improve your employee experience
A good employee experience automatically leads to happy employees. That increases productivity, engagement, and customer satisfaction within your organization. With the user-friendly Employee Experience Platform from Oneteam, you have all digital tools at your fingertips to ensure that your employees become successful at their job, while being happy to be a part of your organization.
