Rethinking Employee Experience: Top 10 Ways To Improve Employee Experience Journey
The employee experience journey is the continued journey an employee goes through to contribute to your organization’s success. This includes everything the employee experiences – benefits received, processes adopted, workplace culture, etc.
Some organizations add another “customer experience journey” layer directly tied to customers.
Without customer satisfaction, it’s tough to survive in today’s competitive business world. Now, imagine what your employees feel every time a bad customer leaves your organization with a frown and negative word of mouth- and you begin to understand the importance of employee experience.
10 Simple Ways To Improve Employee Experience Journey
The employee experience journey is about ensuring your employees are happy, engaged, and satisfied with their jobs, career progression opportunities within the organization, benefits offered to them, etc. In some way or another, none of us can deny that employees contribute to an organization’s success in small or big ways.
Creating an incredible employee experience journey
Creating a great employee experience journey is important for organizations to survive in today’s business world. Unfortunately, most companies are focusing on making the best customer experience journey. In contrast, now it has become equally important that you focus on your employees- so much so that employers have started to use their ’employee experience journey’ as a differentiator compared to competitors.
The following are ways you can change your organization to improve your employee experience journey.
Listen to your employees
Provide continuous opportunities for training and development
Implement a flexible work-from-home policy
Start a wellness program
Invest in the right technology for your employees
Have a clear career progression plan for your employees
Offer modern technology to your workforce
Offer incentives to top-performing employees
Organize different events and activities
Have an open-door policy
1. Listen to your employees
Listening to your employees improves the quality of their work and helps you know what they are thinking about. Many organizations conduct anonymous surveys where employees can provide feedback on any topic related to the organization’s functioning or even suggestions for improvement. These can effectively get crucial information to improve the quality of your services and products.
For example, if your customer service team comes across a common issue faced by several customers, they can use this information to address it better.
2. Provide continuous opportunities for training and development
Work today vastly differs from what it used to be just a few years ago. Skills required have changed, new technologies are being adopted around the world, and there’s continuous evolution happening in all spheres of work. If your employees aren’t provided with opportunities to learn new things, they’ll feel stagnated, which will eventually lead to their losing interest in their jobs.
Continuous training and development is a significant benefit for most employees. They feel motivated and inspired when they can learn new things- technical, soft skills, or any other kind of knowledge that they can add to their credentials.
3. Implement a flexible work-from-home policy
Remote work has been a buzzword in the technology industry for a while now. As a result, many companies in the technology sector offer a flexible work-from-home policy to their employees to choose when and how much time to work from home. This provides freedom and flexibility for employees and employers, resulting in better productivity.
Many organizations today are adopting a flexible work from home policy because it doesn’t just help them attract top talent across the world but also provides their employees with an opportunity to work from a convenient location.
4. Start a wellness program
Employee health and happiness are directly related to the performance of the organization. For example, providing your employees with a fitness center membership or offering free gym classes can help improve their well-being and, in turn, enable them to be more productive in their work.
Wellness programs also help reduce healthcare costs, a huge benefit for most organizations today. It’s not just important to provide employees with a great working environment; it is equally crucial to ensure they are healthy and happy.
5. Invest in the right technology for your employees
Technology has changed the way we work. With so many different gadgets available today, employees can be more productive. Investing in the right technology for your employees, whether smartphones or gadgets of any other kind, benefits your organization and your employees.
For example, employees can be more productive on the go with smartphones and tablets. They don’t have to work in an office using heavy desktop computers. With laptops, tablets, and smartphones available today, employees can access their files wherever they are.
6. Have a clear career progression plan for your employees
Creating a clear career growth path for your employees will motivate them to work harder and help your organization positively impact their lives.
It is essential for organizations today to provide their employees with an opportunity for learning, development, and growth within the organization. In addition, having a clear career growth plan can ensure your employees feel motivated and inspired in their jobs.
7. Offer modern technology to your workforce
Most of the work that employees do today is dependent on technology. For example, organizations would collapse without computers and other gadgets. If your organization isn’t using state-of-the-art or modern technology, the chances are high that employees will become frustrated, affecting their productivity.
Offering modern technology for all tasks benefits your organization and your employees. It not only helps them excel at their tasks but also gives them a sense of achievement and helps with the company’s overall productivity.
8. Offer incentives to top-performing employees
People want to be appreciated for what they do. So, for example, if an employee goes above and beyond to achieve a goal, they should be rewarded for it. It helps them develop a sense of achievement and recognition among their peers and makes sure that people feel appreciated in their jobs.
Employers must balance rewarding all employees, including entry-level, junior-level, mid-level, and senior-level employees. This happens when organizations work towards building a performance culture supported by all levels of management.
An effective incentive program can motivate your people to perform better, and individuals who are rewarded for their effort will, in turn, expect the same treatment from their peers.
9. Organize different events and activities
Organizing different events and activities for your employees is an excellent way to improve their happiness and create a sense of community within the organization. Therefore, there are endless opportunities for you and your organization to organize different kinds of events and activities for your employees.
Some examples include charity days, sports events, picnics, BBQs, workshops, birthday celebrations – the list goes on! Respecting each employee’s individuality by celebrating their uniqueness is a great organizational culture to have.
10. Have an open-door policy
An open-door policy in your organization can help you communicate effectively with your employees. It also encourages transparency, builds trust, and cultivates a sense of community among the team members. When there is no hierarchy between different levels of management in an organization, things tend to work smoothly.
An open-door policy does not mean that employees should be able to knock on the door of the CEO anytime they want. However, it does mean an organization has no hierarchy, and everyone is respected equally. An open-door policy helps keep your organization transparent and cultivates trust among employees, affecting their productivity positively.
Also Read – 10 Employee Recognition Ideas: Ultimate List
Final Thoughts:
While these are the top 10 ways to create a positive work culture in your organization and improve employee experience, there are many other points that you can take into consideration.
Remember that a single event or activity will not change the overall outlook of your organization toward its employees. For example, if you organize a charity day, it is important to ensure that your organization does something for the cause annually.
It is also essential to make sure that everyone in the organization understands how the event or activity impacts them in one way or another. For example, if you are organizing a breast cancer awareness fundraiser, ensure that all your employees know what the cause is and how it impacts them as an organization.
Not only does this keep everyone involved, but it also ensures that they feel appreciated for their efforts and positively impact society. With these ten simple ways to improve employee experience, you can create a work culture that will benefit your employees. Remember to make some changes gradually and not make a significant changes overnight.
By following these employee experience improvement tips, you can ensure that your organization is a positive work culture for both short-term and long-term employees.