Now, More than Ever, Employee Experience Matters
How do you define employee experience?
When thought about holistically, employee experience is the arc of a person’s journey with a company. It starts with candidate experience and involves all the communications and interactions that take place between your company and every individual who works for you. It involves processes, certainly, but it’s a lot more than that.
Employee experience is rooted in human connection. At its best, it is the result of a well-crafted ecosystem of processes and people that work synergistically to create opportunity for every employee. It fosters not only career growth, but also feelings of alignment, belonging and commitment to the work and the company. And, ultimately, when it’s done well, employee experience drives productivity, revenues and employee retention.
In upcoming blogs we’re going to take a journey through the Employee Experience Lifecycle. We’ll explore it from two perspectives: the employee and the company. And we’ll share best practices that will help you improve your HR operations at each critical milestone.
A quick look at the Employee Experience Lifecycle model
We created the following model to illustrate the various elements of the Employee Experience Lifecycle. If you haven’t yet watched our Employee Experience Lifecycle videos, we encourage you to take a look, as they provide a more in-depth look at each section.
We offer our Employee Experience Lifecycle infographic as a free download.
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Above the line is the employee journey…
We’re recruited, then hired and on-boarded, then engaged and developed. Hopefully we’re retained, then, when we’re ready for the next step in our careers, we move to exit.
Throughout this process we are giving and taking in a symbiotic relationship…with co-workers, managers and likeminded people at work who are on this lifecycle journey with us.
We invest our energy and time into producing work for the company, and in return we’re rewarded with compensation and development, friendships and successes. In the best of times, we’re growing together. And in challenging times, we’re learning to navigate to the next growth period. All the while we’re creating shared opportunities and experiences until we’re ready to take our skills and expertise to another organization.
Below the line is the company’s HR operations ecosystem…
It supports the employee experience starting with workforce planning (who are we hiring?) then on to sourcing and recruiting, interviewing and selection, on-boarding and integrating employees into our organization.
Along the way we set expectations and compensate with total rewards, we provide opportunities for personal and professional development and foster a sense of belonging. We care for our employees and help them build their resilience. We also set boundaries and put processes in place to handle difficult matters that inevitably come up. And, when it’s time, we offer a dignified exit, whether it be voluntary or involuntary.
How to use the Employee Experience Lifecycle as a model for your organization
This Employee Experience Lifecycle ecosystem provides direction for how you communicate with your employees. It establishes your employment value proposition and culture. And all of this translates to your employment brand – how your company is viewed by candidates, employees and former employees who have the opportunity to cast light, or shade, on your reputation based on those experiences.
When we look at the Lifecycle in terms of the new hire, the experiences of those first weeks of onboarding and months on the job can set the tone for the employee’s entire experience at the company. It helps them decide if this is a company they might want to work for long-term or if it’s a tolerable landing pad as they continue to look for a better position. If an employee doesn’t feel committed early on, it’s a lot harder to win that commitment later.
Of course, much of an employee’s experience at your company depends on their job, their skills and qualifications, their growth path, etc. The Lifecycle looks at how well you are supporting them as they engage with their team and their work.
Going through the Lifecycle you’ll want to ask questions like:
Have your company and your managers set appropriate expectations?
Are you creating a learning culture with a growth mindset?
Are you making sure employees are feeling rewarded for their work? (These can be extrinsic rewards like pay and bonuses, but they also include intrinsic rewards: how valued and appreciated an employee feels has a direct impact on their productivity and their desire to remain with your company.)
In the coming blogs, we’ll be taking a journey around the Employee Experience Lifecycle looking at each area – Attraction, Engagement and Retention – in a bit more depth.
If you’d like to skip ahead and learn more about how we use this model as a foundation for how we help our clients, please give us a call or shoot over an email. We can help you align and nurture your practices to bring your ecosystem into balance, realize your vision and create the employee experience that’s right for your company.
We look forward to hearing from you!