In uncertain times, it’s easy to brush employee experience aside as a luxury, but don’t be fooled. Disengaged employees could cost you more than you think. Did you know that a Gallup poll found that companies with highly engaged employees had higher earnings per share for their stock and higher productivity, higher attendance, and lower turnover?
Spoiler: a great employee experience doesn’t have to cost a dime. If you understand what exactly the concept encapsulates, streamlining your candidates’ and employees’ experience becomes so much easier.. ‘Employee Experience’ is the perception the employee has of their job and company. Some factors that play into this perception are communication, management, compensation, work-life balance, impact, and mission.
It’s not rocket science. At the base level, people want the tools they need to successfully perform their role—whether it’s information or a laptop. Next, employees want to be compensated fairly and feel they have an impact on the organization, that their role matters to the success of the company. And, lastly, employees want to connect to the values of the company.
A Bersin study found that 59 per cent of employers felt they weren’t ready to take on the challenge of creating a great candidate experience. This may seem overwhelming, but all these factors stem from a few core practices. You just need to tap into the basics to succeed.
So let’s dive into the three tips for boosting your employee experience for better employee engagement.
- Communicate Regularly
From hire to retire, communicating with your people is perhaps the most important thing when it comes to optimising their experience… Be clear about what the application process and interview process entails. Keep your candidates posted. Help them understand why you request background checks on them, for example, and what they need to do to make the process even faster and slicker.
Then, don’t let communications go dark after you hire a new employee. This is a crucial time for them. Be sure to keep up with check-ins to ensure a positive experience. Set reminders for yourself on your online calendar and be sure to respond to messages promptly, even if it’s to say ‘I don’t know the answer, but I’ll find out.’ The employee will feel heard and secure in the new environment.
Pro Advice: Respond with empathy, even if you think a question is foolish. You may be so used to the company processes that you take some knowledge for granted.
- Take Time to Onboard
When we say ‘take time to onboard’ we don’t mean that the onboarding has to be a long and arduous process. We mean, you should plan ahead. When you have a plan in advance see which bits of the process can be automated. Consider automating your background check process or gamifying meetings for a more engaging and less cumbersome experience.
Pro Advice: Before you make your onboarding plan get feedback from other team members to see if there’s anything they wish they’d been told about during their onboarding.
- Give Meaningful Feedback
Feedback is crucial to employee development, but like most important things it’s also hard. Hard to find time to do it and hard to say it in the right way. So don’t leave it to chance: schedule a regular time in your calendar to give feedback to your employees and be sure to solicit feedback from them. The back and forth will make the meeting feel more collaborative so it’s easier to give constructive comments or course corrections.
Pro Advice: Consider asking for feedback in an anonymous survey format as well so employees can speak their minds more freely.
Final Thoughts
Remember in today’s world everyone is a brand ambassador. Just as customer experience can make or break a brand’s reputation, so can the employee experience - and even a candidate’s experience of the application and interview process. Don’t stress about the bells and whistles. Free perks will only get you so far without the fundamentals of communication, onboarding, and feedback.
Our advice is to start creating an awesome employee experience from day one, providing new hires with the tools they need, but it’s never too late to get on track and engage your employees.
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