Tuesday 8th February 2022
Everything you need to know about employee experience changes

Your employer wants to make you happy at work in a time of sustained workplace challenges. They include a lingering and consistently mutating virus, workers resigning from jobs at record levels, mental health issues at work becoming more common. Because of all this, employee wellbeing, empathy in the workplace and a positive employee experience are paramount.

People working from home for a prolonged period may feel isolated, so companies can use surveys or other data to find ways to gather safely and collaborate. Some employees might also feel they are damaging their chances for career advancement because they haven’t been in the office.

So, what else do you and your co-workers need and want these days to make an ideal employee experience? According to McKinsey, there are many things trying to be balanced all at once, including some that might appear on the surface to be competing against each other. In its report on employee experience, it states:

“Workers are hungry for trust, social cohesion, and purpose. They want to feel that their contributions are recognized and that their team is truly collaborative. They desire clear responsibilities and opportunities to learn and grow. They expect their personal sense of purpose to align with that of their organization. And they want an appropriate physical and digital environment that gives them the flexibility to achieve that elusive work–life balance.”

So how do you get social cohesion if everyone is working remotely? How do you achieve strong team collaboration in a hybrid work environment? And how can you help make an impact and receive the employee experience you deserve? Here are five places to start from:

To improve the employee experience, start with culture

Companies that want to help boost the employee experience will want to focus on making employees feel a stronger sense of inclusion. When employees feel they belong at work, there’s a 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days, according to Harvard Business Review.

Give your feedback in employee experience surveys

According to Forrester, only about a third of organizations survey their employees quarterly, or have “voice of the employee” programs in place which they find are foundational for employee experience initiatives. Analyst David Johnson explains it this way: “That means that when the pandemic hit, two-thirds of organizations were effectively blind to what their employees were experiencing or what they needed to stay engaged in their work.”

Companies that want to be competitive are those that focus on you, the individual, and your needs. They will ask, so give your regular feedback.

Participate in employee-feedback committees and coalitions

Once information about your employee experience needs are established and documented in surveys, there are often ongoing cross-department committees that allow employees to play a more direct part in making changes.  

McKinsey writes: “Successful employee experience also creates a balance between top-down guidance and letting employees create their own destinies. Everyone is in on the journey, including a coalition made up of finance, operations, and IT, among other functions.”

Organizations need to act on employee feedback

First, you need feedback. A study by Qualtrics found that 59% of employees who were given feedback felt engaged at work, compared to 49% of those who were not given any feedback. It’s not just about giving feedback though: it’s also about acting on the feedback given by employees. The study also found that companies who acted on feedback had engagement scores that were twice as high as those who didn’t (80% versus 40%).

Organizations need to embrace flexible work

Most organizations who were previously office-bound face a major challenge in balancing many competing employee-in-the-workplace priorities. They need to give employees a flexible work experience that’s user-friendly and supports their productivity, but in a way that is practical and sustainable for the employer, too. The good news? Companies that embrace flexible work and put the employee at the center of their workplace strategy can:

  • Reduce employee turnover
  • Reduce absenteeism
  • Increase productivity
  • Improve employee happiness
  • Reduce office costs

To learn more about the benefits of flexible work, read our eBook on flexible work.

Research report: Attitudes to Hybrid Working.

Attitudes to Hybrid Working Report

The impact of hybrid work on employees and employers.

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