Business Impact of Employee Experience

Running a company directly and indirectly affects many. This includes the people owning the business, their clients, business partners, and the people working for them. The way companies make these people feel matters. Experience is one thing that they should value.

It is common for firms to try providing great customer experience. But they should keep in mind that workers are also their customers within the company. For this reason, a worker’s experience matters and can affect the business.

What is Employee Experience?

Employee experience or EX refers to the series of events throughout a worker's career within a company. It involves a workers’ view of the company based on various touchpoints during their employment. This experience starts from the time a worker becomes a company prospect until they end their service.

These events can trigger and create various experiences. And all these are of great value for a company. Same as with how firms treat customer experience, they must invest in creating great employee experience too.

Why Employee Experience Matters?

One of the reasons why employee experience matters is that it creates a certain image for the company. Since these are collective views of workers about the company. It can create either a good or a bad image depending on each worker’s experience.

During times when there is a high demand for top talent, companies need to level up their acquisition efforts. This is also when workers’ experience can help the company. When workers have great experiences, this reflects positively. As a result, it can put the company on the list of best places to work.

EX also affects various aspects of the company processes. Workers with good experiences perform better than those who have bad ones. They can finish their tasks efficiently and effectively.

The same workers with good experiences tend to stay in the company longer. Also, they are likely to promote their workplace as the best place to work. This can lead to more referrals to fill open job posts.

Stages of Employee Experience

Every worker goes through a cycle upon joining a company. The cycle consists of stages that create various experiences for them. Here are the stages of employee experience.

1. Attract

This first stage of this cycle happens even before a job post opens. This stage plays a key part in allowing companies to introduce themselves to prospects. For this stage to be effective, firms must invest in creating an excellent brand.

2. Hire

This stage begins even before a job seeker signs the job offer. This talks about what a candidate goes through during the recruitment process. This includes interactions with recruitment officers, hiring managers, and more.

3. Onboard

The onboarding process is the point where the company formally ushers in a new worker. This starts from day one of a worker’s employment. This is when workers have a feel for their new workplace.

In addition, this is the point where companies can make workers feel welcome. They can introduce an inclusive vibe to their new workers. It is also the chance where they can convey the company’s core values and missions.

4. Engage

Another term for this stage is the retain aspect of the EX. Without a doubt, employee engagement can lead to employee retention. At this stage, firms make every effort to keep their workers happy. Regular feedback and open communication are key in this process.

5. Develop

A worker’s growth is critical to their EX. This is where upskilling, enhanced performance, improved productivity, and more happens. Worker’s growth opportunities will make them more likely to stay with the company longer. This includes internal mobility. This could be promotion or lateral moves to improve their skills and knowledge.

6. Exit

There will always come a time when workers will part ways with the company. This is the final stage of their employment cycle. Experts say that this stage is as vital as that of the first stage.

At this point, firms should keep in mind to ask for feedback. This is for them to understand the reason a worker leaves the company. This is also the best time to check in with the team. Find out if there is a ripple effect of a worker’s parting.

Measuring Employee Experience

Knowing the stages in the employee experience is one thing. But the question is, how can one measure these experiences? Here are four ways to measure EX.

1. HR Technology

A company’s HR department uses numerous tools to keep track of everything that involves the workforce. They often have human resources management systems and many more in place.

These tools store data on workforce insights. This includes hires, turnover rates, complaints, and referrals. The HR team can analyze this data to get a better understanding of their workers’ experiences.

2. Surveys

These also play a key role in measuring EX. There are a range of surveys to get a better view of employee experience. Some of the surveys are candidate experience surveys, onboarding surveys, engagement surveys, exit surveys, and more.

3. Interviews

HR teams conduct various kinds of interviews to get real-time feedback from workers. They can also use this to measure employee experience. This includes stay interviews, skip-level interviews, and exit interviews.

4. Focus groups

This method aims to measure EX by getting a better view of various groups of workers. This can depend on which team, background, or affiliation they belong to. These groups shared their feedback and inquiries collectively.

Business Impact of Employee Experience

Little is known about how employee experience affects the business. But most companies see positive EX to have good impact on their business.

1. High Performance

Good employee experience leads to better employee engagement. As a result, this can be a key factor in the firm’s better performance.

2. Better Profit

According to studies, companies that invest to have better employee experience achieve better profits. These companies put their focus on better workplace setting, technology, and culture.

3. Predictor of Financial Results

Aside from better profits, positive EX can also dictate a company’s financial results. Firms should let workers take ownership. They should also invest in having helpful managers and have trust in their workers. These methods can lead to positive EX. As a result, they are most likely to have better revenues.

Like customer experience, companies need to take workers’ experience seriously. These can foster better worker engagement and performance. More importantly, it can lead to better business performance.