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Ajay and Ishita have been working as public relations executives for different organizations for the past year. While their roles are similar, their employee experience has been vastly different.
Ajay’s organization has made him feel at home, regularly incorporating his recommendations to improve their work culture and providing him with incentives for his contributions. On the other hand, Ishita has never been asked to fill in an employee feedback survey, has hardly heard a word of praise from her seniors and has repeatedly seen her requests for flexible working hours on Saturdays get turned down.
No prizes for guessing which of the two your employees would rather be.
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What Is Employee Experience?
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Why Employee Experience Matters
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Five Ways To Improve Employee Experience
What Is Employee Experience?
Employee experience is a key component of running a successful organization. The sum total of interactions that employees have with their associates and the impact it has on their attitudes, feelings and behavior determine employee experience.
Before we discuss some ideas to improve employee experience, it’s important to understand why your organization should make the effort to invest in a better employee experience.
Why Employee Experience Matters
A positive employee experience is important because:
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It helps attract talent
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It helps retain performers
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It increases profits and productivity by keeping employees motivated
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It provides a feedback loop within the organization that lets employee voices be heard
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Happier employees are usually more efficient and innovative
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Happier employees usually provide greater customer satisfaction
Employee experience is thus vital towards maintaining a healthy and successful work culture.
Five Ways To Improve Employee Experience
Improving employee experience requires a thorough understanding of what employees value as well as knowledge of the resources that are available. There are many ways to improve employee experience, as demonstrated below. The key is to ensure that each step caters to certain basic ideals: clarity, integrity and consistency.
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Smooth Entry And Exit Process
Organizations should ask themselves how to improve employee experience right from the recruitment stage. The management should attempt to understand the skills and needs of a prospective employee. Individual attention is paramount in ensuring a good employee experience. Even if a candidate doesn’t join the organization, they’ll likely give good feedback if their experience during the recruitment process is a positive one. When it comes to employees leaving an organization, the exit should be handled with minimal fuss and no bitterness. Resentful ex-employees are not desirable for any organization. Hence, irrespective of the reason why someone is quitting, they must be treated with the same respect that they were given during their period of service.
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Continuous Feedback Loop
Surveys are a must if an organization wants to improve employee experience. But these surveys cannot be generic questionnaires conducted for the sake of feedback. The feedback mechanism must be tailored to different departments and various levels of employees. They should be designed to provide adequate space for employees to voice their opinions and concerns. As long as employees know that their side of the story is communicated, they’ll feel valued and enjoy a healthy employee experience.
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Empowering Change
There’s no use listening to what employees have to say if no tangible change is ever implemented by an organization. Feedback collection should not be just a token, or be superficial. After feedback is collected, it should be assessed to understand how employee complaints or demands can affect employee experience in the future. Organizations that have a track record of offering a good employee experience acknowledge that change does not always have to be top-down; it can also be bottom-up, driven by employees and powered by the willingness of organizations to act on employee suggestions.
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Rewards And Recognition
Recognizing or rewarding employees is not just about promotions, pay hikes or bonuses. It can take place through public or private praise from senior associates or by giving greater responsibility to an employee, which indicates that they have earned the trust of the organization. To know how to improve employee experience at work is to know how to keep employees encouraged and incentivized. Rewards and recognition are indispensable in that regard.
It is possible that some employees may not be satisfied with their experience even after an organization has diligently followed these steps. In such cases, their grievances must be addressed individually to assess how their experience can be customized to suit their needs.
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Flexible Working Options
While this may not be possible for all organizations, it’s worthwhile to consider flexible schedules for employees based on their needs and performance levels. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, greater flexibility has entered our work culture, with millions of employees adjusting to a work from home setup. Research has shown that employees tend to perform significantly better when their working hours coincide with their schedule preferences. Thus, organizations should be open to offering flexible working options to employees if and when the need arises.
For organizations to understand how to enhance employee experience can take time as well as expertise. Stacked with ideas to improve employee experience and offering pathways for their execution, Harappa’s 10 on 10 Program is here to help your organization to:
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Tap into employee potential
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Drive peak performance
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Activate, cultivate and elevate employee experience
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Drive high-performance behaviors at scale, and much more
Several organizations like Nasscom, ITC Limited, Infosys, etc. have already benefited from this program and acquired a comprehensive understanding of how to improve employee experience at work. It’s your turn next.
Explore Harappa Diaries to learn more about topics such as Must-Have Skills For Leadership, Skills to Develop as a Manager, What Is Business Acumen & Top Characteristics of a Project Manager that will help organizations tap into their employee's potential.
