Why it's time for employers improve their employee experience

Organizations that don’t start to think about the employee experience from a different perspective run the real risk of either disappointing or under-servicing their current employees.

In today’s workplace, employees expect - and demand - incentives, benefits and perks that most organizations wouldn’t have even considered a decade ago. In fact, a Glassdoor employee survey from 2015 indicated that 89% of 18-34 year old employees prefer these types of benefits and perks to a pay raise. And while traditional benefits, like insurance and EAP, remain important, they’re commonplace and hardly perceived as additive benefits that bolster employment packages.

“Companies have to start looking at the employee experience holistically,” said Tom De Iulis, SVP Product and Strategy, Venngo. “If you are not looking at how an employee interacts with your company and how you provide things to them, you are both missing an opportunity and taking a risk. Talent starts joining rival companies when they do not feel aligned or when they feel their organization is not fulfilling their expectations.”

Millennials have been the biggest generation in the Canadian workforce since 2014. As well as wanting to do work that is meaningful and fulfilling, millennials also expect flexibility — they don't want to be stuck in the same office for 40 or 50 hours a week, and modern technology means they don't have to be. Employers have responded and organizations of all sizes now encourage - or even mandate - flexible working or work from home days.

A 2017 survey conducted by Regus, entitled The Workplace Revolution – a picture of flexible working, discovered that over 50% of workers now report that they work outside the main office 2.5 days a week or more. The revelatory study also found that 11% of business people in Canada report that they work remotely all week and that 27% of workers regard their commute as a ‘waste’ of time.