Employers are striving to provide great employee experience, but how exactly can they achieve it?
Companies that provide great employee experience deliver better business results. They realize higher employee productivity, lower turnover, and higher customer satisfaction.
A recent study by Queen's University school of business showed that organizations with the highest levels of employee engagement are consistent with 15% greater employee productivity and up to 30% greater customer satisfaction levels. Another study, this time by Gallup, found that an engaged organization can lead to up to 18% higher revenue per employee.
However, while the benefits for employers who are taking steps to improve the employee experience are huge, the risks for those who don’t are, too. Jamie Aitken, HR Executive Advisor, SAP, says that employers who are not focused on creating an exceptional employee experience will find themselves struggling to attract and keep talents.
Aitken uses an illustration to explain her point: “Let’s say there are five coffee shops on the street near your home. All have comparable coffee and are fairly the same in terms of cost. But there’s one that goes a bit further – comfortable seating, free Wi-Fi, nice tunes, the staff is friendly and welcoming you by name … Pretty sure you’d find yourself sitting on a couch at the shop I just described.”
Another reason employers should take measures to improve the employee experience is that technological advancements are continuously shaping and transforming the workplace.
“The challenge we’ve had in the past is that engagement was measured at a point in time (usually in the annual engagement survey) and analyzed with limited action plans to address gaps,” Aitken emphasizes. “But truly managing employee experiences should be ongoing; it’s not about pinpointing a single event or point in time. People leaders need the ability to collect feedback at every moment that matters (like your first week at the job, for example) and take action from what is learned.”
Instead of using traditional employee surveys, Aitken suggests gauging the employee experience more specifically in terms of what she calls “moments that matter,” and here’s where technology moves to the next level. It’s combining the “WHAT” operational data – which employees are leaving the organization, how many candidates accept and rejects offers, how long it takes for new hires to get to full productivity – and the “WHY” data to understand employees’ beliefs, attitudes, and intentions that influence their decision to join, stay or leave the organization.
“By having this level of insight, we can learn where our true experience gaps are and curate the most impactful and positive employee experiences,” Aitken notes.
In a new white paper, SAP outlines and explains six key factors that contribute to an employee’s experience: relevance, predictability, control, threshold, respect, and balance. For more information on how these factors help in creating the best employee experience, download the white paper here.