Broadly speaking, the employee experience covers a range of employee touch points within the workplace that can have an effect on their day to day at work. From co-worker interactions, the culture, benefits, their relationships with their managers and HR leaders, even the equipment they’re using can have an impact on their experience at work.
Let’s face it, we’ve all had days at work where something has left us feeling a little deflated. And one or two of those kinds of days are okay in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes, they’re just unavoidable. But they’re only okay if employers react and manage these negative experiences or provide the channels for employees to speak about them. Preferably both. That’s what makes all the difference.
Employee experience is something that all employers should be investing in. It is becoming more prevalent the effect employee experience has on retaining staff, employee engagement and improving overall company performance. Especially as the world is navigating through constant change. But even despite that, the people who power your business deserve a good time. Your people spend too much time at work for them not to have a good experience. And when they do, this can do wonders for your business.
So with that in mind, join us as we delve into the various elements that influence employee experience, providing you with the insight to enhance your own.
Lack of progression available
A lack of professional development or progression opportunities can be deflating to many employees. Granted, there are some people who go to work and are happy in their comfort zone. But you will also have employees who thrive off challenges and bettering themselves. With that being said, you should be fueling that ambition with development opportunities to ensure you retain your talent and optimise it within your organisation.
If you have employees that will go the extra mile to improve their skills, knowledge and experience for your business, reward them. After all, what they put into your business affects your output, and if they’re not given room to grow, they may look to grow elsewhere.
Poor leadership
Now this one can be hard to identify because poor leadership isn’t always a comfortable idea to talk about. And a lot of the time, the leader in question is trying their best. You’ll often find that lack of training is the main issue when it comes to poor leadership. Not always. Other factors can play a part, such as lack of communication, lack of acknowledgement to team members and lack of support. To name a few.
This can lead to your people becoming understandably frustrated, and could affect their levels of trust in their management. So their overall experience may not be the greatest.
As we mentioned earlier, it’s not always a comfortable topic to bring up, but there are ways around this. Tools such as Hive Open Door and Hive Surveys, allow your people to anonymously feedback their thoughts, feelings, opinions and suggestions. So they can get whatever they need off their chest in complete incognito mode!
Off the back of this feedback you can then identify changes, and where possible training should be implemented to enable a more enjoyable experience for your teams.
Feeling undervalued
Value is something that all of us want to bring to the table at work. For most people, work is more than just a paycheck. Your people want to come to work, give their all and see their input is recognised and making a difference.
Think of it like this. Imagine staying back a little extra to get that project finished on time. Or taking client calls on your day off to ensure that the client receives the best service possible. Or you spent your own time researching a new tool to implement into the business that would reduce time taken to complete a project by 10%. And no one said as little as a thanks… You’d be pretty deflated. And rightly so.
Ensuring you’re giving credit where credit is due can give a massive uplift in employee self esteem, wellbeing and engagement. And this can be done as easily as implementing a tool like Hive Fives, where leaders and colleagues can give out praise and recognition when a peer has done something that should be celebrated, or gone the extra mile.
This can also improve the working culture through encouraging a supportive environment, as well as driving people to perform as they know it will be acknowledged.
Those kinds of experiences at work make people feel respected, valued and like their efforts were worthwhile.
Ability to feedback
An employee’s ability to feedback on the organisation’s practices, culture, management and their own role can have a detrimental impact on their experience with your company.
Including employees in changes and improvements around the business can add significant value. The people who see and carry out the day to day know what’s affecting their roles and what could help them perform, and feel even better about their working day so their feedback could be vital to transforming your organisation.
Carrying out regular employee surveys can be a great way to see if there are any trends and gather insights around problems that arise internally. You can then assess and address the situations accordingly.
Another option is to offer constant communication channels for your people to anonymously give feedback as and when an idea or thought pops into their head. Hive The Open Door allows your employees to feedback 24/7 without having to rely on waiting for surveys to be sent out. They have constant opportunities to let you know what’s on their mind.
This way, everyone has the ability to feel like they are a part of an inclusive working community that takes their feelings and opinions into account when improving their workplace.
Culture
Culture. You probably hear this thrown around a lot. And you’ve probably seen LinkedIn filled with companies who recognise a good culture as buying pizza once a month for their teams. And whilst pizza is a great perk, it’s not a make or break factor of company culture.
Company culture is feeling valued, having an understanding of company goals and everyone working towards them as a team. It’s good communication, and feeling supported by teams and leaders. It’s feeling appreciated as a person and for your contribution to the business. It’s a diverse workforce where everyone is respected and treated equally. It’s having benefits and pay that reflect your efforts and responsibilities.
The list certainly does go on when it comes to company culture. Which is why it has such a big impact on an employee’s experience. As a matter of fact, according to flex jobs, 62% of people listed a toxic company culture as their main cause for leaving their role. Which is why you shouldn’t mess around when it comes to getting your culture right for your people.
Improving culture starts with asking your employees how they feel about it currently. This can be done by carrying out surveys where your teams can anonymously feedback their genuine thoughts on what changes need to be made to improve their experience from a culture perspective.
Workloads
This next impact can seem difficult to manage, because no two people are alike. We all have different ways of working and thinking, so not everyone has the same capacity to complete the same amount of work at the same time as others. You also have to factor in that roles and responsibilities differ from person to person which again could impact the amount of work an employee could complete in a certain amount of time.
Discovering what workloads your staff can achieve within a given time frame is paramount to preventing stress and employee burnout. Not forgetting to account for a coffee break or two. We all need to step away from our desk from time to time.
The cost of living crisis is in full swing, affecting homes and businesses across the UK. Due to cost cutting and it being harder to retain staff it means added pressure and increased workloads for most employees right now.
So, regularly checking up with your team to ensure they are managing their workload, and encouraging them to speak up if not is crucial to your employees wellbeing, and therefore their working experience.
And that brings us to the end of this blog. Hopefully, you have gained valuable insights on how to improve employee experience in your organisation. Remember, a positive employee experience leads to increased productivity, employee retention, and overall success.
To delve a little deeper into impacts of the employee experience, why it’s important and how you can improve yours, download our ebook, Decoding Employee Experience: Understanding What it Means for Your Business”.
Enhancing employee experience
And that concludes our blog! We hope you found it informative and gained some valuable insights on how to enhance employee experience in your organisation. Keep in mind that a happy and satisfied employee leads to increased productivity, better retention and ultimately, greater success for your organisation.
