Sponsored by FirstUp
The journey of a customer is crucial for any business. It’s a given, right? Happy customers equal growth and drive revenue and profitability. But so often, we neglect to consider the people behind it. The employee experience plays a significant role in the sustainability of an organization, regardless of its size. Research indicates that the employee journey deserves the same level of attention as the customer journey since it can impact customer satisfaction directly. We can enhance retention and productivity by mapping the employee experience, understanding their needs, and using technology to connect with them at critical points.
The Employee Experience = Positive Business Outcomes
As an employer, it’s important to remember that the employee experience is crucial to achieving positive business outcomes. To attract and retain top talent, we need to cover all the bases to reach our business goals. There is a plethora of research on this subject, and it is essential to understand how building a thoughtful employee journey translates to the bottom line.
- Increased Engagement and Productivity: Studies by Gallup show a clear link between positive employee experience and engagement. Engaged employees are more likely to perform better, be innovative, and deliver high-quality work, increasing profitability and productivity.
- Reduced Turnover and Absenteeism: A happy and fulfilled workforce is less likely to leave for other opportunities or miss work due to stress or illness. This equals lower recruitment and training costs and a more stable, reliable workforce.
- Attracting Top Talent: A strong employer brand built on a positive employee experience attracts top talent in a competitive market. People are more likely to be drawn to companies with a reputation for treating their employees well.
- Enhanced Innovation and Creativity: When employees feel supported and valued, they’re more likely to share ideas, collaborate, and experiment with new approaches. Fostering a culture of innovation leads to breakthroughs and a competitive edge.
Research consistently shows that investing in employee experience is a wise business decision. Companies can unlock significant benefits that contribute to their success, revenue growth, and profitability.
Curating an Exceptional Employee Experience
The secret sauce here is taking the necessary steps toward building an environment that fosters communication, collaboration, and trust.
- Diagnose the root causes of burnout and lack of engagement. Survey employees, listen, and dig into data. Find out where the roadblocks exist and encourage open dialogue to remove the obstacles.
- Collaborating cross-functionally between HR and communications creates alignment and enhances the employee experience. Define shared goals and establish consistent cadences for reaching employees.
- Look at the employee journey holistically – encompassing life events, company growth, and the employee’s career path.
- Develop detailed personas of your most successful employees. Uncover their needs and motivations to unlock insights for supporting and retaining top talent.
- Technology platforms like Firstup allow you to deliver personalized, timely content that evolves with employees’ preferences. Harness data and AI to craft hyper-targeted journeys.
The benefits are indisputable: companies investing in employee experience see greater revenue growth, profitability, and innovation. And it all starts with the journey. From preboarding to offboarding, each touchpoint matters.
The Employee Journey: Revisited
The importance of this conversation with Sabra Sciolaro, CPO of Firstup, on a previous #Worktrends podcast is as valid today as it was then. With nearly two decades in HR, Sabra drives transformative change, champions diversity, and excels in crafting exceptional employee experiences. She curates high-performing teams, fostering adaptability in the dynamic business environments we live in today.
PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS
What should leaders do to turn things around when experiencing high employee burnout and seeking new retention strategies?
Understand why your team is experiencing burnout. Where is that coming from? It can be many things, such as excessive workload and lack of clear direction about KPIs and priorities. Survey your employees, talk with your managers, and join team meetings.
The goal is to listen, observe, create an open dialogue about employees’ experiences and challenges, and start hearing their suggestions for improvement. Start to identify trends that are consistent both within individual teams and cross-functionally.
How do we integrate people and HR leaders with communication teams to ensure successful collaboration?
If you think about the foundation of any successful relationship, it’s communication, and the employer-employee relationship isn’t any different.
It doesn’t necessarily come naturally, especially when comms and HR teams sit in different departments, but ensuring alignment within those two groups can positively impact employee engagement, employee experience, and productivity, all of which go back to retention.
What does true collaboration at work mean to you?
It means that teams have an opportunity to connect in pursuit of a shared purpose. Collaboration is getting to the root of what we’re trying to accomplish together and bridging the gaps.
In this day and age, it requires tools and technology because you don’t have the same ease of conversation that you may have had at a different time. When you find the right technology, not more tech, but the right resource to help eliminate some noise, you return to a place where people can talk and engage meaningfully.
When creating an employee journey map, what are some unique milestones or creative considerations as we get groups together and talk?
Starting a new job is such a big moment in your life; it’s part of your personal journey and part of your journey within the company. We all know how vital onboarding is, but so many times, preboarding is an overlooked step – a big gap between the offer letter and the first day.
More stats show that any preboarding will boost the overall onboarding experience by 80%. So, it’s not a piece we can afford to skip, and it’s pretty easy to jump in and add to your process. Write a welcome letter, a few things about what to expect, and maybe a little bit of a heads-up on what’s coming from an IT setup. Just a few little things can change the way they experience your company for the first time.
Why do organizations focus on the customer experience more than the employee experience?
It comes down to the impact of a positive customer experience, which is immediately visible and measurable in terms of customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue. It’s widely understood that the experience can enhance brand loyalty, new customers, and differentiation. And while we have known for a while, it’s now growing recognition outside of HR that prioritizing the employee experience is essential.
I’ve got a few stats. BMC found that companies with high levels of employee engagement saw a 20% increase in sales. WTW Research shows that organizations with high-performing employee experience achieve three times the revenue growth, 11 times the profit margin, and twice the return on equity compared to global averages.
Curating that experience drives profits, drives results, and it feels good!
What are some tips for creating employee personas that translate to effective interaction?
The very first thing to do is not to skimp on the research. We all feel like we know our companies and our employees, but there’s a lot there.
Focus on your most successful and impactful employees. When you start finding trends there, you will begin to unlock things that will help them be even more successful and attract more of that type of individual.
How do organizations use technology to create scalable programs focused on personalized employee experience?
Having an employee experience platform as part of your tech stack in HR is vital. Next to my HRIS, it is the most powerful tool in my arsenal, and side by side; they allow us to create and curate these journeys for different personas, departments, and employee groups, leveraging information that already exists right in our HRIS. It’s all connected.
To learn how to create a powerful employee journey, click here to see how our clients build a better employee experience.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For more guidance about how to build an exceptional employee journey, listen to this full podcast episode. Also, for more #WorkTrends insights, check out our growing collection of episodes on Apple or Spotify and subscribe!
