In the last year, with the high demand for people to work from home, the employee experience is a concept that has been gaining momentum in company discussions. The employee experience is a person's holistic perception of the company, derived from all the points of contact made during the working day. In short, it's how employees feel about what they encounter, observe and feel during their experience at the company. The employee experience is different from employee engagement, where engagement is observed only by the attitude at work, while the employee experience analyzes a set of perceptions from the person's feelings and experiences with the company.
The big difference between companies that use the employee experience strategy is a greater experience and a high quality of life in the workplace, resulting in improved employee engagement; unlike companies that only have a one-off motivation for achieving results. Teams that provide a great employee experience work with optimized HR processes, such as recruitment, onboarding, career development and performance management. This allows people to spend their time on things that are important, rather than doing tasks that don't add much to the company's function or objective. For this reason, in the employee experience strategy people are more engaged and activities are carried out with greater performance, since the company provides a positive experience for people.
The employee experience is much more than awards
In employee experience, actions are carefully planned and optimized with the intention of providing a great experience, something very similar to the customer experience. There is a purpose for each action and with the use of technology it is possible to automate processes and use data intelligence to offer a different experience at each stage of the journey, much more than rewarding with gifts or money in one-off celebrations.
Companies that use the employee experience have a strong culture of innovation, which allows for a greater exchange of creative ideas and empowers people to make each idea a reality, with the collaboration of the human resources team. Companies that invest in employee development have a future-oriented HR, as they seek to increasingly qualify employees and make them a great ally for the company, in exchange for offering greater motivation, performance and delight.
How does the employee experience affect the career plan?
The employee experience is essential for the career plan and impacts everyone in this cycle, from employees to leadership and human resources. A great experience depends on the interactions the person will have with management and also with their work. Investing in well-being, satisfaction and understanding what they feel and think about the company strengthens communication and improves interpersonal relationships. Strengthening these experiences requires a culture of collaboration and a central role for the HR team in balancing the needs of the company with the characteristics of each individual and team.
The career plan is one of the strategies of the employee experience. Mapping the employee's journey results in improvements in the recruitment and selection process. Therefore, it is not only necessary to develop a career plan, but also for HR to map out each employee's journey, understanding the path they have traveled, from admission to their work routine, taking into account all the stages they will go through or have already gone through. By visualizing the entire journey, it will be "simpler" to combat employee turnover and find ways to attract other talents from the market.
The main benefits of employee experience
There are several reasons for companies to use the employee experience strategy, one of the main ones being the opportunities employees have to learn and grow within the company, improving their results and performance. In a scenario where the new generation is no longer willing to conform to the rules and conduct of previous generations, companies are increasingly open to improving each person's experience. We can list some of the main benefits of implementing employee experience:
- Attract new talent: Providing an employee experience isn't about making the person feel comfortable, it's about enabling each employee to do their job to the best of their ability in a healthy environment. The employee experience is becoming very important, especially for job candidates;
- Better experiences: People don't just create positive memories of a company, they also take away bad ones. A strategy focused on the employee experience aims to identify problems and develop meaningful solutions to increase motivation and engagement, improving every experience at work;
- Reducing the cost of turnover: Each dismissal incurs a financial cost for the company, if the employees have been engaged, this turnover cost will decrease, directly impacting on the effort of time of money that the HR team and the area manager will focus on finding another person;
- Improved results: Whether it's because people are happier, more engaged and therefore more willing to offer more to the company, results tend to be better because instead of just occasional feedback, there is a concern and connection with the individual;
- Elevate the experience and make it a priorityIntegrated experience is valuable and can have an equal impact on the customer experience. Develop a differentiated experience and ensure that it is aligned with all aspects of the experience, such as: workplace (remote or face-to-face);
- Learning every day: Study, listen and learn what people are doing every day, discover new ways to simplify work and improve productivity, contributing to greater team performance and engagement.
A new era of work
As well as the digitization of business, due to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the business world is constantly evolving, and hybrid working models are already the new normal. With employees working remotely instead of in the traditional office environment, companies have been forced to re-imagine the workplace and every employee experience. This workplace modernization can improve people's well-being and allow for greater integration at work, whether face-to-face or digital.
The employee experience allows for a greater collaborative experience and the workplace goes beyond providing an office for people. It's about ensuring that the company's ecosystem works in a hybrid format, and it's essential that managers keep their teams engaged and connected, with the best tools to perform each function. As the market changes, so does the employee experience, creating an increasingly personalized and exclusive environment for people to connect. By focusing on the employee experience, HR leaders can improve engagement, empower teams and managers and develop solutions that will be useful and attractive to each person.
