"Employees don't quit jobs, they quit bad managers." Sound familiar?
While it's true that managers have a direct impact on employee job satisfaction, there is a lot more to the story. Why people choose to leave, or join, and organization is much more complex than just the manager. Multiple factors combine to impact these decisions. We call this combination of factors the ‘employee experience’.
As with all things, in order to better understand how to recruit and retain top talent, leaders must consider the employee lifecycle as a holistic system. From first introduction to the company to eventual separation, the way employees experience each step in the lifecycle will determine how long or short that cycle is.
That is, the way that employees experience your company determines how long they stay, and how easy it is to get new people to come on board.
Given the current climate in the employment marketplace (unemployment has fallen to 3.7% at the time this article is being written), it's no wonder that employers are paying closer attention to the broader employee experience.
Employee Experience 101-
The term employee experience refers to a holistic summation of what people encounter, observe and feel during the course of their time with an organization. These experiences begin upon initial contact, the first time someone interacts with a company. This may be through an interaction with a current employee, visiting a webpage, viewing a job description, etc... However that first ‘touch’ is made, it is the beginning of that person's experience with that company.
The employee experience is highly interconnected with an employee's perception of the organization and their role in that organization.
The Impact of Employee Experience-
Employee Experience is not a buzzword, or a ‘nice to have’, it is not HR’s responsibility either... How positive or negative an organization’s Employee Experience is WILL have impact.
In fact, studies show that organizations ranking highly in employee experience factors had four times higher average profits, two times higher average revenues and 40% lower turnover than organizations with lower experiential factors.
If you need more evidence, consider how closely related it is with the following three constructs:
Employee Engagement
We also know that employee experience and employee engagement are interrelated. This is important because employee engagement continues to be highly linked to productivity. Studies show that in addition to an increase in overall productivity, organizations with high levels of employee engagement have lower levels of absenteeism and produce higher levels of quality work. (IBM)
Customer Experience
Additionally, customer experience is positively correlated with employee experience. That is, when employees have positive experiences, their customers tend to have positive experiences as well.
Employer Branding and Talent Attraction
Further, as the competition for top talent continues to grow, organizations are recognizing that positive employee experiences can help set them apart. If there is one thing we can count on, it is that people will share their experiences, whether positive or negative. Websites like Glassdoor make it even easier to gain insight into current and past employees' perception of their organization's (or one they are considering joining) employee experience. This can either help or hurt you in attraction and recruiting.
The long and short of it is- when it comes to employee experience, it all counts, and you can’t afford to ignore it.
Three Spheres of Employee Experience-
There are three spheres of employee experience: Social Experience, Physical Experience and Work Experience.
(figure 1. courtesy of IBM)
However, in the course of the workday, these spheres tend to overlap, so figure 2 (below) is a better representation.
(figure 2. courtesy of IBM)
With this overlap comes the development of six unique facets of employee experience:
Community- The relationships we build and how we interact with each other as individuals and groups.
Physical Workspace- The physical environment in which we work- this can be anything from the shape of a chair to the size of a conference room.
Environment- Lighting, noise level, smell and temperature can all impact environment.
Tools- Depending on your industry, this can refer for the ergonomics and availability of physical tools (i.e. industry) or the availability and functionality of digital tools (i.e. technology).
Activities- The perception of how much an employee’s work allows them autonomy, mastery and purpose (AMP- per Daniel Pink).
Social Platforms- How to employees engage with each other digitally?
In the next few posts, I’ll be walking through how to create a positive employee experience in each stage of the employee life cycle considering these six facets.
The Employee Lifecycle-
Attraction- Generating interest and ‘pull’
Recruitment- Moving candidates from passive interest to active pursuit
Onboarding- Bringing new hires onboard and integrating them with the organization
Development- Continuing to provide value and enhance org and individual performance by developing employees
Retention- Keeping employees satisfied, engaged and challenged
Separation- Everyone leaves eventually, whether due to retirement, new employment or personal/family reasons- managing employee experience helps organizations avoid unplanned separations
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