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Employee Experience:
how it affects
a company

Even if you don’t work in HR, you are probably familiar with such terms as Employee Loyalty, Employee Engagement, and Employee Value Proposition. These terms are commonly misinterpreted due to different approaches to personnel management.

Here we will talk about what is Employee Experience, and how to measure and improve it.

What is Employee Experience?

The term Employee Experience, or EX, is commonly misinterpreted as employee satisfaction, employee engagement, their comfort at the workplace or benefits provided to them by their company. But EX is a complex system, which includes all of the above.

Employee experience is a result of a relationship built by the company with its employees during their entire career development and even after they’ve left. It includes the candidate selection, interview, onboarding, development and execution of everyday tasks. Positive Employee Experience is created by the three main environmental factors:
Technological environment
The ease of participation in business processes, automation of routine tasks, work optimization
Physical environment
This can be described as the workspace conditions of the employees. Office interior design, office tools, office layout — everything should be comfortable and functional
Cultural environment
Employees' feelings from working in the company — relationship with colleagues and management, organizational structure

In 2021 EX has become one of the main business trends. Previously companies paid more attention to customer experience, now they are focused on employees. According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, building positive Employee Experience is the priority task for managers of 81% of companies.

Why Employee Experience is important

Employee Experience is the basis of business effectiveness, therefore happy staff is the most profitable investment for a company. At the end, employee experience — positive or negative — influences many important aspects, such as success and profit of a company, its image and reputation as an employer, level of the turnover, personal brand of a business owner.

Almost 80% of managers consider EX to be an extremely important work parameter of an enterprise. IBM and Globforce report a close relation between positive Employee Experience and work results: employees, who feel like they’re part of the company and clearly see their goals, are more likely to try to exceed management’s expectations and go beyond their regular duties.

Measuring Employee Experience

In order to improve EX in a company, one has to evaluate its current state. There are three common ways to measure EX.
Employee Engagement survey
Employee engagement is a physical, emotional and cognitive state, which motivates staff to perform their role as best they can. Employee engagement survey is a simple and effective tool to gather staff feedback. Surveys are a way to evaluate a wide range of factors: employee experience, level of employee engagement, their productivity and motivation.
Employee satisfaction and eNPS
Employer Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a parameter metric that reflects how likely employees are to recommend their employers a place to work to their friends, acquaintances or family. It is a way to gauge employee loyalty to the company, their opinion on HR policy and corporate culture in the organization.
Employee turnover rate
Employee turnover rate helps to find out why employees quit and prevents their further outflow. By collecting feedback from former employees one can determine the most common causes for leaving, assess them and improve employee experience.

After measuring the current level of Employee Experience in a company, it’s time to map out a strategy for its improvement and development.

How to create positive Employee Experience: 5 tips for an HR specialist

1
Improve onboarding
According to Undercover Recruiter research, 15% of staff are more engaged in work processes, if they have a positive hiring experience. During onboarding it is important to show employees their career plan, introduce them to the team and and provide answers to all their questions.
2
Get rid of excessive paperwork
Endless paperwork significantly decreases employees' attention and their engagement. Many companies automate their routine paperwork, such as requesting and issuing HR documents, insurances, payslips, etc. To do that, they use digital employee self-services.
3
Improve communication
This includes interaction with coworkers, quick response to requests and collecting feedback. One can optimize these processes also using IT tools — for example, chatbots. Chatbots can gather employee feedback, allow employees to ask questions without having to leave their workplace, and update management on an employee’s progress.
4
Create a responsibility assignment matrix
Lack of clear responsibility distribution can lead to a mixup and induce fear of consequences for an employee’s mistake. It is important to assign responsibilities according to the model "task and the person responsible for it" to decrease the stress level of an employee and improve the understanding of business processes.
5
Create non-material values
Social charity is an important aspect of positive employee experience. This way the company can attract employees, who care for what they do. If the employees and the company have the same values, it improves motivation, engagement and employee satisfaction.

Employee Experience in different companies: successful cases

Workday has created a comfortable and inclusive environment for their staff: the employees value honesty and ethical behaviour of the management, friendliness of the colleagues, constant support and informal atmosphere in the office. 95% of the Workday employees state that they always feel welcome in the company and proudly tell others about their place of work.
Company’s main principle is ecology, both in the natural environment and among the personnel. Patagonia offers its employees special benefits, childcare, and autonomy at the workplace. The company also regularly finances internships at non-profitable ecology events, promoting the right values amongst its staff.
The company’s priorities include personal growth of every employee, balance between work and personal life and mental health of its staff. Sberbank offers flexible work conditions (work from home or part-time), improves communication within the company and regularly gathers feedback. As a result, 84% of the employees are proud to work in Sberbank.

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