Persistent talent shortages and increased employee demands have made employee experience a critical business imperative. Leaders looking to create the kind of employee experience that will make recruitment and retention a breeze find themselves bombarded with suggestions: go remote, bring everyone back to the office, no make it hybrid! Create a wellness program! Don’t forget DE&I!
While all of these suggestions are valuable, looking at seven key elements that are part of a great employee experience may be more helpful. By considering a more holistic approach that focuses less on particular initiatives and more on an individual’s response to each stage of employment, leaders and organizations can get a better idea of how to create lifelong company evangelists.
The 7 Elements of Employee Experience
1. Excitement
Job applicants want to feel excited about a company – and you want them to feel thrilled for being considered. They envision themselves working there and contributing to the company’s mission as they apply, interview, and wait to hear if they got the job. Creating this type of excitement about your organization requires focusing on more than pay and benefits; you must communicate your values and culture in such a way that prospects who are the best fit for your company proactively look for openings.
2. Joining
Joining your company should feel like a pivotal moment in a new employee’s career. When someone accepts a job offer, leaders have a unique opportunity to contribute to the overall experience. Capture the excitement of the moment with a formal welcome announcement, and think about creating a thorough welcoming experience. What kind of touchpoints can you develop to keep talented people excited about joining your company?
3. Onboarding
The onboarding stage of an employee’s tenure can often make or break the overall experience. Pay careful attention to your onboarding process, especially if it will be largely remote. Is there a defined process for onboarding new employees—one that includes all of the necessary technology and HR touchpoints? Is there mandatory training that all new employees must complete, and is that training easily accessible and consistent across all departments, functions, and roles? As you define your onboarding process, make sure that you include important touchpoints where managers check in with new employees to ensure they are equipped and engaged and feel like part of the team.
4. Success
Whereas onboarding should be a defined period, succeeding in a new role can be highly variable among employees, and many factors can influence engagement and performance at this stage. As employees settle into their new roles and start participating in teams, leaders can build on the momentum created by a positive joining and onboarding experience by checking in and making sure new employees are engaged and performing. As leaders conduct one-on-one check-ins with employees, they should consistently ask questions to gauge engagement and satisfaction and evaluate performance metrics to ensure that employees are succeeding.
5. Growth
Employees are more likely to stay with a company when leaders encourage learning and development. A culture of growth shouldn’t just encourage training relevant to an employee’s current position, though. To keep talented people longer, companies need to encourage long-term career development. By fostering a culture of growth and development, companies will keep top performers engaged and help those at earlier stages of their careers to become high performers.
6. Reward
Recognizing and rewarding performance is key to employee retention. People need to feel that their contributions are essential and valuable to the organization’s overall growth. In addition, recognizing and rewarding contributions shows new and developing employees that your company values people. When employees see a culture of recognition, they will strive to achieve that recognition.
7. Championing
In a company culture that focuses on inclusion, growth, and recognition, employee retention is likely to remain high. When employees leave the company, if they had a good employee experience, they will still advocate and refer other high performers to join the organization. People with a world-class employee experience will not be able to resist championing the organization to others, and new applicants will approach the company with excitement.
Conclusion
Focusing on these seven elements of a world-class employee experience will help your organization develop a reputation as a sought-after employer. With high engagement, productivity, and retention, top performers will continue to apply, and you will create an organization full of top-quality people who will drive long-term success.
