employee experience

How To Create A Stellar Employee Experience

Long gone are the days when employee experience was considered a “nice to have.” A positive employee experience is now a critical success factor. “Employee experience matters now more than ever because employees will no longer stand for a workplace in which their happiness and well-being is an afterthought,” says Logan Mallory, VP at Motivosity, an employee engagement software company.

According to him, taking into account your team’s needs and preferences, making the workplace truly inclusive, offering multiple ways for employees to connect with each other and build better interpersonal relationships, and providing resources to support employee wellness and mental health are all elements that make up a stellar employee experience. 

What is employee experience? 

But what is employee experience anyway? To improve the employee experience at your organization, you first must understand what it consists of. It sounds simple, but it’s an important reminder because it requires empathy – you must put yourself in the shoes of your team to understand their current and desired experience before you work on improving it. 

 “Employee experience is the overall impression that an employee has while they’re working at an organization. It’s what they feel as they go through their daily tasks and interactions with coworkers, supervisors, and managers. It is an important factor as it helps organizations attract top talent and retain them for a long time,” says Sanya Nagpal, Head of Human Resources at Leena AI, a platform that helps enterprises better employee experience.

6 Tips to create a stellar employee experience

Employee experience is intentionally created. From policy changes to workflow updates and individual leadership habits, it’s cultivated one day at a time. To create a better employee experience, embrace the tips below. 

1. Incorporate support for wellness and mental health 

“To create an outstanding employee experience, start with incorporating support for wellness and mental health. These are two things that nearly every employee will appreciate, so it’s a great place to start,” recommends Mallory. “As an added bonus, providing this type of support will also increase employee satisfaction, which can in turn positively impact engagement and productivity, making this a true win-win for employers and employees alike.” 

2. Lead with purpose 

Offering competitive compensation is important, but so are impact and purpose. According to Nagpal, employees now look for jobs that enrich both their personal and professional lives. “A purposeless workload with repetitive work can bring down an employee’s motivation. An enriching work life, on the other hand, allows people to learn, grow, and gain a feeling of fulfillment in their job. Organizations need to align the work of their employees with the larger organizational purpose and see how it can make an impact,” she says. 

3. Provide the right tools 

“The right tools and resources are crucial for better efficiency and productivity. Investing in premium tools will allow your employees to do their job better and faster,” she adds. “Employees who are forced to work with old rundown technology will quickly become frustrated and disengaged.” 

Don’t cheap out on tech and invest in resources and tools that can help your team perform with less stress and friction. 

4. Foster a sense of belonging 

“Employees want to feel a sense of belonging to feel more engaged in their work,” says Nagpal. “If they feel like they are a part of a  community, they are more inclined to go beyond their responsibilities.”

She recommends building a standardized onboarding process, offering personalized mentoring, and hosting fun team-building activities to help everyone feel welcome and create opportunities to bond.  

5. Humanity and flexibility are key 

Hustle culture has blurred the lines between work and home. Being constantly connected to their job even beyond working hours often leads to exhaustion and poor work-life balance,” adds Nagpal. 

This matters even more during times of crisis, from personal difficulties to collective disruptions like the pandemic. “In times of need, employees need to know that organizations are empathetic toward their cause. Flexibility is a two-way street for creating an emphatic work environment and enhancing the employee experience,” she says. 

6. Run employee experience surveys

Want to optimize your efforts? Make sure you run employee engagement surveys on a regular basis to gather real, honest feedback. 

“Make sure that these surveys are anonymous so that employees feel comfortable voicing their opinions. You’ll get a much better response keeping them anonymous,” says Mallory.