The heart and soul of every company is normally thought of as their customers because without customers you would not have sales. But what if it is not the customers, what if instead it was the employees. Without employees there would not be anyone to run the company or to help customers. Employees are the reason a company can function and work, and if they are not happy then the company will suffer.
Employees can make or break a company’s performance. If they happen to be having a bad day or feel underappreciated in their position, then they are less likely to put in the work to bring in or hold onto customers. Often an employee’s happiness or satisfaction is overlooked and forgotten for the sake of numbers and sales. However, prioritizing your employees’ experience and work environment can improve your company’s overall performance. By implementing Employee Experience (EE) and Employee Experience Management (EEM) you can improve your employees’ performance and your company’s success. But what exactly is Employee Experience and Employee Experience Management?
What is Employee Experience (EE)?
Employee Experience (EE) is how your employees work with customers, coworkers, managers, upper management, etc. It is how they feel when they are at work, how well they do their jobs, and what they go through or experience during an average work of day. People like to say that in the good old days, you would show up and do your job with a smile on your face, and then go home. But now-a-days with the pandemic and working from home and the economy in a state of unknown many people want to feel more important, want to know that they matter to the company.
More and more people are beginning to feel underappreciated in their positions. With less people applying and more jobs available, companies cannot afford to lose employees right now. So, by improving the work experience for employees and making sure they feel appreciated and valued as individuals, then they are more likely to stay for the long run.
Improving EE can be anything from giving good feedback on a regular basis, making sure they know it is alright if they make a mistake and feel safe to tell you, having performance rewards, or company or team outings to build morale. Anything that can improve your employee’s way of life at work or their day-to-day lives. Whatever the secret is, what you as an employer or company choose to do, make sure it is something that will benefit your employees. Because if your employees are happy then they are working hard, and if they are working hard then your company’s performance increases.
What is Employee Experience Management (EEM)?
Employee Experience Management (EEM) is the act of actively monitoring your employees’ experience and making sure that tasks like reviews, feedback, and rewards are taken care of. Like an HR position, EEM is there to create a program or system of ensuring EE is taken care of and priority for the company. It is easy to let something like EE fall under the radar and simply keep on going without giving it a second thought, but by implementing EEM you are creating a specific position to take care of your employees on a day-to-day basis.
It is a way of ensuring that your employees do not continue to be forgotten or overlooked. Often when an employee’s performance begins to drop it is because they feel forgotten or under appreciated. However, by taking control of the situation and having a position for EEM you can improve their performance and in turn improve the company.
EEM covers everything from making training programs for new hires, rewarding employees for good performance, or simply creating a safe and effective way of communicating across the entire company. This can involve a lot of hard work and planning but in the end, it can result in a happier and healthier work environment, not just for your employees but you as well.
Employee Experience Manager
EE is all about making sure your employees are happy, appreciated, and valued, but as an employer or a large company you may not have time to check in with each employee on a regular basis. That is where an Employee Experience Manger comes in, someone specifically in charge of taking care of your employee’s well-being. These managers have a variety of responsibilities, but their main job is to ensure that no employee is forgotten about or feels undervalued for their work.
Employee Experience Managers handle a variety of tasks including onboarding, training, organizing employee performance rewards, work anniversaries, etc. They are the in-between for the employee and the main employer or upper management. They function to keep up to date with what is currently going on with employees and how to best improve their experience. There can even be more than one depending on the size of the company creating an easier stream of communication amongst the low levels.
Incorporating an Employee Experience Manager may seem like a waste when you could just do it yourself or go without one, but having one can be more beneficial than you know. You as the employer or the company itself, may not have time to take care of, monitor, or give feedback to each employee from frontline salespersons to warehouse workers. Having some specifically in charge of taking care of all these day-to-day tasks can improve not only employee experience but your experience too as an employer or upper management. It also allows for someone with more experience in a certain area, like the warehouse, to be able to help those specific employees. Not everyone in upper management has the same experience, so having someone just for that area can be extremely helpful.
The Importance of Employee Experience
Back in the day people used to just do their job with little to no complaints, or at least that is what people liked to say and believe. The truth is that people have always complained about working conditions, have always demanded better pay or hours, and have always wanted a better, happier, and safer work experience. People like to argue that EE does not matter as much because it is a new concept brought on by the younger generations who “just like to complain”. However, people have always complained, and EE has always mattered, people are simply taking more notice now with employment rates dropping.
Once again if your employees are unhappy, underappreciated, or treated unfairly or without respect then they will not do as good of a job as you want or need them to. Employees that have a good experience at work are more likely to do a better job overall, stay with the company longer and be happier. Everyone deserves to feel appreciated and like they are an individual. Taking the time to make sure that they are seen or heard can greatly affect their performance.
Every employee matters as well. Most people only consider their salespersons or employees that handle customers or clients when thinking about EE. They are the ones that regularly speak to people and draw in sales and therefore their performance is very important. However, they are not the only ones, people everywhere from the warehouse to IT matter as well. Without the people behind the scenes and those who do the hard “grunt” work, then the company also cannot run. Everyone within the company matters, which also means their EE matters. This is why having an Employee Experience Manger or a few, can greatly improve your EE and how well the company runs.
Every business, whether big or small, deals with at least a few employees, and those employees’ matters. Starting from applying all the way to retirement, employees are constantly paying attention to the way they and previous employees have been treated by the company. By treating your current employees well, you will have more applications in the future, and you will keep the ones you currently have for longer.
Implementing Employee Experience Management (EEM)
Implementing EEM can seem like a daunting task, however, it is simpler than you think. Start off small, do not feel like you must dive right into the deep end and rearrange your entire company structure. If you have a smaller company then start with regular checks-ins or feedback sessions with your employees, where both you and they give feedback. Then work your way up to bigger things like rewarding sales or quarterly events for the whole company.
If your company is larger, start by implementing a suggestion box for employees to give ideas on how they would like to be appreciated and genuinely read and incorporate them. From there work your way up to hiring Employee Experience Managers. You do not have to go all in from the start, you can go step by step. Just make sure that you are implementing these strategies and ensuring your employees are happy and appreciated.
