Employee Experience – the Often Overlooked Aspect of Experience Planning
As a Customer Experience consulting and services firm, we often tout the importance of focusing on the customer when making business decisions. While considering your customer is always important when developing new products, services, policies or processes, it is also important to consider the impact the decision will have on your employees.
Why is employee experience important?
Much like a customer, your employees form an opinion of your organization. This opinion often evolves each day the employee comes to work. Why is this opinion important? Improving employee experience can have a number of positive benefits for your staff, and your organization as a whole, including:
- Reduced turnover: In many cases, the more positive the experience an individual employee has with your business, the more likely they are to continue to work for you. Organizations that make the effort to address and improve the employee experience often see reduced turnover rates. These organizations also are likely to fill open roles more easily and effectively.
- Improved CX delivery: Happy employees tend to provide better experiences for customers. Customer-facing employees who are supported and armed with the proper tools are more likely to deliver more effective and enjoyable interactions. The most satisfied and energetic employees can deliver an experience that customers remember long after the interaction has ended.
- Increased efficiency: Employees who enjoy their work and are given the tools to thrive are often more efficient and accurate. This increased efficiency can have a widespread impact on your entire business, not to mention your customers.
Take Action to Improve Employee Experience Before It’s Too late
Understanding the importance of the employee experience is just the beginning – you must also make a dedicated effort to ongoing improvement and maintenance of that experience. To develop effective employee experiences for your staff members, be sure to:
- Consider their perspective: Unwieldy or overly complicated processes and policies can handcuff your employees, leading to unnecessary steps and frustration. Developing processes, policies and tools with the employee in mind helps to reduce roadblocks and increase overall efficiency. By considering the employee’s perspective in the planning stage, you can ensure that they are optimally positioned for success.
- Provide the right tools: Technology plays a critical role in the execution of many tasks, regardless of an employee’s title or responsibilities. Arming staff with the various tools they need to get their jobs down helps to improve efficiency and morale. Continually reviewing your technology ecosystem is important to ensuring that the tools you provide employees are up to the task of supporting their evolving needs. This is especially critical for front-line staff, as ineffective technology can impair your employees’ ability to support customers and execute your overall CX strategy.
- Listen and take action: Encourage employees to share their perspective on the current state of business and provide suggestions on how to improve daily operations. Promote deeper discussions by asking for feedback on specific issues, such as an existing tool, or a newly implemented process. Empowering staff to share their thoughts – and taking visible action on their feedback – helps employees feel valued and respected. These feelings lead to a more enjoyable work environment and lasting employment relationships.
The Path Toward an Excellent Employee Experience Starts with a Single Step
Improving or transforming your employee experience is often easier than you might think. In many cases, relatively small improvements can have a dramatic impact on the day-to-day activities of your employees, which results in a better overall experience.
Getting started can be as easy as:
- Taking stock of your employees’ current experiences with your company to look for common pain points that can be easily resolved.
- Examining your technology ecosystem to identify outdated, underperforming or unnecessary tools that should be updated or replaced.
- Adjusting a process or policy that limits an employee’s ability to do their work or adds frustrating steps to an otherwise simple task.
- Listening to employees and turning their feedback into an actionable experience improvement plan.