Creating a positive employee experience is not just a nice-to-have. It’s essential for building a thriving organization. When employees feel valued and supported, they are more engaged, motivated, and inspired to do their best work. This, in turn, drives business outcomes and strengthens customer loyalty; in fact, research shows that customers are 2.7x more likely to remain loyal to brands that visibly care about their employees.
Recent studies highlight that the most influential factors shaping employee experience are the work itself, relationships with co-workers, and the role of managers. To truly enhance employee experience, it’s important to take a holistic view and consider each employee’s role, his and her relationships, the work environment, and the broader organization. By thoughtfully improving how these elements interact, leaders can foster a culture where employees feel connected, empowered, and motivated.
The following six best practices offer practical guidance for organizations and leaders seeking to create a positive, lasting employee experience.
Six Best Practices to Create a Positive Employee Experience:
1. Listen to your people.
Understand what inspires and motivates them, and in turn, what demotivates and disengages them. Put yourself in their shoes and try to truly understand their day-to-day experience by listening to what they have to say in your one-on-ones, team meetings, focus groups, surveys, and through crowdsourcing.
2. Keep an open line of communication.
Connect with your employees through storytelling and transparent communication. Be explicit in telling employees that their perspective is welcome and encouraged, and invite it frequently in a variety of situations. Make space for people to ask questions and be open and as transparent as you can be in your responses. Give them feedback and invite them to give you feedback in return.
At the organization level, you can help employees feel connected through executive hosted two-way communication forums like “CEO coffee chats” or “ask me anything” sessions, social media campaigns, and town halls.
3. Support your employees’ development.
Make it known that you are committed to each individual’s professional growth and career development and provide resources and opportunities that support this. Make it your job to understand your employees’ aspirations, their strengths, and their areas of growth, and talk openly with them about each of those things. Support your employees' journey through regular coaching, feedback, and check-ins, as well as tangible learning methods like providing stretch opportunities, e-learning, training tools, and courses.
4. Equip and enable leaders and managers.
If you manage managers, provide the support they need to support their teams. At an organizational level, this can include providing managers with toolkits, conversation guides, and training to help them engage their employees more effectively. So often great individual contributors are promoted into people leader roles without being given the tools or training to step into that role. Supporting them to be great managers will not only help them as individuals but will have a positive ripple effect through the teams they lead.
5. Create space for peer-to-peer support.
Encourage the people on your team to connect and share challenges and learnings. At the organizational level, cohorted learning, employee resource groups, and peer networks are a great way to increase the amount of connecting employees are doing. The more connected teams are to each other, the more effectively they can work together.
6. Reinforce the desired employee experience through all touchpoints.
As a people leader, you play a major role in “creating the weather” on your team. In other words, you set the tone and have a huge impact on their experience through how you engage with your team. Be intentional about how you make the most of each touchpoint you have with them. At the organizational level, make sure all high-level touchpoints of the employee experience (employee value propositions, performance management, learning and development, onboarding, etc.) are consistent in how they model and convey the desired company culture — in messaging, in the words and deeds of leaders, in the practices and processes, and in the stories shared.
Creating a positive employee experience in your organization goes a long way to keeping employees engaged and your business thriving. In the day-to-day of keeping clients and customers happy, make sure that you always stay focused on ensuring your
employees are happy, supported, and thriving, too.
Ready to elevate your organization’s employee experience? Contact us today.