In recent years, it sure seems like a lot of attention focuses on Customer Experience. Many companies focus efforts toward creating “exceptional” experiences for customers, to wow them, serving as good social media stories. With so much focus on Customer Experience, it seems like it has come at the Employee Experience expense. The pressure to deliver outstanding results is causing increased burnout, higher levels of attrition, and lower employee engagement scores. Leaders and organizations are missing the message that a superb Employee Experience drives an exceptional Customer Experience.
Improving Employee Experience Starts With Prioritizing People
All businesses revolve around the same thing – people. Unfortunately, many struggle with how to communicate with each other consistently. Department leaders are often at odds with each other, choosing to work in individual silos, operating independently from each other. Choosing to work behind walls is often more comfortable and less drama than trying to influence others. But to make real progress, leaders need to work better together to improve the Employee Experience.
11 Ways to Improve the Employee Experience for Everyone (Leaders & Contributors)
To fix the problem, organizations need to:
- Establish clear, shared objectives across leaders to align work tasks and projects with an integrated business planning process.
- Create and refine the culture of the organization to prioritize the Employee Experience first. Instead of just saying it, do it, as actions speak louder than words.
- Improve communication by stopping everyone from relying exclusively on painful email chains and terrible meetings.
- Listen to employees and leaders, acting on the feedback provided.
- Explain the why behind initiatives, changes, and priorities better.
- Help everyone understand the “What’s In It for Me factor” factor. Establish an employee equity program with a shared upside for everyone.
- Refrain from over-engineering processes and creating additional waste
- Get rid of the mandatory 40-hour workweek. It’s out-dated, wasteful, and encourages disengagement. Still, pay everyone the same as there are times when people will work longer hours.
- Stop nickeling and diming their employees and leaders in terms of time, effort, and money.
- Break down walls and silos across the organization to improve alignment.
- Provide a flexible environment that lets everyone work how, when, and where they work best.
Opportunities Are Everywhere
Improving the Employee Experience will take effort and lots of hard work. Anything worth doing should be hard. In every organization, there need to be roles that focus on improving the Employee Experience. They shouldn’t just be an HR function. Everyone, from the employee to the middle manager, to the Executive, plays a role. Driving change and continuous improvement must be ongoing and incremental, part of positively evolving its culture. All members of the organization have a role to play in making things better.
A prioritized Employee Experience will lead to higher engagement scores and improved Customer Experience. For more information on ways to address gaps in leadership support, and strengthen your culture, connect with me today.
