Tribe Topics Aug. 2017 TRB-147 August Topics v2 | Page 2

the importance of the
employee experience
If your company’s future success depends on
attracting and retaining top talent, then it’s time
to start paying more attention to the employee
experience. This goes beyond building employee
engagement or delivering on your employee
value proposition. It requires a subtle change of
perspective that’s a new way of thinking for some
companies.
The difference in doing and being
Often the intent of internal communications is to get
employees to do something — such as align with the
vision, embrace the values, accept change or alter
their beliefs and behaviors in some way. Improving
the employee experience requires seeing things
through your employees’ eyes and understanding
what’s it like to be an employee at your company.
It’s the difference in putting the employee in the
center of the circle and standing in the employees’
shoes.
Think of EX like CX
In the same way that the marketing team considers
all the many touchpoints between the brand and
customers, the HR and IC teams are now evaluating
all the many intersections between the company
and the employee experience. Here are six factors
that impact the employee experience:
Employee Life Cycle
Obvious
elements
of
the
employee
experience are all the phases of the employee
life cycle, from recruitment through onboarding
and then training and development, performance
management, recognition, and even exit interviews.
Employee Value Proposition
The EVP will also offer factors to consider
in the employee experience. Is there a
meaningful vision employees feel they’re supporting
in their individual roles? How do the pay and benefits
in your company stack up to the competition?
What’s the culture and how does it feel to be a part
of that culture?
Physical Environment
We must go beyond the more obvious
touchpoints to understand the employee
experience. Is the physical environment a traditional
corporate office with cubes or an open workplace
with unassigned seating? Are employees spending
their workdays in a manufacturing facility, a delivery
truck, a commercial jet, a retail store, a luxury hotel
or a quick-service restaurant? Several of the above?
There’s not a right or wrong answer to any of those
questions — some employees might prefer a cube of
their own to having to fight for their favorite spot by
the window every morning.
it ’ s the difference in
putting the employee
in the center of the
circle and standing in
the employees ’ shoes .
Technology
Your company’s technology also has a
major impact on the employee experience.
Is the intranet easy to use and content rich? Are
there mobile apps that allow non-desk employees
to access company information when they’re not
sitting in front of a computer? Is it a major ordeal to
find answers to HR questions or to download a pay
stub? Are you using the latest versions of software
necessary to employees’ daily work? Compare your
company technology to what employees are using
in their non-work lives to evaluate whether they’re
having a frustrating experience or an efficient one.