Beyond paychecks: Why you need to look into building an employee experience

We all know that the main reason people go to work is to get paid. But when every job offers remuneration, what is it that you can offer to retain your key staff and inspire the loyalty that comes from employee satisfaction?

The key is in creating a positive employee experience.

It's important that not only do your employees enjoy coming to work but that they actively look forward to both every single day and to the year ahead. If your staff are feeling both valued and required, you will quickly join the dots between employee engagement and your business's key performance indicators.

Focus on employee retention

Employee turnover is a costly business, not only for you but for the staff in question. When you consider the finances, it makes sense to look into ways to increase the employee lifecycle within your business.

The first way you can specifically address employee reasons for leaving is by having a company policy of holding exit interviews so you can better understand what has driven their move and potentially take on board employee feedback.

Other than this, there are plenty of things you can implement in your company culture to ensure you keep your staff motivated and happy, filling their time at work with exceptional employee experiences.

Employee experience strategy

Here are a few tips to optimize your positive work environment and ensure you always have happy employees:

1. Hire intentionally

When you think of people who approach the working day with specific goals and long-term aims, your mind may gravitate to business leaders and senior management. However, when looking at prospective employees, you will get the most from them if you hire people who are on the same page as you, with aspirations and business goals that are aligned with your company values.

Asking some strategic questions during candidate interviews is the best way to ensure the employee journey starts with honesty and openness.

This will also help you manage employee expectations as they will enter into your employment with a sense of your organizational goals and never feel surprised by the workplace culture and the expectations around key performance indicators.

2. Give feedback

It's difficult to feel job satisfaction if you are not being recognized for your performance. Giving feedback is important, whether for positive reinforcement and employee recognition or for constructive criticism with actionable insights.

If you have a largely client-facing business, you can always deliver feedback based on customer experiences. After all, an increase in customer satisfaction is undoubtedly the key to business success. Positive feedback will allow your team to see what is working, while those less-than-positive experiences will give your staff the opportunity to reflect on how to provide a more wholesome and seamless experience.

3. Listen to your employees

Nobody wants to be blindsided by a poor employee experience. Receiving regular feedback from your team is the best way for senior leaders to ensure they are not merely engaging in automated actions. Keeping your staff on board is important, and the people who best know what they want are your employees themselves!

Whether you decide to engage in employee experience surveys or merely adopt an open-door policy is up to you and your management practices. Ultimately, ensuring your organizational culture is one of listening to feedback from employees is a sure-fire way of ensuring you as an employer gain a reputation for your focus around employee experience.

4. Offer career development opportunities

Aside from pay, it has been found that the number one cause of employee turnover is a feeling of career stagnation. If employees feel the business performance is not linked to their own personal progression, they are unlikely to be invested in your business outcomes.

In offering opportunities for professional development, you can keep engaged employees happy by assuring them of the chance to progress within your business.

It doesn't matter whether you are pairing disengaged employees with a trusted mentor or providing specific courses to train your staff. Simply offering a personalized experience whereby your team is invited to progress is the best way to build goodwill that ultimately benefits your company in the long run.

5. Emphasize employee well-being

Employee engagement is never going to match your expectations if their well-being is not being considered. Ensuring your staff are well looked after and that their day-to-day experience is positive.

Considering things such as health and working to reduce employee burnout are two aspects of corporate culture that are on the rise.

A simple rule like banning emails after a certain time of the day can make a huge impact on the workplace experience; after all, employee productivity is far more likely within working hours, and making such a concession is an easy way to show you have taken on board all aspects of employee experience.

6. Assign customer responsibility

One sure-fire way of assuring your staff take ownership of their performance at work is to get them to invest in your customer story. This should offer a direct link between employee personas and engagement scores from clients.

By designating clients to your team, you can give them the opportunity to prove themselves as people leaders within your field, which will reinforce their confidence within your field.

Try Edge

One final tip from us is to use the power of competition to motivate your employees with Edge's platform. Our automated sales contests will collate Google reviews for individual staff from customers and create a leaderboard among your employees to encourage their performance on the field.

Contact us today to get a free demonstration of the Edge Platform and see how you can create a compelling employee experience.