Summary:
Why are businesses focusing more on employee experience?
How do engaged employees add value?
What is a good employee experience?
9 employee experience ideas to engage your workforce
9 Employee Experience Ideas to Engage Your People
The most successful organisations are putting a lot of thought into their employee experience strategy, but is yours one of them?
While you might think it’s simply a HR buzzword, it’s so much more than that, and will impact every metric when it comes to employee and business performance.
In this article we’re going to look at why employee experience is important for engagement, and 11 employee experience ideas that will help you achieve it.
Why are businesses focusing more on employee experience?
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic workers have many more options when it comes to their careers. Lockdown gave people the opportunity to consider their jobs, and job moves are still well above pre-pandemic levels in the UK.
The increasing use of job review sites like Glassdoor also means your reputation as an employer is much more likely to be in the public domain.
In order to acquire top talent that may be looking for a new role, as well as retain the talent they have, organisations are putting a lot of focus into employee experience.
A positive employee experience is also key to maximising employee engagement, and this offers a number of important benefits to the business, as well as the employee.
How do engaged employees add value?
When employees are engaged they provide value across a number of key performance indicators:
- Highly engaged workplaces see 17% higher productivity
- Companies with an engaged workforce deliver 147% more earnings per share than their competitors
- Employee engagement has been linked with 21% greater profitability
- Employee engagement reduces absenteeism by 41%
- The customers of highly engaged businesses are happier too, with a 10% increase in ratings
What is a good employee experience?
So what does a good employee experience look like? The key thing to remember is that employee experience refers to every stage of their time with you, from the interview process and onboarding, through to their exit interview if and when they eventually move on.
To guarantee a positive experience throughout someone’s entire tenure, you need to develop a comprehensive employee experience strategy.
9 employee experience ideas to engage your workforce
Let’s take a look at some great employee experience ideas that will engage your workforce.
1. Start with an engaging onboarding experience
The employee experience starts from day one, which is why onboarding is so key to engagement. Research by Brandon Hall Group found that a positive onboarding experience improves employee retention by 82%.
Find out more about engaging employees from the start with our step-by-step process to successful onboarding.
2. Mix up the office
There’s a reason why you don’t see offices made up of cubicles anymore.
Office layout matters, and being isolated at our desks all day isn’t good for our mental wellbeing, productivity or engagement.
With this in mind, mix things up a bit and make the office a more relaxed, creative and fun place to be. Make use of breakout spaces, walking meetings and decorate the office in ways that inspire creativity.
3. Be a motivator
If you’ve made good hiring decisions and employed the right people, they’re going to want to perform to their best, but managers have a key role to play in this.
The key here is to change your mindset from being ‘the boss’, to being a coach.
Stop telling them what to do and start helping them to perform better. This includes creating problem solvers who are able to independently solve their own problems, instilling confidence in people’s own abilities and a sense of ownership. Frequent recognition is key to this too.
4. Implement a wellbeing and rewards programme
Recognising when employees have done a good job is essential for employee engagement. There’s a strong relationship between the amount of recognition an employee receives and how happy they are at work, while workers who are frequently rewarded will be ‘very unlikely’ to search for a new job in the short-to-medium term.
The best way to reward employees is to implement a dedicated recognition platform. This provides a fast, repeatable and consistent method for recognition, while research by Cornell University showed that immediate rewards increase ‘intrinsic motivation’ by linking an activity to a specific goal.
Our recognition programme boasts one of the largest ranges of rewards on the market, including:
- Prepaid recognition cards that are reloadable and can be used anywhere that accepts Visa Debit.
- eVouchers and gift cards
- Team celebration packages
- Film vouchers that can be used at the Box Office or with Sky Store
5. Review workloads continuously
Burnout is one of the biggest challenges affecting employee retention according to 95% of HR leaders, so make sure you’re regularly reviewing workloads to ensure your workforce isn’t being overworked.
When your staff have too much on their plate they will also become more stressed, which is a productivity killer—while it also leads to greater fatigue, poorer decision making and increased absenteeism.
6. Make professional development a priority
Knowing we’ve got a clear direction and path for progression is essential for job satisfaction, as well as an increased expectation for future satisfaction.
Put in place regular 1-to-1s with managers, and make sure development and goals are a frequent topic of conversation. If an employee hits an objective, you also need to ensure the business follows through with what was promised.
7. Involve employees in important decisions
Your workforce is twice as likely to be actively disengaged if they feel as though they’re being ignored by management, so make sure you’re involving them in the decision making process for major changes. After all, they are the ones who are going to be most impacted by new initiatives and procedures in the workplace, and they’re often best placed to advise on the potential success of those policies.
8. Create an ‘open door’ policy
Part of listening to employees means having an ‘open door’ policy, and your workforce should feel empowered to go to their manager with concerns, issues and ideas.
This helps to build trust and mutual respect between team members and their managers.
9. Offer flexible working
After 12-18 months of flexible working as a result of Covid, this particular cat isn’t going to be put back in the bag. It’s something today’s employees are looking for, and over 80% of them would stay in a job longer if it was offered to them. What’s more, 37% of people will consider quitting their jobs in search of remote work opportunities.
If you don’t trust your workforce to work productively when they’re not in the office, you have to consider whether you’re making smart hiring decisions in the first place.
Here at Sodexo Engage we’ve been helping organisations to engage their workforces for over six decades. As well as our recognition platform, we offer award-winning solutions that support every element of employee wellbeing, while our benefits platform is one of the best in the business.
To find out more about how we can help you to improve the employee experience and engage your people from day one, get in touch with our expert team today.