What do your employees say about working for your company? Have you asked them lately? Do you have top quality talent jumping at the opportunity to work for your company when you have a position open? According to a Deloitte study which polled over 10,000 business leaders across 119 countries, 84% of survey respondents rated employee experience as an important issue and 28% identified it as one of the three most urgent issues facing their organization in 2019. Yet as important as it is, only 9% of survey respondents believed they were ready to address this issue. With this data, it’s clear that the responsibility to boost employee experience lands on the organizations themselves.
The key goal in today’s accelerating digital landscape is not merely to fill jobs, but to fill them with top talent and then retain that talent. Organizations will achieve this goal only if they know how to create an unbeatable employee experience. Let’s take a look at five ways to make your employer brand compelling to future and current workers.
1. IMPROVE THE ONBOARDING PROCESS
When your company eventually lands an elite job candidate, their skills will inevitably need some fine-tuning to help them settle into their new role. Each workplace has its own style and demands, and effective training is one of the key factors in successful onboarding. To ensure a smooth transition into the role, make sure your new hires get a career roadmap that outlines their first few weeks and months on the job. This lets the new employee know that your company has thought through their arrival and is prepared to set them up for success.
Additionally, improvements to the onboarding process can provide your organization the opportunity to say, “We’re going to deliver on everything we said during the interview,” and can help establish your company’s credibility among your workforce. Remember, your employees, like your customers, are some of your company’s biggest advocates; building trust is a surefire way to increase your organization’s reputation among potential job candidates.
2. FOCUS ON LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Within our constantly evolving technology landscape, today’s workplace approach is changing from performance management to consistent performance development. As new software and hardware continue to make their way into the workplace, employees who have been around for longer may find their previous skills no longer apply to their position. By adopting a stance more focused on continual learning and development, managers can begin to take ownership of their employees’ development and think of themselves more as a coach and less as a traditional boss. This management style includes frequent check-ins with direct reports and a strengths-based approach to guiding their development and making sure they are comfortable with their roles and responsibilities.
3. ASK FOR FEEDBACK
If you want to know how anyone feels, the first step is simply to ask them. Yet, despite the effectiveness of this approach, most organizations put very little stock into employee surveys. According to Deloitte, 79% of companies survey their employees annually or less, while 14 percent never survey them at all. It is imperative to get feedback from employees and include them in the process. An always-on, intelligent, open channel and frequent pulse surveys are excellent for providing insights on your staff’s overall wellbeing. If employees feel empowered, and they see that their feedback is taken seriously, they will develop a better employee experience and feel more aligned with your company’s culture.
4. REINFORCE BEHAVIOR WITH FREQUENT RECOGNITION
Regardless of employee skill level or experience, it’s human nature to feel good about being recognized for hard work. Providing frequent employee recognition is invaluable in maintaining morale and engagement among your workforce. Best practices in providing employee recognition include being prompt and specific, calling on particular projects or examples where an employee went above and beyond.
At the end of the day, recognition is about letting employees know they’re doing a great job, however, delivering recognition should not be limited to managers. Providing opportunities for co-workers to recognize and reward each other can create a greater sense of social belonging for everyone at your organization. This means both managers and employees need to learn how to deliver feedback, which can be done during new employee orientation or by simply providing a training opportunity on recognition for current employees.
5. ENCOURAGE AUTONOMY
Autonomy can improve an organization’s overall employee experience and business productivity while reducing turnover and its associated costs. At any company, there is a direct correlation between the amount of employee autonomy and the degree of satisfaction those individuals feel. Employees who are free to make their own choices about how they perform their responsibilities are often more satisfied, committed, and productive at work.
Every employee will have a different way of working, varying skills and attributes, and personal preferences when it comes to when, where, and how they complete their duties. Understanding and capitalizing on the diversity of these attributes is key if businesses wish to adapt, innovate and ultimately, succeed.
Just as your customers are becoming more empowered to demand a positive experience, employee expectations are also undergoing change. A positive employee experience is one that embeds meaning into work and enables every individual to contribute in the most positive, supportive, and personal way.