Employee Experience - An integral part of an employee's journey

Regardless of the global events, market disruptions, or company needs, employee experience is  among the critical elements that impact all levels of a business. From the day recruiters first  contact the future hire to the moment they join the team, each step of this journey affects the  perception of their new workplace. 

Employee experience is the key to attracting the candidates, retaining workers, and, ultimately,  maintaining a healthy bottom line. How companies treat their staff will manifest in their  motivation, engagement, and productivity. 

Employers and HR professionals must establish an engaging process that displays the organizational culture and paves a path to a stellar employee journey. 

Here is everything you need to know to provide the workers with a great overall experience.

Cover all employee experience touchpoints

Employee experience plays a critical role in a worker’s first impression of the employer. It is  crucial to develop a recruitment process that manifests the company culture, brand, and values. 

For instance, nine out of ten job applicants would apply for a job in an organization that actively  maintains its brand. But it’s also of paramount importance to develop an employee experience  that aligns with the company culture, objectives, and mission. 

The recruitment process should be interactive and maintain continuous communication with the  candidates. Even though 81 percent of job seekers believe that regular status updates would  improve the overall candidate experience, 52 percent don’t receive any message from the  organization in the two to three months after applying for a job position. 

Recruiters should keep in the loop every job applicant, even the shortlisted ones, as 80  percent would apply again in the future after a positive candidate experience. New hires should  get a stellar onboarding that thoroughly prepares them for their new job role. Thus, a great  employee welcoming increases retention by 82 percent. 

After integrating a worker into the workplace, managers should nurture employee engagement  by providing each individual with compatible tasks and responsibilities, regular feedback,  professional growth opportunities, and well-being options. 

Employers should also use a performance management system to ensure daily operations align  with the company’s objectives and organizational culture. In the process, they will also boost  employee engagement, improve productivity, and increase profit. 

Although it’s unfortunate to have workers leave a company, it is an inevitable part of the  employee journey. Hence, employers should have efficient procedures to ensure a smooth exit  process, retirement perks, and communication with the worker.

In its essence, employee experience resembles customer experience, and it requires adjusting the  process to workers’ needs and company objectives. Because of that, foster regular  communication, internal opportunities, and smooth procedures from the hire until retirement day. 

Employee experience in the post-COVID era: Digitization & technology

Employee experience is a process that goes through various subtle and more visible  transformations. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most change-inducing events that  caused the recruitment process overhaul. 

It is no surprise that 74 percent of business leaders plan to increase their investments into HR  technology. Consider leveraging the advanced tech to improve the employee experience. Various  platforms make remote work smoother and provide excellent video conferencing options. 

If you haven’t already, evaluate your HR technology efforts and how you can utilize them to  scale the recruitment process, improve onboarding, and ease telework. There are various options  that can help you improve employee experience in the post-COVID era, such as applicant tracking software (ATS) to time and attendance software platforms. 

Besides causing a global shift to remote work, digital recruitment, and video meetings, the novel  coronavirus also encouraged workers to ask more for flexible schedules. Hence, take the  employee experience to the next level by offering your hires an opportunity to choose whether  they’ll work from physical offices or home and what hours work best for them. 

As an integral part of the employee journey, employee experience encompasses stages from  hiring to retirement. It is why you must put an equal effort into each phase, ensuring interactive  recruitment, engaging workflow, and a smooth exit process.  

Leverage technology and automation to speed up the processes and foster a workplace where  daily operations flow with ease, allowing workers to feel safe and nurtured.